We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

Ursla Le Guin (1929-2018)

National Book Foundation speech, 2014

This Week in History:

September 28th - October 4th

Test yourself:

Press the buttons to reveal the answers.

Who ordered an attack on what in 1993?

Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered an attack on the Russian parliament.

Who died after how many days in office in 1978?

Pope John Paul I died after 33 days into his reign.

Who provoked riots by visiting what in 2000?

Ariel Sharon visited the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Whose funeral took place in which country in 1970

That of Egyptian President Abdel Nasser.

What was reunited after how long in 1990?

East and West Germany became one country after 45 years of division.

What the BBC ignored:

September 28 - 1928: Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

September 28 - 1971: The British Parliament passes the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, banning the medicinal use of cannabis.

September 29 - 1957: The Kyshtym disaster is the third-worst nuclear accident ever recorded..

September 29 - 1991: The government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected government in Haiti, is toppled by a military coup.

September 30 - 1965: In Indonesia over 500,000 people are killed in an anti-left purge following the failure of the 30 September Movement's coup.

September 30 - 1999: The Tokaimura nuclear accident causes the deaths of two technicians in Japan's second-worst nuclear accident.

September 30 - 2016: Hurricane Matthew becomes a Category 5 hurricane, making it the strongest hurricane to form in the Caribbean Sea since 2007.

October 1 - 1960: Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom.

October 1 - 1989: Denmark introduces the world's first legal same-sex registered partnerships.

October 1 - 2009: The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over the judicial functions of the House of Lords.

October 2 - 1967: Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court.

October 2 - 1968: Mexican President Ordaz orders soldiers to suppress a demonstration of students, ten days before the Olympic games will start.

October 3 - 1952: The United Kingdom, demonstrating its willingness to use weapons of mass destruction, becomes the world's third nuclear power with Operation Hurricane.

October 4 - 1985: The Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, United States.

October 4 - 1985: WikiLeaks is launched by Julian Assange.

Would you have swapped any of the events above for any of the events chosen by the BBC? The report fails to mention that Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque prompted the second Intifada, calling it simply, trouble,

This Week In History HD Video 38.2 mb