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The Best Episodes of Days That Shook the World Season 1

Every episode of Days That Shook the World Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Days That Shook the World Season 1!

Days That Shook the World is a British documentary television series that premiered on BBC Two on 17 September 2003. The programme features various milestones...
Genre:Documentary
Network:BBC Four

Season 1 Ratings Summary

"The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II & The Death of Diana" is the best rated episode of "Days That Shook the World" season 1. It scored 7/10 based on 18 votes. Directed by Tanya Cheadle and written by Tanya Cheadle, it aired on 11/1/2003. This episode is rated 0.9 points higher than the second-best, "The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand / The Death of Hitler".

  • The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II & The Death of Diana
    7.0/1018 votes

    #1 - The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II & The Death of Diana

    Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 11/1/2003

    No description available

    Director: Tanya Cheadle

    Writer: Tanya Cheadle

  • The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand / The Death of Hitler
    7.9/109 votes

    #2 - The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand / The Death of Hitler

    Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired Unknown

    28 June 1914 and April 1945. The Story Behind two pistol shots: the single bullet, fired by a young Serb nationalist that triggered World War 1 and the self-administered shot that brought about the end of Adolf Hitler and World War 2.

    Director: Richard Bond

    Writer: Richard Bond

  • The Assassination of Martin Luther King / The Release of Nelson Mandela
    8.2/1027 votes

    #3 - The Assassination of Martin Luther King / The Release of Nelson Mandela

    Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired Unknown

    4 April 1968 and February 1990. How two men - both intellectuals and determined opposers of racial oppression - came to symbolise the fight for equality as their lives for their cause.

    Director: Srik Narayanan

    Writer: Srik Narayanan

  • Hiroshima
    6.5/1012 votes

    #4 - Hiroshima

    Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired Unknown

    This episode dramatises the minute by minute events leading up to the world's first ever atomic bombing. Based on extracts from President Truman's personal diaries which show the decision-making process reflecting America's real fear that the Japanese would never give up, Japanese eyewitness accounts of the tragedy in Hiroshima, diaries written on board Enola Gay, and the personal testimony of Colonel Paul Tibbets, the man who led the mission so secret not even his crew knew the enormity of what they were doing.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Murder of the Romanovs / The Fall of the Berlin Wall
    7.0/1026 votes

    #5 - The Murder of the Romanovs / The Fall of the Berlin Wall

    Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired Unknown

    17 July 1918 and 9 November 1989. The Murder of the Russian royal family marked Russia's irrevocable move from a monarchy to a Communist state. Seventy Years later, the fall of the Berlin Wall symbolised the collapse of the ideology.

    Director: Paul Murton

    Writer: N/A

  • Kristallnacht / The Birth of Israel
    7.8/1016 votes

    #6 - Kristallnacht / The Birth of Israel

    Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired Unknown

    9 November 1938 and 14 May 1948. Just ten years after the Nazis openly attacked Jews and their property - a huge step on the nightmare spiral to the Holocaust, the 2000 year old dream of a Jewish homeland becomes a reality and the state of Israel is Born.

    Director: Nic Young

    Writer: Nic Young

  • Tutankhamun's Tomb / Deciphering the Rosetta Stone
    6.9/1012 votes

    #7 - Tutankhamun's Tomb / Deciphering the Rosetta Stone

    Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired Unknown

    26 November 1922 and 17 September 1822. Two days that brought ancient Egypt dramatically to life. In 1822, Jean-Francois champollion cracks Egyptian hieroglyphs. One hundred years later, Howard Carter reads the name on a tomb and makes an amazing discovery.

    Director: Carl Hindmarch

    Writer: Carl Hindmarch

  • First Nuclear Reaction / Chernobyl
    7.1/1013 votes

    #8 - First Nuclear Reaction / Chernobyl

    Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired Unknown

    2 December 1942 and 26 April 1986. The first controlled nuclear chain reaction heralded the atomic age, but Chernobyl's runaway chain reaction was the first warning. How did the most exciting scientific breakthroughs ever lead to the disaster that the world had dreaded?

    Director: Paul Murton

    Writer: Jane Quigley

  • Black September Hijackings / Lockerbie
    7.0/1012 votes

    #9 - Black September Hijackings / Lockerbie

    Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/5/2004

    In September 1970 Terrorists hijacked a number of jetliners, flew them to Jordan and kept numerous hostages to enforce their demands. In December 1988 Pan Am flight 103 was blown from the sky killing all aboard and a number of Lockerbie Scotland residents.

    Director: Paul Overton

    Writer: Paul Overton

  • The Assassination of JFK / Nixon's Last Day
    7.6/1011 votes

    #10 - The Assassination of JFK / Nixon's Last Day

    Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 10/30/2003

    22 November 1963 and 8 August 1974. No one could have dreamed or anticipated the seismic shocks America suffered in the 20th century with the assassination of its youngest-ever leader and the disgrace and expulsion of its most successful election winner.

    Director: David Bartlett

    Writer: N/A

  • Marconi's First Transatlantic Radio Transmission / Concorde's First Transatlantic Flight
    6.6/1017 votes

    #11 - Marconi's First Transatlantic Radio Transmission / Concorde's First Transatlantic Flight

    Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 1/22/2004

    It is 19th October 1977 and Concorde taxis onto the runway at Toulouse Airport. Onboard, the crew are preparing for an historic day - the first supersonic test flight to New York. At JFK airport, protestors are waiting with a hostile welcome, but for the Concorde team and the French and British governments it is a moment that represents the end of an exhausting struggle.

    Director: Alex Lay

    Writer: Alex Lay

  • Chuck Yeager & Bluebird
    7.5/109 votes

    #12 - Chuck Yeager & Bluebird

    Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 1/7/2004

    14 October 1947 and 4 January 1967. Compelled by a sense of patriotic duty and driven by incredible bravery, 20 years separate the determined efforts of two mens aim to become the fastest men on the planet.

    Director: Matthew Whiteman

    Writer: Matthew Whiteman