Witness History: Archive 2013
256 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 10 years ago - ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsThe story of our times told by the people who were there.
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Episodes
Edith Piaf
December 31, 2013 09:00 - 9 minutes - 8.26 MBIn 1963, the funeral of the legendary French singer brought Paris to a standstill. In this programme, Piaf's friends and lovers recall the career of the "Little Sparrow".
Anti-Shah Demonstrations in Iran
December 30, 2013 08:37 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBMillions of people took to the streets of Iran's main cities in December 1978. They were demonstrating against the Shah and his authoritarian government. Hear from two men who took part in the protests: Sadeq Zibakalam and Abbas Milani. Photo: Demonstrators in 1978. Associated Press.
Prison Camp in WW2 Manila, Philippines
December 27, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBThousands of foreign civilians were interned in camps when Japanese troops occupied the Philippines in World War II. Many of the inmates suffered from acute malnutrition. We hear the story of one boy, Desmond Malone, who was interned at the Santo Tomas camp in Manila. Photo: American inmates of the Santo Tomas internment camp after liberation by US forces in February 1945 (AP Photo/Pool)
The Murder of Dian Fossey
December 26, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.22 MBGorilla expert Dian Fossey was murdered in her cabin at her research centre in Rwanda on 26 December 1985. Lucy Burns speaks to Kelly Stewart, who worked with Fossey and the gorillas.
Grand Theft Auto
December 25, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBA new computer game - designed in Scotland - became a surprise global hit in 1997. But Grand Theft Auto also courted controversy and sparked debate over violence and drugs in video games. Listen to Brian Baglow - one of the original team behind the launch.
The MP Who Faked His Own Death
December 24, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBBritish MP John Stonehouse faked his own death in Miami in November 1974 - and was discovered just weeks later in Australia on 24 December. Lucy Burns speaks to his barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC.
Murder in the Amazon
December 23, 2013 09:00 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBIn December 1988 the Brazilian environmental campaigner, Chico Mendes, was shot dead by cattle ranchers. The 44-year-old leader of the rubber tappers union had become a powerful symbol of the struggle to save the Amazon. We hear from those closest to Mendes at the time of his death. (Photo: Chico Mendes and his family. Credit: Str/AFP/Getty Images)
Lockerbie Bombing
December 20, 2013 14:14 - 8 minutes - 8.22 MBOn 21 December 1988 an American airliner was blown out of the sky above Scotland. A bomb had been planted in its luggage hold. All of the 259 people on board, as well as 11 people on the ground in the small town of Lockerbie, were killed. Hear from from Father Patrick Keegans who lived on the street where much of the wreckage landed. Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images
The Assassination of Spain's Prime Minister
December 19, 2013 13:31 - 9 minutes - 8.3 MBOn December 20, 1973 Luis Carrero Blanco, the Spanish PM was killed by a massive bomb which was detonated under his car in Madrid. It had been planted by the Basque separatist group ETA. He had been right-hand man to Spain's dictator Francisco Franco. Photo: Spanish police examine the aftermath of the bomb attack. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
Indonesia Invades East Timor
December 18, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.18 MBIn December 1975, East Timor was invaded by its neighbour Indonesia, just a few days after the Timorese had declared independence from Portuguese colonial rule. Estevao Cabral was a teenager at the time, but he was caught up in the battle to defend Baucau airport against the occupying Indonesian paratroopers. He spoke to Lucy Burns about his experiences. (Photo: People wave the East Timorese flag during independence day celebrations May 19, 2002 in Dili, East Timor. Photo by Edy Purnomo/Get...
The Kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr
December 17, 2013 09:00 - 8 minutes - 8.18 MBIn December 1963 the 19-year-old son of Frank Sinatra - Frank Jr - was kidnapped for a ransom. He was released unharmed after two days. Barry Keenan, the man behind the crime, speaks to Mike Lanchin and describes the events of his doomed 'get rich quick' plot. (Photo: Frank Sinatra and son, Dec 1963. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)
International Space Station
December 16, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBIn December 1998, NASA astronaut Bob Cabana and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev were the first on board the International Space Station, after the first two modules - Zarya and Unity - were joined together in orbit. PHOTO: AP / NASA TV
South Africa Wins the Rugby World Cup
December 13, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.15 MBIn 1995, post-apartheid South Africa hosted, and won, the Rugby World Cup. It was a hugely unifying moment for the country. Hear from Francois Pienaar, captain of the victorious Springboks team about what it meant to him, and to the nation. Photo: AFP.
The Soweto Uprising
December 12, 2013 08:50 - 9 minutes - 8.26 MBIn June 1976 South African police opened fire on schoolchildren protesting against having to learn Afrikaans at school. Hear from Bongi Mkhabela who was a schoolgirl organiser on that march - about the violence and the resistance that followed. Photo: BBC/Clarity Films/Peter Magubane
The ANC's Armed Struggle
December 11, 2013 08:50 - 9 minutes - 8.33 MBIn 1961 the African National Congress decided to take up arms against Apartheid. The organisation's military wing was called Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation. Ronnie Kasrils was a young anti-Apartheid activist who planted one of the first bombs aimed at sabotaging the South African government's infrastructure. (Image: Ronnie Kasrils in 1961. Credit: Ronnie Kasrils)
Apartheid in the 1950s
December 09, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.09 MBFollowing the death of Nelson Mandela we remember the system he was fighting against. Using BBC archive we present a snapshot of the attitudes and emotions on both sides of the racial divide as the South African authorites cemented the foundations of Apartheid in 1957.
The Destruction of the Mosque at Ayodhya
December 06, 2013 08:56 - 9 minutes - 8.24 MBIn December 1993, Hindu activists demolished a Muslim holy site.
Prohibition in the USA
December 05, 2013 08:50 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBOn 5 December 1933 prohibition came to an end. For almost 14 years it had been illegal to sell alcohol in the USA. The law was widely flouted and organised crime had flourished under the policy. Listen to archive accounts from the time. (Photo: Men pouring alcohol down the drain circa 1920. Copyright: Hulton Archives/Getty Images)
Psychiatry and Homosexuality in the USA
December 04, 2013 09:10 - 9 minutes - 8.24 MBFrom the 1950s until the 1970s, homosexuality was classed as a mental illness in the USA. Hear from Charles Silverstein, a campaigner who persuaded the American Psychiatric Association that just because he was gay, it didn't mean he was ill.
Vietnamese Boat People
December 03, 2013 09:11 - 9 minutes - 8.24 MBIn the late 1970s, after the end of the Vietnam War, over a million people fled the country on small overcrowded boats. Hear the story of just one Vietnamese boat person: Nguyen Ngoc Ngan. Photo: Cor/AFP/Getty Images.
Murder of Churchwomen in El Salvador
December 02, 2013 11:00 - 8 minutes - 8.13 MBIn December 1980 three US Roman Catholic nuns and a layworker were abducted and murdered in El Salvador. Their work speaking out on behalf of the poor had made them targets for the country's fiercely anti-communist military. A close friend and colleague, Sister Patricia Murray, was one of the last people to see them alive.
Portugal Attacks Guinea
November 29, 2013 09:02 - 9 minutes - 8.26 MBIn November 1970, Portugal launched a surprise raid on the independent West African nation of Guinea, which had been supporting liberation fighters opposed to Portuguese rule in neighbouring Guinea Bissau. Hundreds of Portuguese colonial troops and Guinean exiles took part in the attack. They hoped to overthrow Guinea's leader, Sekou Toure. Photo: Rebels fighting Portuguese rule in Guinea Bissau, Credit: AFP/GettyImages
The Tehran Conference of World War Two
November 28, 2013 09:00 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBIn November 1943, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill all met together for the first time to discuss the progress of World War Two. The meeting was held in Tehran over four days. (Photo: Joseph Stalin (left), Franklin Roosevelt (centre), Winston Churchill (right). Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
How Child Road Deaths Changed the Netherlands
November 27, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBIn 1973, the campaign group Stop de Kindermoord or Stop the Child Murder launched in the Netherlands. It would change the face of the nation's infrastructure. Witness speaks to the group's chair, Maartje van Putten. Image: Dutch National Archive.
The First Panda in America
November 26, 2013 09:26 - 9 minutes - 8.44 MBIn November 1936, a US socialite and her Chinese-American guide captured a giant panda cub in the forests of China. Ruth Harkness took the cub to the USA and kept it in her New York flat, before selling it to a Chicago zoo. Photo: Quentin Young, the panda cub and Ruth Harkness. Courtesy of Jolly Young.
The Trojan Room Coffee Pot
November 25, 2013 09:31 - 8 minutes - 8.19 MBIn 1993 the first webcam went online. Its camera was focused on a coffee pot so that computer scientists in Cambridge, in the UK could see if there was any coffee available. Dr Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Martyn Johnson and Paul Jardetzky explain how they developed the precursor to Skype.
Making Doctor Who
November 22, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBOn 23rd November 1963, the first episode of one of the world's best loved TV sci-fi programmes was shown. But the BBC's debut of Doctor Who was tragically overshadowed by the assassination of US President John F Kennedy. Lucy Burns speaks to Carole Ann Ford, who played the Timelord's grand-daughter, Susan. Presented and produced by Lucy Burns. First broadcast on BBC World Service November 2013.
Birmingham Pub Bombings
November 21, 2013 08:00 - 8 minutes - 8.19 MBIn 1974, bombs exploded at two busy pubs in the English city of Birmingham, killing 21 people. The IRA were blamed. Witness speaks to Les Robinson, who survived the attack. (Photo: Debris and damage from the bomb in the basement pub. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa
November 20, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.22 MBIn November 1995, Nigeria's military government provoked international outrage when it executed the writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other activists from Ogoniland in the oil rich Niger Delta. (Photo: Ken Saro Wiwa at a rally in Ogoniland. Credit: Greenpeace)
Lee Harvey Oswald in the USSR
November 19, 2013 09:00 - 9 minutes - 8.24 MBBefore he shot President John F Kennedy, Oswald spent two and a half mysterious years living in Minsk. We hear from two people who got to know him during his time there. (Photo: Lee Harvey Oswald after his arrest in Dallas, Nov 22 1963. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
The Jonestown Massacre
November 18, 2013 09:13 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBIn November 1978 an American cult leader, Jim Jones, ordered more than 900 people to kill themselves. He had brought his followers to live in a remote settlement in Guyana in South America - they called it Jonestown. Hear from one of his disciples who escaped the killing that day. This programme was first broadcast in 2009. Photo: The aftermath of the Jonestown Massacre. Associated Press.
Yemen Civil War
November 15, 2013 09:05 - 9 minutes - 8.29 MBRed Cross doctors tried to treat both royalist and republican casualties in Yemen in the 1960s. Witness Pascal Grellety-Bosviel first journeyed to the frontline, to reach injured fighters, in November 1964. He later went on to help found the charity Medecins sans Frontieres. Photo: Royalist fighters in the mountains. Keystone Features/Getty Images
Baby Fae and the Baboon Heart Transplant
November 14, 2013 11:10 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBIn 1984 doctors in California tried a revolutionary operation on a two-week-old baby girl. She had been born with a fatal heart condition - but there was no infant human donor available. Hear from the lead surgeon, and an intensive care nurse involved in the fight to save Baby Fae's life. Photo: Baby Fae listening to her mother's voice in the isolation unit. Courtesy of Loma Linda Hospital
Death in the Boxing Ring
November 13, 2013 09:00 - 9 minutes - 8.24 MBIn November 1982, the boxer Deuk-Koo Kim died of brain damage after a world title fight against the American Ray Mancini. Kim fell into a coma after being repeatedly knocked down in the 14th round. His death led to a series of reforms in boxing. Ray Mancini shares his memories of the fight and its aftermath. (Photo: Deuk-Koo Kim at home in Seoul before his departure for Las Vegas to fight Ray Mancini. Credit: Dong-a Ilbo/AFP/Getty Images)
Dustbowl Storms in the US
November 12, 2013 09:00 - 9 minutes - 8.24 MBIn November 1933, one of the first in a series of dust-storms hit the central United States. In the following years, hundreds of thousands of farmers would migrate to California. Witness tells their story using archive recordings from the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin collection at the Library of Congress. (Photo: Dust storm engulfing houses. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Armistice Day 1918
November 11, 2013 09:00 - 8 minutes - 8.1 MBOn November 11th 1918 at 11am, the guns of World War One finally fell silent. Listen to voices from the archives remembering that moment. Photo: Marshall Foch and other military leaders outside the railway carriage where the WW1 Armistice was signed on Nov 11th 1918. (Three Lions/Getty Images)
Canada's Biggest Peacetime Evacuation
November 08, 2013 09:00 - 8 minutes - 8.12 MBOn 10 November 1979 a train carrying hundreds of tonnes of dangerous chemicals crashed in Canada. It led to one of the biggest peacetime evacuations in North America. (Photo: Aerial view of the crash scene. Credit: Courtesy of Mississauga Library System)
The Death of Dylan Thomas
November 07, 2013 08:50 - 8 minutes - 8.09 MBIn November 1953 the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died in New York aged just thirty-nine. Witness presents interviews from the BBC archives. Picture copyright BBC - Dylan Thomas, making a broadcast on the BBC in November 1948.
The Green March in the Sahara
November 06, 2013 11:10 - 9 minutes - 8.33 MBIn November 1975, King Hassan the Second ordered hundreds of thousands of Moroccans to march into disputed territory in the desert. He wanted to claim the colony of Spanish Sahara for Morocco. The Green March led to a diplomatic victory for the King, but sparked a guerrilla war and decades of instability in the region. Witness speaks to a Moroccan who was on the march.
Waterford Kamhlaba multi-racial school
November 05, 2013 09:00 - 8 minutes - 8.18 MBIn 1963 southern Africa's first multi-racial school opened in Swaziland. It was a direct challenge to neighbouring South Africa's apartheid regime. We hear from two people who were there when the school first opened its doors. Photo: Headmaster Michael Stern and his first pupils in 1963 (courtesy of Waterford Kamhlaba)
Degenerate Art and the Nazis
November 04, 2013 07:50 - 8 minutes - 8.12 MBIn 1937, Hitler and the Nazi party organised a huge exhibition of modern art in Munich. It was designed to ridicule works of art which they disapproved of - they called it Degenerate Art. It went on to be one of the best attended modern art exhibitions of all time. Picture: Two men prepare to hang German Expressionist painter Max Beckmann's triptych 'Temptation' at the 20th Century German Art Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London. The exhibition includes work by all the German...
The Samaritans Helpline
November 01, 2013 09:00 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBIn November 1953 an English clergyman set up the first telephone helpline for people considering suicide. The Reverend Chad Varah began the pioneering service from a room in his own church house. Today, the Samaritans receive more than five million calls every year in the UK alone. There are more than 100 branches overseas. (Photo: The Reveren Chad Varah at the entrance to his office at the church of St Stephen, Wallbrook, City of London. Credit: PA)
The Assassination of Indira Gandhi
October 31, 2013 07:50 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBOn 31 October 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards. We speak to RK Dhawan, one of her closest aides, who was with her in the garden that morning and was a witness to her assassination. (Photo: Indian school children light candles to pay tribute to the late former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Credit: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images)
Hurricane Mitch
October 30, 2013 10:30 - 8 minutes - 8.16 MBIn 1998 Central America was hit by Hurricane Mitch. More than 18,000 people died, hundreds of thousands were left homeless. We hear from two people who were in Honduras, the country worst hit by the huge storm. (Photo: One young man balances on a log to get across a river swollen by the storms in Honduras. Credit: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)
Tokyo Rose - The Most Hated Woman in America
October 29, 2013 10:50 - 8 minutes - 8.22 MBIn 1949, Iva Toguri, a Japanese-American woman, was wrongly convicted for making propaganda broadcasts on behalf of Japan during the Second World War. She was accused of being the infamous radio presenter known to American servicemen as "Tokyo Rose". Witness speaks to Ron Yates, a reporter whose investigation helped to clear Iva Toguri's name. PHOTO: Iva Toguri in the 1940s (US National Archives)
The Wall Street Crash of 1987
October 28, 2013 09:00 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MB19 October 1987 became known as Black Monday after share prices on Wall Street fell by a record rate. We hear from Art Cashin, a trader at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: The scene on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Black Monday (MARIA R BASTONE/AFP/Getty Images)
The BBC's First Man in Moscow
October 25, 2013 08:00 - 8 minutes - 8.12 MBIn 1963, Erik de Mauny became the first BBC correspondent based in the Soviet Union. The BBC had tried to open a bureau there during World War II, but only succeeded 20 years later. De Mauny's son, Marc, talks about the hurdles his father had to overcome while reporting from behind the Iron Curtain. Photo: Erik de Mauny (BBC)
A Heroine of Burundi's Civil War
October 24, 2013 06:50 - 9 minutes - 8.42 MBIn 1993, Burundi's civil war began. We hear the story of Marguerite Barankitse who helped thousands of children affected by the conflict and came to symbolise hope for peace. She is known as 'the Angel of Burundi'. Photo: Marguerite Barankitse in Burundi / UNHCR
Beirut Barracks Bombing
October 23, 2013 06:50 - 8 minutes - 8.13 MBOn 23 October 1983, hundreds were killed in co-ordinated suicide attacks on the headquarters of American and French troops stationed in Lebanon. The troops were part of a multi-national force deployed to help end the Lebanese civil war. Hear the story of Randy Gaddo, a US marine who witnessed the devastating attack on the US Marine barracks. (Photo: Aftermath of attack on US Marine Barracks in Beirut, 23 October 1983. Credit: AP)
Spying for the Stasi
October 22, 2013 07:50 - 9 minutes - 8.41 MBIn 1991, one of East Berlin's most famous poets was revealed to have been an informer for the secret police. Sascha Anderson speaks to Witness about his double life. Photo: A shelf in the files department of the Stasi-archives in Berlin. Credit: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images.