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.
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Episodes
Bibles in US Schools
August 16, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn 1963 a third of schools in the US had to change their rules on Bible reading after a Supreme Court decision. It all began when a teenager refused to read the Bible in class. 16 year old Ellery Schempp took his school to court accusing them of violating the first amendment by forcing him to read the Bible at the start of every school day. It challenged the principle of a separation of church and state enshrined in the US Constitution. Claire Bowes has been speaking to him for Witness. Pho...
The murder of Federico Garcia Lorca
August 15, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBIn August 1936, the great poet and dramatist, Federico Garcia Lorca, was murdered by a fascist death squad at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Simon Watts introduces archive recordings of friends of Lorca and speaks to the Hispanist, Ian Gibson. This programme was first broadcast in 2010. PHOTO: Federico Garcia Lorca around 1929 (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
Fleeing Deportation to the USSR
August 11, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.11 MBAt the end of WW2, hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens who had ended up outside the USSR, escaped forced repatriation by the Red Army. Dina Newman hears from one family, originally from Soviet Belorussia, who disguised their ethnic origin and fled to Australia. Photo: Tanya Iwanow with her daughter Tamara, in Sydney, Australia (family archive)
The Nairobi Embassy Bombing
August 10, 2016 06:50 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBIn 1998, al-Qaeda killed over 200 people in a co-ordinated attack on two US embassies in East Africa. It was one of the first major bombings carried out by the group. We hear from George Mimba who was working in the embassy in Kenya when the attack took place. Photo: Rescue workers at the scene of the Nairobi embassy bombing (AFP/Getty Images)
The Excavation of Masada
August 08, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.09 MBIn August 1963, work started on the excavation of one of Israel's most important archaeological sites - Masada by the Dead Sea, site of a famous mass suicide two thousand years ago. David Stacey was one of the volunteers on the dig. PICTURE: An aerial photo taken on May 13, 2008 shows the ancient hilltop fortress of Masada in the Judean desert (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)
The Twin Towers High-Wire Walk
August 08, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.12 MBOn August 7 1974, New Yorkers woke to the amazing sight of a figure walking on a cable strung between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. High-wire artist Philippe Petit remembers one of his most daring feats, high above the streets of New York. (Photo: AP Photo/Alan Welner)
American Air Traffic Controllers' Strike
August 05, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.11 MBIn August 1981 President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers. The strike, which was illegal under American law, lasted just two days, but it was to become a watershed moment in labour relations in the US. Witness speaks to John Dwyer, one of those sacked, and to Ken Moffett, who was involved in trying to settle the dispute. (AP Photo/Dave Pickoff)
Lebanon's Baalbek Festival
August 05, 2016 07:41 - 9 minutes - 4.17 MBThe Middle East's oldest arts festival was first held n the ancient Roman ruins of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon in the summer of 1956. Some of the greatest names in music, theatre and dance performed there - Margot Fonteyn, Ella Fitzgerald, Herbert von Karajan, the Lebanese singer Fairuz. Witness talks to Mona Joreige whose aunt helped to organise the first Baalbek festival, and who was herself part of the organising committee for more than 20 years. (Photo: Syrian singer Mayada al-Hinnawi pe...
The Reclusive JD Salinger
August 03, 2016 22:53 - 9 minutes - 4.26 MBIt is 65 years since the publication of JD Salinger's classic novel The Catcher in the Rye. But as the book's fame grew, Salinger himself became more and more reclusive, eventually ceasing publishing altogether. Witness hears the story of how, more than 30 years later, a professor of American literature, Roger Lathbury, almost convinced the great man to change his mind. (Photo: JD Salinger in 1951, five years before the publication of The Catcher in the Rye. Credit: Little, Brown & Co/AP)
Jacqueline Du Pre
August 02, 2016 08:23 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBIn August 1965, at the age of just 20, the British cellist Jacqueline Du Pre recorded the Elgar cello concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. It became one of the most famous classical recordings of the 20th Century. Du Pre's career was cut short less than a decade later by multiple sclerosis. (Photo: Jacqueline Du Pre in rehearsal)
The University of Texas Shooting
August 01, 2016 07:52 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn 1 August 1966, student Charles Whitman shot dead 14 people and injured another 32 in America's first mass shooting at a university. Witness speaks to Ray Martinez, an off duty police officer who rushed to the campus and confronted the gunman. (AP Photo)
Spying for America in Russia
July 29, 2016 07:50 - 10 minutes - 4.65 MBIn July 1977, CIA case officer Marti Peterson was detained and deported from the Soviet Union for spying. She was the handler for Alexandr Ogorodnik, one of America's top Soviet moles at the time. It was her first assignment for the US intelligence agency. Peterson speaks to Witness about her cloak and dagger life in Moscow at the height of the Cold War. Photo: the KGB building in central Moscow (NIKOLAI MALYSHEV/AFP/Getty Images)
The Tangshan Earthquake
July 28, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn 28 July 1976, one of the deadliest earthquakes in modern history hit the city of Tangshan in north-eastern China - killing hundreds of thousands of people. We speak to eye-witness Yu Suyun. (Photo: A building in Tangshan after the earthquake. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Meeting Picasso
July 27, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn the summer of 1951 a young art historian met for the first time one of the greatest painters of the modern era. John Richardson recalls getting to know Pablo Picasso in the south of France. Photo: AFP/Getty
The First CIA Coup in Latin America
July 26, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.53 MBIn 1954 a group of army officers, supported by the CIA, overthrew the elected government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. It was the first CIA-organised coup in Latin America. President Arbenz's son, Juan Jacobo, remembers the family's flight into exile. Photo: Army officers opposed to President Arbenz go over a map of the territory on their push to Zacapa and then to Guatemala City, July 1954. (AP Photo)
Race Riots in Liverpool
July 25, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBIn July 1981 race riots broke out on the streets of Liverpool. It was the first time that British police used CS gas to control civil unrest in mainland Britain. Witness has been hearing from a man who took part in the riot. (Photo: Lines of police with riot shields face a group of youths during riots in the Toxteth area of Liverpool, July 1981. Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The Beilis Case: an Anti-Jewish Trial
July 22, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBIn 1913, Mendel Beilis, a Jew from Kiev, was accused of a "ritual murder". The trial became a focus of anti-Semitic rhetoric in imperial Russia and attracted attention around the world. Dina Newman reports. Photo: Mendel Beilis in 1913. Credit: Topfoto.
The Death of Bruce Lee
July 20, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.12 MBOn 20th July 1973 the film star and martial arts legend Bruce Lee died suddenly in Hong Kong. He was just 32 years old. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to his friend and fellow martial arts expert Dan Inosanto about his life, and sudden death. Photo: Bruce Lee. Credit: AFP
Medicare
July 18, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn July 1966, US government health insurance programme Medicare came into force, providing limited free health insurance for the over 65s. Ted Marmor was assistant to Wilbur Cohen, one of the architects of the plan. He speaks to Witness about his memories of that time. PICTURE: President Lyndon B Johnson signs the Medicare Bill with Harry S Truman in Independence, Missouri on July 30, 1965. (AP Photo)
Dutch Elm Disease
July 15, 2016 14:56 - 9 minutes - 4.22 MBIn the mid 1970s an epidemic of the fungal infection, Dutch Elm disease, killed millions of Elm trees in England, and changed the British landscape forever. Witness talks to tree pathologist Dr John Gibbs who was at the centre of the attempt to save them. Picture: Dr John Gibbs and a colleague at the Forestry Commission pump fungicide into an elm tree in St James' Park in London during the fight against Dutch Elm disease. (Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)
1916: Central Asia Rebels Against the Russian Empire
July 14, 2016 08:00 - 9 minutes - 4.4 MBIn 1916, Muslims in Central Asia rose up against Russian imperial rule. The revolt was brutally supressed. Tens of thousands of Central Asians were killed, and hundreds of thousands fled to China. Dina Newman reports. Photo: Nomadic Kirghiz family, circa 1911. (Credit: Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Prokudin-Gorskii Collection)
Child refugees from the Spanish Civil War
July 13, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBAt the height of the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Basque children were evacuated to safety in Britain. In 1937, Herminio Martinez was sent away by his parents at the age of seven. It was 23 years before he saw them again. Herminio Martinez talks to Witness about his memories of the evacuation and the reunion with his family. The programme was first broadcast in 2011. PHOTO: The Basque children arriving at Southampton in 1937 (Hutton Archive/Getty Images)
The Nestle Boycott
July 12, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.15 MBIn July 1977 US campaigners launched a boycott against Nestle over the sale of baby milk. The action was prompted in part by a publication by the British campaign charity, 'War on Want' of 'The Baby Killer' report. It highlighted problems arising from the use of baby milk formula in the developing world. We hear from the author of the report about his findings and his meeting with Nestle. Photo: Mother and baby feeding in Kenya 1975. Courtesy of BBC Panorama.
The Mumbai Train Bombings
July 11, 2016 07:52 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn July 2006, seven coordinated explosions tore through packed commuter trains in Mumbai. More than 180 people died and hundreds more were injured. Witness speaks to one man who was travelling home on one of the trains, and survived. Photo: Railway workers clear the debris of the first class compartment of a local train which was ripped open by a bomb (SEBASTIAN D'SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)
War in Slovenia
July 08, 2016 14:09 - 8 minutes - 4.09 MBOver ten days in June and July 1991, the Yugoslav federal army tried to stop the tiny republic of Slovenia from becoming the first republic to break away from the former Yugoslavia. The country's then foreign minister, Dimitrij Rupel, recalls those days of Slovenia's war of independence and how it was a precursor for the greater, more bloody conflict to come. Photograph: a Yugoslav army tank on the Croatian/Slovenian border behind a road sign daubed with a peace symbol, 3rd July 1991 (Credi...
Executions in Cuba
July 07, 2016 07:52 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn July 1989 four of Cuba's highest-ranking army officers were convicted of drug trafficking and executed by firing squad. The case sent shock waves through the communist island, but was seen by some as a show trial of opponents to the rule of Fidel Castro. We hear from the daughter of Col. Antonio de la Guardia, one of the officers involved. (Photo: Still from a local TV broadcast of the trial of Col. Antonio de la Guardia (left) and his twin brother Brigadier General Patricio de La Guardi...
The Sale of London Bridge
July 06, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBIn July of 1967 London Bridge was put up for sale. It was sold to an American millionaire who had it dismantled and transported to the USA where it was rebuilt, stone by stone, in Arizona. (Photo: American entrepreneur Robert P McCulloch, standing in front of London Bridge as it is dismantled, ready for transportation back to America, 1968. Credit: Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images)
Denmark's second EU Referendum
July 05, 2016 06:50 - 9 minutes - 4.18 MBIn 1993, Denmark held a second referendum on greater EU integration, after a previous vote failed. But angry anti-EU demonstrators took to the streets of the capital, and riots followed. We speak to the former foreign minister who campaigned for a 'Yes' vote, and a former activist who protested against any Danish involvement in the EU, but who has since changed his mind about Europe. Image: Riot police in Copenhagen after Denmark voted Yes to ratify the Maastricht Treaty in May 1993. (Credi...
Denmark's 2nd EU Referendum
July 05, 2016 06:50 - 9 minutes - 4.18 MBIn 1993 Denmark held a 2nd referendum on greater EU integration after the 1st vote failed. But angry anti-EU demonstrators took to the streets of the capital and riots followed. We speak to the Former Foreign Minister who campaigned for a "Yes" vote, and a former activist who protested against any Danish involvement in the EU, but who has since changed his mind about Europe. (Photo: Riot police in Copenhagen after Denmark voted Yes to ratify the Maastricht Treaty in May 1993. Photo credit...
Born on the Fourth of July
July 04, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBAlan Johnston talks to the former US Marine and peace activist Ron Kovic about two moments that changed his life forever - one on the battlefield, and one at an anti-war protest in Washington. He became famous when his life story was made into a Hollywood film.
Ukraine's Wartime Ultra-Nationalists
June 30, 2016 11:00 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn 1941, far-right Ukrainian nationalists declared an independent state. They expected Hitler to support them, but their hopes barely lasted a week. They ended up fighting against the Poles, the Russians, the Germans, and fellow Ukrainians who disagreed with them. Dina Newman speaks to an OUN member. Photo: a youth with his face painted with the colours of the flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carries a portrait of Stepan Bandera, the founder of the UPA, during an ultra-nationalist...
The Great Plague
June 29, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4 MBIn the summer of 1665, London was gripped by one of the worst epidemics in its history. The outbreak later became known as the Great Plague. Witness hears eye-witness testimony from the time, including an account by famous diarist Samuel Pepys. (Photo: The angel of death presides over London during the Great Plague of 1664-1666, holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear in the other. Published in The Intelligencer, 26 June 1665. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The Khobar Towers Bombing - Saudi Arabia
June 28, 2016 10:53 - 8 minutes - 4.09 MBOn June 25th 1996 a huge truck bomb was planted at a US housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of people were injured and 19 US servicemen were killed. Witness speaks to two survivors of the attack, who's lives were forever changed as a result of what happened at Khobar Towers. (The aftermath of the Khobar Towers bombing June 1996: Credit; Getty Images.)
The Cuyahoga River Fire
June 28, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBIn June 1969 the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River, in Ohio in the USA, caught fire. It became a national embarrassment and inspired new laws to protect the environment. Hear from one of the local officials who had to try to clean it up. (Photo: The Cuyahoga River, Cleveland, Ohio)
Forced Sterilisation in Peru
June 27, 2016 07:57 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBBetween 1996 and 2000 more than 280,000 women were sterilised in Peru, many of them against their will. Most of the women were from poor indigenous communities. The sterilisations were carried out as part of a controversial family planning programme launched by the country's populist president, Alberto Fujimori. Witness has spoken to one of the women who was sterilised and to a Peruvian doctor who refused to take part in the scheme. Listeners may find some of the accounts in this progr...
The Bobbitt Story
June 23, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn 23 June 1993 a young wife cut off her husband's penis in a frenzied attack. She was Lorena Bobbitt - he was John Wayne Bobbitt - and their story was soon a talking point all over the world. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to John Bobbitt's lawyer, Greg Murphy, about the case. (Photo: John Wayne Bobbitt arriving at court. Credit:AFP/Getty Images)
Space Crash
June 22, 2016 15:09 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBMichael Foale was on board the Mir space station when a resupply vessel crashed into it in June 1997. It was worst collision in the history of space flight and it sent Mir spinning out of control. Michael was one of the three astronauts on board who had to try to repair the damage and get the space station back on course. Photo: Mir Space Station. Credit: Getty Images.
Black in the USSR
June 20, 2016 08:00 - 9 minutes - 4.27 MBRobert Robinson, a Jamaican born engineer, was recruited to work in the USSR from a factory in Detroit in 1930. Having had his US citizenship revoked, he spent 43 years unable to leave the Soviet Union. Dina Newman tells his story, using BBC archive. (Photo: Robert Robinson in the 1920s. Source: BBC archive)
The Fall of Paris
June 17, 2016 12:49 - 9 minutes - 4.3 MBIn June 1940, German forces, having swept across Belgium and Holland, and into France, were closing in on Paris. In the face of the German army, millions of French, Dutch and Belgians had taken to the roads in one of the biggest exoduses of people the world had ever seen. Witness talks to Daphne Wall, who lived in Paris in 1940 as a young English girl and whose family joined the exodus south as Paris fell. Photograph: the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler visits the Eiffel Tower following the occupa...
Smoking and Lung Cancer
June 16, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBIt was not until the 1950s that British researchers first connected cigarette smoking with the huge rise in people suffering from lung cancer. Initially, scientists had thought pollution was a much more likely cause. Hear an archive interview with Sir Richard Doll who carried out the original studies and Sir Richard Peto who worked with him. This programme was first broadcast in 2013 (Photo: A man smoking a cigarette. Credit: Press Association)
The Eruption of Mount Pinatubo
June 15, 2016 08:00 - 9 minutes - 4.12 MBOn 15 June 1991 one of the largest volcanic eruptions of recent times occurred at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. The volcano had been dormant for over 600 years. The eruption produced high-speed avalanches of hot ash and gas, giant mudflows, and a cloud of volcanic ash hundreds of kilometres wide. Witness has been speaking to volcanologist, John Ewert, who was part of the team monitoring the volcano. (Photo: Clark Airbase Philippines. John Ewert 4th from right. Photo courtesy of John Ew...
Moral Majority
June 14, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBIn June 1979 the Moral Majority was launched and changed the course of American politics. It was set up to promote family values by religious conservatives from Catholic, Jewish and evangelical Christian communities. It urged protestants in particular to go against the tradition of separating politics and religion and register to vote, and to vote Republican. Richard Viguerie was one of the driving forces behind the movement. (Photo: Ronald Reagan with Richard Viguerie in Atlanta, Georgia,...
When TV Came to Bhutan
June 13, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBThere was a ban on television in Bhutan for decades because of fears it would ruin the country's traditional way of life. But in June 1999 the tiny Himalayan kingdom finally broadcast its first TV programme. Ashley Byrne has spoken to two people who remember the day well Photo: The capital of Bhutan,Thimpu)
The Battle for Mixed Race Marriage in the US
June 10, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBIn 1958, a mixed-race couple, Mildred and Richard Loving, were arrested and then banished from the US state of Virginia for breaking its laws against inter-racial marriage. Nine years later, Mildred and Richard Loving won a ruling at the Supreme Court declaring this sort of legislation unconstitutional. Witness speaks to the Lovings' lawyer, Bernie Cohen. PHOTO: Mildred and Richard Loving in the 1960s (Associated Press)
Iraq's Secret Nuclear Programme
June 09, 2016 11:18 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn June 1981 Israeli war planes destroyed Iraq's new, French-built nuclear reactor. Two senior Iraqi nuclear scientists, who were in Baghdad that day, tell Witness how the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant would trigger Iraq's secret programme to acquire nuclear weapons. Photograph: journalists are shown a destroyed nuclear reactor at Iraq's main nuclear research centre just south of Baghdad, ten years after the Israeli attack (Credit: Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty Images)
Karakoram Highway
June 08, 2016 09:51 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn 1979 one of the great engineering feats of the 20th Century was completed and the Karakoram highway between Pakistan and China was finally opened to the public. The highway, also known as the Friendship Highway in China, was started in 1959. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions under which it was constructed, it is also sometimes referred to as the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Witness has been speaking to Major General Parvez Akmal who worked on the construction and ma...
Restoring 'The Last Supper'
June 08, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBIn 1999 art restorers in Milan finally finished work on da Vinci's masterpiece. It had taken them 20 years to complete and had cost millions of dollars. Witness hears from Pinin Brambilla who led the ambitious project. Photo: AP Photo/Antonio Calanni
Ritalin
June 07, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBThe drug Ritalin was originally used as a stimulant for adults - until researchers discovered it could help children concentrate. It's now taken by millions of patients around the world to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. Witness speaks to Dr C Keith Conners, one of the researchers behind the first randomised clinical trial of Ritalin on children in 1964. PICTURE: Ritalin blister-packs and packet. Ritalin is a proprietary brand of Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Copyright ...
The Arrest of James Earl Ray
June 06, 2016 07:58 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBHow the man convicted for killing the civil rights leader Martin Luther King was detained in London in June 1968. After Dr King's murder, James Earl Ray had fled to Europe using a Canadian passport and a false name. Witness hears from some of those people who encountered him during his brief stay in the UK. (Photo: James Earl Ray giving evidence before the US House Committee Investigation of Assassinations in August 1978, at which he denied involvement in the murder of Martin Luther King. ...
Date Rape
June 03, 2016 08:50 - 9 minutes - 4.25 MBIn 1991 Katie Koestner went public with her experience of date rape and divided America. At the time, many regarded rape as a crime committed by strangers. Most victims of rape never revealed their names but Katie appeared on the front cover of Time magazine as well as countless talk shows as America debated when 'No' means 'No'. Katie Koestner spoke to Claire Bowes. Photo: Katie Koestner at her high school graduation in 1990 (courtesy of Katie Koestner)