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These days around 1.6 million passengers use every year, flying off to destinations as varied as Florida, the Algarve and the Greek Islands. Most of them hurry through the terminal, eager to board their plane, and give little or no thought to the actual airport itself. Yet the story of the place is fascinating.

The airport's history dates from the early years of World War Two when the Air Ministry requisitioned land in the village of , about 12 miles to the west of Cardiff

Construction work began in 1941 and the aerodrome was officially opened on June 7 the following year. It was a training base, housing No. 53 Operational Training Unit where pilots could gain experience and learn to fly fighters before being sent into the turmoil of aerial combat against the .

Just a few miles to the west of RAF Rhoose, as the new base was christened, lay the operational airfield of Llandow. Here pilots of the Canadian Air Force also flew Spitfires.

Llandow continued to operate as an RAF airfield after the war, being the scene of when an aeroplane carrying 75 rugby supporters back from the Triple Crown match in Dublin came down just outside the nearby village of Sigginston.

Unlike Llandow, when the war ended in 1945 the airfield at Rhoose was surplus to requirements. As a consequence it was turned over to commercial enterprise.

Before the war flying had been the preserve of the privileged few. Now, however, it was a mode of transport that was suddenly open to everyone and there was a real demand for more airports. For a while the airfield at Rhoose housed only private flying clubs and a few commercial freight companies.

Then, in the wake of the Llandow air disaster, when it was realised that commercial airports required facilities for things like the weighing of baggage, people began to see that Rhoose was able to offer real opportunities for development. Aer Lingus opened a regular service to Dublin in 1952 and a few years later, on April 1 1954, on the eastern side of the city transferred all its flights to Rhoose.

Shortly afterwards a new terminal building was opened and flights began to operate to places like the Channel Islands, France, Belfast and Cork.

Rhoose Airport in the 1950s.Ìý Photograph provided by Cardiff Airport

By 1962 the new airport was handling over 100,000 passengers a year.

The 1970s saw huge developments with the airport's name being changed to Glamorgan, Rhoose Airport. landed a few times but in those days the runway was only long enough to take the mighty jet when she was lightly loaded. And she was not able to take off with passengers on board.

The runway was extended by 750 feet in 1986 and this enabled the airport - now called Cardiff - Wales Airport - to cater for transatlantic flights to Florida and Canada. British Airways quickly realised the value of the place and built a huge Maintenance Hangar alongside the runway, capable of handling the huge 747 jumbo jets that could now also land at Cardiff.

The airport was privatised in 1995 and, as the new millennium dawned, was recognised as the UK's 20th busiest airport.

In 2009 came another name change and the place is now known simply as Cardiff Airport. These days flights are scheduled for destinations as varied as Majorca, Malta, Amsterdam (with its world-wide connections), Greece and Ireland.

Perhaps the most interesting recent development, however, has been the air link between Cardiff and Anglesey, planes flying into the RAF base at Valley. This is the first air link between north and south Wales and though there has been a recent glitch - Highland Airways going into administration - this had little or nothing to do with the north-south Wales link. The route has now been taken over by Manx2 and the experiment looks set to continue.

Cardiff Airport is a vital part of the infrastructure of Wales. It looks set to grow and grow.

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A new website will enable people to explore the history of more than 100,000 archaeological sites across Wales.

, which translates from Welsh as "to explore", catalogues the Historic Environment Records (HER) of Wales and contains details of excavation works as well as images of artefacts uncovered over the years.

People can search the website records for information on the more well-known sites such castles and hill forts, as well as investigating smaller sites such as ruined cottages.

The website, which is has been developed as a partnership between four Welsh Archaeological Trusts and will be launched tomorrow by Welsh heritage minister Alun Ffred Jones.

Visit the website.

Neil Donovan was 12 years old when the explosion at the Arael Griffin pit at the Six Bells Colliery occurred on 28 June 1960, killing 45 men. Here he remembers the days immediately following the disaster:

"I became aware of 'an accident' at Arael Griffin at lunchtime when I was outside Bryn Gwyn school eating lunch. At that time we didn't know that the accident was so serious. That awareness came later.

"At lunchtime we could hear the hooter at the pit going continuously. This signifies a serious accident but, personally, I didn't know that, having just moved down from the Midlands.

"In an area where heavy industry is the main employer accidents and injury are commonplace and part of life, but obviously not on the scale of this disaster.

"The day after the accident I was doing my early morning paper round which covered Richmond Road, Marlborough Road and the bottom end of Six Bells on the Warm Turn side of the valley. I went under the railway bridge to deliver some papers and went past the Colliery entrance.

"I remember it was about 7.30am and there were a few people and police quietly waiting at the gates and blue NCB ambulances waiting inside the gates. There were some miners around the ambulances and some stretchers being unfolded ready for use.

"I'm guessing that at that time rescue efforts were still under way and families were still hoping for the best outcome. I think the words 'optimistic stoicism' probably explains the prevailing mood.

"I don't remember the days following as such, just the funeral cortège going up the hill to the cemetery at Brynithel. I lived on Somerset Street and from the opposite side of the road could see the cars and hearses in the distance.

"I remember that, like today, it was very sunny and the funeral procession seemed to be endless, although I suppose it took about two hours. I think only then did the enormity of the disaster and the realities of the coal industry sink in for me.

"I remember the media interest though news reports from the scene on black and white telly provided by Rediffusion, but being so close to the scene we didn't need to see the screen image - the reality was almost under our noses".

View a slideshow of images relating to the Six Bells mining disaster.

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Monday 28 June 2010 sees the 50th anniversary of an explosion at the Six Bells Colliery in Monmouthshire. An underground gas and coal dust explosion claimed the lives of 45 men in the tragedy, which was one of worst post-war coal mining disasters in UK history.

At 10.30am on 28 June on the former Six Bells Colliery site there will be an official commemoration service led by the Most Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. A new memorial to the miners is also set to be unveiled.

The memorial, created from thousands of metal strips, is known as the Guardian of the Valleys and has been designed by Sebastien Boyesen. ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Wales Arts has a profile of the artist and a slideshow of some of his previous works.

Familes will lay flowers at the foot of the 20m high bronze sculpture of a miner which is dedicated to the memory of the men who lost their lives in the disaster, and also 'to coal mining communities, everywhere'.

There will be other events and activities throughout the day, including guided tours from the Big Pit National Mining Museum by former Six Bells colliery workers, digital stories children's play areas and many more activities.

Full details of the day and the memorial sculpture can be viewed on the .

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Cymru Wales will broadcast Angel of the Valleys on Monday 5 July from 7pm on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two Wales. The documentary meets those whose lives were touched by tragedy and follows Sebastien Boyesen as he rushes to finish the massive sculpture in time for the commemoration service.

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Sixty years ago thousands of British servicemen went to war in a far away land. On 25 June 1950 communist-backed North Korean forces invaded South Korea, triggering a global military conflict just five years after the cessation of the Second World War.

Following the division of the Korean peninsula in 1945, several years of bloody clashes erupted along the disputed 38th parallel. Then, on Korea was invaded by the North Korean People's Army.

As the northern communist force blitzed southwards throughout the peninsula, the United States-led administration in the south called on the United Nations Security Council to invoke the UN Charter, thus branding the North Koreans as aggressors. American troops were then massed against the northern invasion with the British government and Commonwealth forces joining in kind. This Included many Welshmen.

Welsh involvement in Korea is focused on in a ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Wales documentary narrated by Falkland's War Veteran, Simon Weston. Korea Remembered features Bernard Tucker, Grenville Holiday, Danny Simpson, John Morgan, Jim Angel and Meirion Davies; all from the Welsh branches of the British Korean Veterans Association. They all fought under the United Nations banner in Korea. They offer their moving experiences and memories.

The Korean War is often airbrushed from the collective memory. Coming so soon after the bloodshed and upheaval of the World War Two it seems too much to take in. Despite this, the chaotic events that took place between June 1950 and July 1953, on the ground, in the air and at sea in the distant land of Korea would shape Cold War polemic between the United States and the Soviet Union for the next 50 years. Korea was the Cold War coming to the boil.

With Chinese support and Soviet military hardware North Korea and her allies faced the mechanised war machines from 22 members of the United Nations. The conflict followed a pattern of give and take, characterised by heavily fortified stalemate and heavy military and civilian losses on both sides.

Danny Simpson, who now lives in Pontardulais, was in Korea for 16 months with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. In Korea Remembered, he reveals an insight into the harsh extremities of a Korean winter.

"It was a terrible place, end of story. Thirty degrees below in the winter - if you were working on vehicles or recovering stuff you were cold," says Danny.

"If you dropped a spanner and tried to pick it up the next morning your hands would freeze to it. The tanks' tracks would freeze to the ground, they had to be moved continually backwards and forwards, engines were started up every half hour or so otherwise they would just seize up, solid."

Bernard Tucker, from Maindy in Newport, served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the Royal Fusiliers City of London Regiment. He describes some of the day-to-day grim misery of the dreaded trenches.

After just under a year of fierce fighting, scorched earth and frozen landscapes the allies had achieved air and naval supremacy. Despite this, deadlock prevailed on the ground. This led to talks around the conference table and armistice negotiations. These talks dragged for two years as the future of tens of thousands of communist prisoners and territorial gains could not be agreed upon.

Eventually, by July 1953 the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) was established on the border. It was heavily fortified and remains so today, 60 years later. Both sides withdrew from their fighting positions and a UN commission was set up to supervise the armistice.

By the time of the armistice, the United States lost around 40,000 troops; British forces lost over 1,000, with 2,674 wounded and 1,060 missing in action. United Nations losses totalled nearly 800,000, while it is estimated that up to two million died or went missing on the side of North Korea and her allies.

To this day North Korea, the world's only remaining Stalinist state, and first-world economy South Korea, are still officially in a state of war. Something the world is . Korea Remembered sheds light on the stories of a few people who made an enormous sacrifice and live with the past every day.

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The Cold War on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ History

On Saturday 26 June, Cardiff plays host to the second national event.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Wales will provide live coverage of the event from 10.45am, as a military parade travels through the centre of the city from Cardiff Castle and arrives at Cardiff Bay for a Drum Head Service, honouring the contributions of the men and women of the Armed Forces in conflicts past and present.

They also have a series of special features, programmes and outside broadcasts surrounding the event. View the programme schedule.

Radio Wales would like to hear from if you have a wartime memory to share, or if the armed forces played a big part in your life. .

Read about life in Wales during World War One and World War Two on the Wales History site.

The remains of two towers and three hall-like buildings thought to date from the 12th century have been unearthed at the site around Nevern Castle in Pembrokeshire. Until this discovery little of the castle could be seen.

The Norman castle was built in 1108, and according to Dr Chris Caple of , the newly discovered constructions appear "to have been a highly desirable stone residence, a visible display of wealth and significant technical achievement".

The excavations of the castle grounds are being directed by Durham University and supported by archaeologist Peter Kane of . Local volunteers from Cardigan, Newport and the Nevern area have also been involved.

, one of the partners participating in this project, has invited visitors on to attend guided tours of the digs.

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Read the Wales History guide to castles.

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Merthyr Tydfil wants to see its industrial past recognised as world class by the United Nations heritage body Unesco.

The council is to put Cyfarthfa Heritage Area on Unesco's list of sites bidding for global classification.

World Heritage Sites are chosen for their outstanding universal value to culture, history or science.

Currently Wales has three World Heritage Sites: the castles and town walls of King Edward, in Gwynedd, the Blaenavon industrial landscape, in Blaenau Gwent, and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal, in Wrexham.

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Imagine the scene. It is 1870 and a hundred ironworkers from Merthyr Tydfil, Dowlais and Rhymney suddenly find themselves in the wilds of Czarist Russia, in the area we now know as the Ukraine.

The culture is strange, the climate is brutal, the people are distant and cold.

Everything is vastly different from anything they have ever encountered in the Welsh valleys and along the coastal industrial belt of their now very distant homeland.

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Nearly everybody knows the name of and the story of his doomed attempt to reach the South Pole.

Scott may not have been the best of organisers - or always the most understanding of leaders - but there is no denying the heroism of the man and of his team of explorers and adventurers. And when he and his ship Terra Nova left Britain for Antarctica they did so from the port of Cardiff. It was June 15, 1910.

Ìý

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reports on commemorations held to mark the part Flintshire played in the Battle of Britain. the story.

reports on Nant Gwrtheyrn used to be a little quarry village on the LlÅ·n Peninsula's northern coast. But when the mine went, so did its residents. Today it is a Welsh language centre and holiday hideaway and heritage centre staff are busy putting together materials on the community's history. .

Ìýhas an article on TÅ· Mawr near Castle Caereinon which is the largest restored medieval aisled hall in Wales. It celebrates its 550th anniversary this year with a series of special weekend events. .

Ìýreports on an exhibition in Cardiff that charts the role played by the city in Captain Scott's trip to the South Pole which left 100 years ago this month. The exhibition can be seen at National Museum Wales till Monday 14 June and then atÌýthe National Waterfront Museum in Swansea from Wednesday 14 July. .

ÌýA replica of Trevithick's steam locomotive can be seen going through its paces at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea on Sunday 13 June. .

England won their only World Cup in 1966. A 'Russian linesman', from Azerbaijan famously allowed that paved the way for England's historic 4-2 victory over West Germany at Wembley.

Wales' national team, despite a deluge of quality players over the years have only made it to the World Cup once in Sweden, 1958. One Welshman, however, has made it to the final, and during the 1954Ìýmatch in Switzerland he had an indelible effect on the course of football history.

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Mervyn Griffiths (pictured far right) prior to the 1954 World Cup final. Picture provided by British Pathé.Ìý

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Today, Thursday 10 June, Antiques Roadshow is at , near Cardiff.

Doors open from 9.30am to 4.30pm and as long as you are in the queue by 4.30pm you will see an expert.

The Antiques RoadshowÌýwebsite offers advice on visiting on a valuation day, including information on queuing times and practical suggestions on footwear and refreshments.

In 1648, St Fagans was the location of one of Wales' bloodiest, and probably biggest, battles. Read Phil Carradice's blog on the battle of St Fagans.

Most people who are interested in history like to get in touch with the past - by reading about people and events, by visiting historical sites, by looking at and holding artefacts.

Artefacts don't just exist in museums and these days it is easier than you ever thought possible to find a piece of the past, by collecting bits of paper that were worth only a few coppers when they were first made - the humble postcard.

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We've all used them, countless times, in maths lessons, in the bank, in working out our weekly bills. But, strangely, they didn't exist until 1557 and the man who invented them was a Welshman from Tenby. We are talking about the equals sign, the ubiquitous = mark that we all take for granted. And the man who invented them and used them for the first time was called Robert Recorde.

Ìý

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