The BBC has for the first time opened its news archives to the UK public.

Nearly 80 online news reports from the BBC's archives are now freely available to download and view online.

The bulletins cover some important events of the past 50 years including the fall of the Berlin Wall, crowds ejecting soldiers from Beijing's Tiananmen Square and behind-the-scenes footage of the England team prior to their World Cup victory in 1966.

The Open News Archive is part of the expansion of the BBC's services. Currently in its pilot stage the clips are available free online under the terms of the recently-launched Creative Archive Licence.

This licence allows people within the UK to not only watch and download content but edit clips and programming as long as it is for non-commercial purposes.

To ensure that the footage is available to as wide an audience, it will be made available in QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG1 and MP3 formats.

In releasing these video news reports, the BBC has doubled the number of programme extracts it originally made available through an initial trial with Radio 1 Interactive.

Helen Boaden, Director, BBC News, said: "This trial is an important step in allowing us to share with our audiences the extraordinary news archive which the BBC has recorded over the years. We look forward to getting their reaction."

The BBC will be releasing further content across other areas of its website over the coming months.