Witness History: Witness Archive 2016
255 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 7 years ago - ★★★ - 8 ratingsHistory as told by the people who were there. All the programmes from 2016.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
The Aberfan Disaster
October 21, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.05 MBOn 21st October 1966, tragedy struck a village in Wales when a landslide of coal waste engulfed a primary school. 144 people, most of them children, were killed. Rob Walker introduces interviews and reports from the BBC archive to commemorate the disaster. Photo: Rescue workers trying to reach children trapped in Pantglas Junior school. Credit: Press Association.
Marcel Duchamp and His Fountain
October 20, 2016 10:40 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn October 1942, the great French conceptualist artist Marcel Duchamp helped put on the first major surrealist exhibition in New York. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to Carroll Janis, whose parents were friends of Duchamp, about the exhibition, the man and his art, including Duchamp's famous urinal. Picture: A replica of Marcel Duchamp's iconic work, Fountain, at the opening of an exhibition in London in 2010. Duchamp first exhibited Fountain in 1917 (Credit: Geoff Caddick)
The Mau Mau Rebellion
October 19, 2016 10:29 - 8 minutes - 4.01 MBDuring the 1950s in Kenya, rebels known as the Mau Mau were fighting a bitter battle against colonial rule. Thousands of rebels were taken captive and interned in camps. Many of the prisoners suffered beatings and torture at the hands of the British authorities. Louise Hidalgo has spoken to a former Mau Mau rebel, Gitu wa Kahengeri, about his internment and about the day the Mau Mau leader, Dedan Kimathi was caught. Photo:Gitu wa Kahangeri in Kenya in 2016. Credit: BBC
Father Charles Coughlin - America's First Radio Priest
October 18, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.09 MBIn the 1930s, a controversial Catholic priest called Father Charles Coughlin had a weekly radio programme with millions of listeners in the United States. As the decade wore on, Father Coughlin's views became so extreme and anti-Semitic that he was seen as a threat to national security by the White House. Simon Watts introduces recordings of Father Coughlin and talks to his biographer, Sheldon Marcus. PHOTO: Father Coughlin at the microphone (Associated Press)
Bugging the US Embassy in Moscow
October 17, 2016 07:52 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn the mid 1980s the US discovered that the Soviets had hidden listening devices deep inside the walls of its new embassy building in Moscow, while it was still under construction. It sparked a trans-Atlantic row between the two super powers. President Reagan threatened to have the whole building pulled down. Mike Lanchin hears from Thomas Jendrysik, an American engineer stationed at the embassy, tasked with dismantling the secret Soviet equipment. (Photo: A US Marine stands guard inside ...
The Hoover Free Flights Promotion
October 14, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBIn 1992 the vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hoover began offering free flights to British customers with every appliance they bought. The promotional campaign soon came unstuck when thousands of people took them up. Harry Cichy led the campaign to try to make the company provide the flights. He's been speaking to Susan Hulme for Witness. Photo: A cleaning lady vacuuming a red carpet. Credit: Getty Images.
The Last Day of Lebanon's Civil War
October 13, 2016 09:27 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBOn October 13th 1990, the Syrian airforce forced their most outspoken opponent in Lebanon, General Michel Aoun, to take refuge in the French embassy in Beirut, ending the last chapter of Lebanon's bitter 15-year civil war. Veteran Lebanese journalist, Hanna Anbar, remembers that day. Photo: Syrian soldiers celebrate in front of the presidential palace in east Beirut after capturing it from troops loyal to General Michel Aoun, October 13th 1990 (Credit: Nabil Ismail/AFP/Getty Images)
Chile Votes Against Pinochet
October 12, 2016 16:35 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBIn October 1988 Chile held an unprecedented referendum on whether the country's ruler, General Augusto Pinochet, should remain in power. A majority of voters rejected the dictator, ending 15 years of brutal military rule. Mike Lanchin has been speaking to Eugenio Garcia, who was creative director of the campaign to oust the dictator. (Photo: Getty Images)
The Spanish Influenza Pandemic
October 11, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn 1918, more than fifty million people died in an outbreak of flu, which spread all over the world in the wake of the first World War. We hear eye-witness accounts of the worst pandemic of the twentieth century. PICTURE: An American policeman wearing a mask to protect himself from the outbreak of Spanish flu. (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
Irina Ratushinskaya
October 10, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBOn 9 October 1986 the dissident poet was released from a prison camp on the eve of a US-Soviet nuclear summit between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. Irina Ratushinskaya has been speaking to Louise Hidalgo about her imprisonment, her poetry, and the day she was set free. (Photo: Irina and her husband Igor, arriving in London in December 1986. Credit: Topfoto)
Good Vibrations
October 07, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.18 MBIn October 1966, California pop group the Beach Boys released their "pocket symphony" Good Vibrations. It's regularly named as one of the best pop songs ever written - but it came at a turning point for the band. Singer Mike Love tells Witness about recording the song. PICTURE: The Beach Boys in 1964. From left to right, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson (1944 - 1983) and Carl Wilson (1946 - 1998). (Fox Photos/Getty Images)
Exposing Child Abuse in the Catholic Church
October 05, 2016 23:03 - 9 minutes - 4.2 MBIn 1994, a TV programme broadcast in Northern Ireland lifted the lid on child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Rape help lines in Belfast and in the Republic of Ireland were inundated with calls as other victims came forward. Rebecca Kesby spoke to Chris Moore who made the programme for "Counterpoint" on UTV, "Suffer Little Children". Further investigations by Chris and his team uncovered hundreds of other cases, exposing the extent of child abuse around the world. (Photo: An Irish ch...
Thai University Massacre
October 05, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn October 6th 1976 Thai security forces opened fire on student demonstrators in Bangkok. Dozens of students were killed and thousands were arrested. The killings heralded a new era of military rule in Thailand. Photo: Police stand guard over Thai students on a soccer field at Thammasat University, in Bangkok, Thailand. (Credit: AP Photo/Gary Mangkorn.)
The Poisoned Painkiller
October 04, 2016 08:00 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn October 1982 seven people in the US died after taking, Tylenol, a painkiller which had been deliberately contaminated with cyanide. Claire Bowes has been speaking to David E Collins, the drug company executive who dealt with the aftermath of the tragedy. (Photo: Mrs. Helen Tarasiewicz, mother of Tylenol cyanide victim Theresa Tarasiewicz Janus, weeps over the casket containing her daughter"s body during graveside services at Maryhill Cemetery in Chicago Tuesday, 6 Oct 1982. Theresa, her ...
The Founding of Mensa
October 03, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn 1946, Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware were travelling on a train when they sparked up a conversation about intelligence testing. That chance encounter sparked the high IQ club, Mensa. Rachael Gillman speaks to the society's archivist Ian Fergus about those early days. (Photo: A computer generated image of the human head and brain. Credit: Getty Images)
Sir Stanley Spencer
September 30, 2016 07:51 - 9 minutes - 4.3 MBIn 1926 Stanley Spencer, one of the most admired British painters of the twentieth century, began work on an ambitious project in the village of Burghclere near London. He'd been commissioned to fill a new chapel with images of his experiences in the First World War, at home and abroad. Vincent Dowd speaks to Spencer's daughters, Shirin and Unity Spencer, about their father and his work. Photo: Stanley Spencer in 1958.(AP)
The Mayak Nuclear Disaster
September 29, 2016 07:51 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBOn September 29th 1957 there was a major accident at a secret nuclear facility in the Soviet Union. Dozens of workers died and a huge cloud of radioactivity spread across the surrounding countryside. But news of the disaster was only made public decades later. Dina Newman has spoken to Zhores Medvedev, the first scientist to disclose what happened to the international community. Photo: The Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant in 2010. Credit: European Pressphoto Agency.
The Attica Prison Rebellion
September 27, 2016 23:03 - 9 minutes - 4.12 MBIn 1971 inmates at Attica maximum security facility in New York State rioted and seized control of the jail, taking guards hostage. When negotiations failed, the authorities stormed the prison, dropping tear gas from helicopters and firing hundreds of live rounds. At least 39 people were killed, including nine of the hostages. Former prisoner, Carlos Roche, spoke to Rebecca Kesby and described the chaos. This programme was first broadcast in 2013. (Photo: Rioting Inmates at the Attica maxim...
South Africa's 1985 State of Emergency
September 27, 2016 00:00 - 9 minutes - 4.21 MBIn the dying years of the Apartheid regime, the white minority government in South Africa was desperate to keep control as people took to the streets demanding change. A state of emergency was declared allowing the police and security forces sweeping new powers, which some individuals executed with extreme brutality. Rebecca Kesby spoke to Rev Dr Allan Boesak who was a political activist and church leader - he was one of those calling for an end to the unfair Apartheid system. (Photo: A ...
Outback Internment
September 26, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBDuring WWII some Germans and Austrians classed as 'enemy aliens' by the British were sent halfway across the world to be interned in prison camps in the Australian outback. Bern Brent was a 17 year old refugee from Berlin, who'd fled the Nazis on the Kindertransport - but he was taken away from his life in London and put on a troop ship heading for Melbourne. Hear his story. Photo: 'Enemy aliens' being rounded up in Britain. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
The Curious Story of Mary Toft
September 23, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBIn September 1726, a Surrey woman called Mary Toft claimed to be giving birth to rabbits. The case became a sensation which gripped Georgian England - but the real story may have been much darker. Witness hears eye-witness accounts from the time, and historian Karen Harvey puts the story into context. IMAGE: "Cunicularii or the wise men of Godliman in consultation", etching by William Hogarth illustrating the Mary Toft story, 1726. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
The First Legal 'Physician-Assisted Suicide'
September 22, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn September 22nd 1996, an Australian doctor called Phillip Nitschke, helped cancer sufferer Bob Dent, to die. He had connected a computer to a syringe full of lethal drugs - allowing Bob Dent to choose the time of his death. It was all done under a new law which had just been brought in to Australia's Northern Territory. But soon afterwards, politicians began working to overturn that law. Kevin Andrews MP, led the campaign to outlaw assisted suicide in Australia. Both he, and Dr Nitsc...
Domestic Violence in Brazil
September 21, 2016 07:51 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn September 2006 ground-breaking legislation came into effect in Brazil that for the first time recognised different forms of domestic violence. The "Maria da Penha" law was named after a women's rights activist who was left paraplegic by her abusive husband. Mike Lanchin has been hearing her chilling story. Photo: Maria da Penha now.
Voting Against the War on Terror
September 20, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBJust three days after the 9/11 attacks on America, Congress gave the President the power to order military action against any person, organisation or country suspected of involvement in the attacks - without needing Congressional approval. Witness speaks to Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the only member of the legislature to oppose the new powers. Photo: Barbara Lee in 2002. Credit: Getty Images News.
The West Australian Gold Rush
September 19, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.11 MBOn 17 September 1892 gold was discovered in Coolgardie in Western Australia. It was not the first find but it was the biggest, and the one which began a gold rush that changed the fortunes of the colony which had just become independent from Britain. Claire Bowes presents an archive interview with Frank Gerald, who as a young man, witnessed the discovery. His account was recorded in 1937. (Photo: Gold prospectors in Australia panning water and silt in search of small nuggets. Credit: Three ...
The Capture of Abimael Guzman
September 16, 2016 07:57 - 9 minutes - 4.36 MBIn September 1992 security forces in Peru tracked down and arrested the leader of the Maoist rebels, Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. Abimael Guzman was found hiding in a safe house in the capital, Lima, which fronted as a ballet school. Mike Lanchin hears from two police officers who caught the elusive Guzman. Photo: Abimael Guzman behind the bars of a cage during his presentation to the press by Peruvian authorities, Sept. 1992 (HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images)
The First Tanks
September 15, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBTanks were first used in warfare on 15 September 1916 by British soldiers fighting against German troops during the Battle of the Somme in World War One. Alex Last presents interviews with some of those soldiers from the BBC archive. A British tank in France during World War I. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Anthrax Attacks
September 14, 2016 10:12 - 9 minutes - 4.13 MBOne week after the 9/11 attacks, a series of letters were sent to journalists and politicians in the USA. They contained the deadly biological agent Anthrax. The United States was gripped with fear as postal workers fell ill. The FBI launched one of the biggest and most expensive investigations in its history. In 2013 Rebecca Kesby spoke to Special Agent Scott Stanley about the case. (Photo: Workers washing out rubbish bins. Credit: AP/Steve Mitchell)
The Great Fire of Smyrna
September 13, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.01 MBSmyrna on Turkey's Aegean coast was one of the richest cities in the Ottoman Empire. It had a diverse mix of peoples and religions - Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Levantines, and Jews. The city was famous for its tolerant and cosmopolitan way of life. But that began to change in the aftermath of World War One. The Greek army occupied Smyrna and its surroundings and was responsible for atrocities against Turks. Then in September 1922, Turkish forces routed the Greek army and re-entered the city...
The Lascaux Caves
September 12, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.03 MBOn September 12th 1940 a group of French schoolboys discovered the Lascaux caves with their palaeolithic cave paintings in the Vézère Valley in south-western France. It was one of the biggest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Lisa Louis has spoken to Simon Coencas, one of the boys who found the cave.
Estonia's Bootleg Vodka Poisoning
September 09, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn September 2001, 68 people died after a massive outbreak of alcohol poisoning in Parnu, Estonia. Rachael Gillman has been speaking to Dr. Raido Paasma, who was working as a doctor in the town when the first cases were discovered. Photo: Victims of the Parnu alcohol poisoning outbreak (AP Images)
How Europe won over the British left
September 08, 2016 09:14 - 8 minutes - 4.09 MBIn September 1988, a speech by Jacques Delors, the President of the European Commission, helped convince British trade unionists to support the European Community. For years, many on the left had been sceptical of the EC, regarding it as a 'rich man's club'. The Labour party and the unions had even called for withdrawal from the European Community, but as Europe geared up for the opening of the single market in 1992, Jacques Delors began to talk about something new. It was called the socia...
How Europe Won Over The British Left
September 08, 2016 09:14 - 8 minutes - 4.09 MBIn September 1988, Jacques Delors, the President of the European Commission convinced British trade unionists to support Europe. For years many on the left had been sceptical of the EC, regarding it as a 'rich man's club'. The Labour party and the unions had even called for withdrawal of the European Community, but as Europe geared up for the opening of the single market in 1992 Jacques Delors began to talk about something new, it was called the social dimension and one TUC official, David L...
Star Trek - The Early Years
September 07, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn 8 September 1966 the cult American science fiction series first went on air. It was not an immediate hit with audiences. Herb Solow, the original producer of the series, spoke to Ashley Byrne about how the first Star Trek was made. (Photo: Left to right, William Shatner as Captain James T Kirk, DeForest Kelley as Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Remembering Chairman Mao
September 06, 2016 07:50 - 13 minutes - 6.27 MBOn September 9th 1976 the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong died. American Sidney Rittenberg first met him in the 1940s and he spent decades living in Communist China. He spoke to Rebecca Kesby about of one of the world's great revolutionaries. Photo: a poster of Chairman Mao in Beijing in the 1960s. Credit: AFP.
Italy's Partisan Fighters
September 05, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBIn September 1943, Partisan fighters in Italy began organising in large numbers to help the Allies defeat Nazi Germany and rid their country of the remnants of Benito Mussolini's fascist state. As World War Two drew to a close, there was vicious fighting in many villages between the Partisans and Italians still loyal to the dictator. Alice Gioia speaks to a brother and sister who both took part in the Partisan struggle. PHOTO: Italian Partisans celebrating victory, May 1945 (personal collec...
The Day Sweden Turned Right
September 02, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn September 3rd 1967 all Swedish drivers had to change the habits of decades, and swap to driving on the right-hand side of the road. It brought them into line with most of the rest of Europe (except of course for Britain and Ireland) but caused a day of chaos. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to Bjorn Sylven who remembers that day. Photo: The moment when the traffic changed from left-hand drive to right-hand, in Kings Street, Stockholm, at exactly 5am, on September 3rd 1967. Credit: AP
The Mexican American War
September 01, 2016 07:56 - 8 minutes - 4.11 MBIn September 1847 American soldiers marched triumphantly into Mexico City. It was the end of a bloody conflict between the two nations, but the start of the first American occupation of a foreign capital. Mike Lanchin presents written testimonies from the time. (Photo: General Scott's entrance into Mexico City. Hand coloured lithograph. Credit: Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot)
The Last Case of Smallpox in the UK
August 31, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBIn the summer of 1978 a British woman, Janet Parker, became the last known victim of the deadly virus smallpox. Professor Alasdair Geddes describes diagnosing smallpox in Janet Parker in 1978 and the events that followed. This programme is a rebroadcast. Claire Bowes spoke to Professor Alasdair Geddes in 2014. Image: Smallpox virus, Credit: Science Photo Library
The Fall of Bukhara
August 30, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.11 MBIn 1920, the Communist Red Army bombed the old city of Bukhara and took over the Central Asian kingdom. This was the end of an important centre of Islamic culture. Dina Newman speaks to the son of one of the Bukharan reformers who had made a pact with the Communists. Photo: The Last Emir of Bukhara, 1911 (credit: Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii; Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Prokudin-Gorskii Collection)
Burning Man
August 29, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBThis week more than seventy thousand people are gathering in the middle of the desert in Nevada for Burning Man - part festival, part counter-culture phenomenon. This year it's the event's thirtieth anniversary - and we've been speaking to founder and Chief Philosophical Officer Larry Harvey about how they first got started. Picture: Dancers at the 1998 'Burning Man' festival create patterns with fireworks in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada just prior to burning a five-story, neon-lit effi...
Fania All Stars - Legends of Salsa
August 26, 2016 08:00 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn August 1973, a Latin music supergroup called Fania All Stars played a historic concert at New York's Yankee Stadium. It helped spread the sound of salsa music from New York to the world. Simon Watts talks to Larry Harlow, pianist and producer with the All Stars, and Puerto Rican salsa DJ, Ray Collazo. PHOTO: Fania All Stars singer Hector Lavoe (Getty Images)
Helmand Convoy
August 25, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBIn August 2008 a massive military convoy set off across the desert in Helmand carrying a gigantic turbine for a hydro electric power station. Eight years later that turbine is finally being installed - and should help bring electricity to Southern Afghanistan. Monica Whitlock has been speaking to Joe Fossey, then a Major in the British Royal Engineers, who helped get the convoy through. Photo: Major Joe Fossey in Helmand Province. Courtesy of Major Fossey.
The "Don't Die of Ignorance" Aids Campaign
August 24, 2016 09:06 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn 1986 the British government launched the world's first ever public health campaign on Hiv Aids. It was highly controversial and faced considerable opposition from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mike Lanchin speaks to former Health Minister, Norman Fowler, whose insistence made the campaign a reality. Photo: Norman Fowler of a poster reading "Aids Don"t Die Of Ignorance," Nov. 1986 (Crown Copyright)
The Dance Theatre of Harlem
August 24, 2016 07:55 - 8 minutes - 4.11 MBIn August 1969, Arthur Mitchell founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem - the first classical ballet company to focus on black dancers. Virginia Johnson, now the organisation's director, was a founder member. (Photo: The Dance Theatre of Harlem, circa 1970. Virginia Johnson pictured back row, third from left. Credit: Marbeth)
The Stockholm Syndrome
August 23, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBIn August 1973 Kristin Enmark and three colleagues were taken hostage during a bank siege in Stockholm, Sweden. Kristin came to trust one of the kidnappers more than the police, the condition later named the 'Stockholm Syndrome'. Dina Newman spoke to Kristin about her story. (Photo: The hostages photographed as the police opened the bank vault door. Kristin Enmark is in the middle. (Credit: AFP/ EGAN-Polisen)
The Kray Gang
August 19, 2016 18:08 - 12 minutes - 5.55 MBIn August 1982 the notorious London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray were allowed out of prison for their mother's funeral. Though the Kray twins were serving life sentences for murder, their reign of terror and violent crime had seen them mix with London's social elite. Witness has been hearing from Maureen Flanagan, who was Mrs Kray's hairdresser and a close family friend. Photo: Ronnie and Reggie Kray, London 1964 (Photo by Terry Disney/Express/Getty Images)
John Muir and America's Wild Places
August 19, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn August 1916, the US Congress created the National Park Service to protect America's finest landscapes and encourage people to visit them. One of the inspirations for the Park Service was the work of the Scottish-born naturalist, John Muir, whose lyrical writings about the Yosemite Valley gained huge popularity. Simon Watts tells John Muir's story through readings from his work and contributions from Mary Colwell, author of "John Muir: The Scotsman who saves America's Wild Places". PHOTO:...
Conflict over a Tree in the DMZ
August 18, 2016 06:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn August 18 1976 an American platoon was sent into the DMZ between North and South Korea, to trim a tree that was obscuring the view of a manned checkpoint. Two US soldiers were killed as tensions escalated in the no man's land. Rachael Gillman has been speaking to US army veteran Eugene Bickley about his experiences that day. Photo credit: Getty Images
Studio Ghibli - Japanese Animation
August 17, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn August 1986 the first Studio Ghibli film hit the cinema screens. It would go on to bring Japanese animation to a world audience. Hirokatsu Kihara was a young animator who joined the studio to work on 'Castle in the Sky' its first feature length film. He has been speaking to Ashley Byrne of Made in Manchester about the early days of the great animation studio. Photo: Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki, one of the founders of Studio Ghibli. Credit: Getty Images.