We feature Mme Mao’s magic ailment cure, plus defense chief Lin Biao’s fear of drafts: it wasn’t simply Chairman Mao’s paranoia that fueled the Cultural Revolution.

In the second half, we examine the momentous Supreme Court decision to end segregation in US education, and we meet the California Governor who won both the Democrat AND Republican primaries in the same year.

Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator and novelist. See paulletters.com for more history, including a daily ‘On-This-Day-75-Years-Ago’ feed, with photographs. Plus the novel that combines: the real history of the Allies’ first strike against Nazi Germany; Paul’s granny’s escape (as a teenager) from 1939 Poland to 1940 Paris to wartime London; the ‘Double-Cross System’, the Special Operations Executive and assassination in Prague.

Each month on Noreen Mir’s 1-2-3 Show (RTHK Radio 3), Paul Letters examines events from this month in history. Recorded at Radio Television Hong Kong Studios, Broadcast Drive, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Cover work by Gill Bertram.