Witness History: Archive 2014
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Witness History: Archive 2014
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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The Biggest Rock Concert Ever
What does rock megastar Rod Stewart remember most about playing to 4 million people on Copacabana beach on New Year's Eve 1994? Well... it's not nice...
The Beginning of Reality TV
In December 1999 a young Dutch man, Bart Spring in't Veld, won the first ever Big Brother reality TV show. It was to be the start of a global televisi...
The Casa Pia Scandal in Portugal
In 2004, some of the most high-profile people in Portugual went on trial on charges of sexuallly abusing boys from a children's home called Casa Pia....
The Battle of the Bulge
Fought during the winter months of 1944, it was the last major German attack on the Western Allies in World War II. Witness speaks to Keith Davis, an...
Radio Caroline
In 1964 a 'pirate' radio station began broadcasting from a ship off the coast of England, in defiance of British law. Keith Skues was one of the firs...
The Christmas Truce
On Christmas Eve 1914 the guns fell quiet over the trenches of World War One. Soldiers from British and German regiments exchanged gifts and sang car...
Two Years Living up a Tree
Julia Butterfly Hill lived in an ancient redwood tree in northern California for 738 days to protect it. Her bed was a tiny platform. She speaks to Wi...
Nepal Peace Deal
In 2006 the Nepalese government and Maoists signed a peace accord ending 10 years of civil war. Witness has been speaking to the UN envoy to Nepal at...
The Disappearance of Glenn Miller
In December 1944, American bandleader Glenn Miller went missing over the English Channel. Witness speaks to trombonist Nat Peck, who played in Miller'...
The US Breaks Ties with Cuba
It was in January 1961 that the USA first broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Wayne Smith was one of the last diplomats to leave the US embassy...
Goan Independence
In December 1961, Goa became the last part of India to break free of colonial rule. The rest of India had become independent in 1947 when the British...
The Timisoara Uprising
Protests which led to the collapse of communism in Romania, and the death of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, began on 16 December 1989. Followers of a...
Gone With The Wind
The premiere of one of the most successful films ever made, was held in Atlanta on 15 December, 1939. A sprawling romantic epic it was set during the...
Baboon Aids Experiment
Aids patient Jeff Getty was given a bone marrow transplant, from a baboon, in December 1995. It was the first time a human being had been given baboon...
The Kyoto Protocol
On 11 December 1997, delegates from 160 countries worked through the night in Kyoto, Japan, to agree the first international treaty to cut greenhouse...
Miles Davis and Kind of Blue
Drummer Jimmy Cobb recalls playing with Miles Davis on the album that changed jazz for ever. Kind of Blue was recorded in just two sessions by Davis'...
The Hunt for BRCA2
In 1995, a frantic search was under way for a crucial 'cancer gene' called BRCA2. Scientists knew it was linked to hereditary cases of breast cancer....
The 'Execution' of Oliver Cromwell
In 1661, following the restoration of the monarchy, the body of Oliver Cromwell was dug up for ritual execution. Cromwell had overthrown King Charles...
The Holiday Inn in Beirut
During the Lebanese civil war the hotel district in Beirut was turned into a battlefield. Hear from two hotel workers who worked at the luxury Holida...
The Release of Terry Anderson
The American journalist Terry Anderson was freed after nearly seven years in captivity on 4 December, 1991. He had been kidnapped by Shia militants in...
Britain's First Woman MP
In December 1919, the first woman took her seat in the British parliament. Her name was Lady Nancy Astor and she had been born in America. Witness His...
The Berkeley Free Speech Movement
California students staged a sit-in which became the model for student activism across the USA in the 1960s. It all started over who could, or could n...
The Hong Kong Riots of 1967
Throughout much of 1967 striking workers and students filled the streets of the colony. They were inspired by the Cultural Revolution in China and wan...
The Destruction of the Bridge at Mostar, Bosnia
In November 1993, one of Bosnia's most famous landmarks, the old Ottoman bridge in Mostar, was destroyed by Croat guns in the Bosnian war. Built by th...
Australia's Rabbit Plague
For decades, Australia's countryside was ravaged by billions of rabbits. So in the 1950s, the government released the disease myxomatosis to kill off...
Kraftwerk
In November 1974, West German band Kraftwerk released their seminal album Autobahn. They would go on to become one of the world's most influential ban...
The Death of Yukio Mishima
On 25 November 1970 the acclaimed Japanese author and film-maker Yukio Mishima killed himself in a very public way. Listen to his friend and biographe...
India's Eton
In 1935 a new school opened in India. The Doon School went on to produce some of the country's leading figures including former Prime Minister Rajiv G...
The Death of Quentin Crisp
The flamboyant and eccentric gay writer and raconteur died on 21 November, 1999. He was on a visit to England from his home in New York - a city that...
The Nuremberg Trials
In November 1945 the first major war crimes trials in history opened in the German city of Nuremberg. Witness talks to the only surviving American pro...
Saddam Hussein Trial
In November 2006 Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death in a Baghdad courtroom. The trial of the deposed President by the Iraqi Interim Government foll...
President Mitterrand's Secret Second Family
In November 1994, a French magazine revealed that President Mitterrand had a secret daughter, with his mistress of more than 30 years. Witness speaks...
The Murder of El Salvador's Jesuits
In November 1989 government soldiers shot dead six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter. The shocking killings became a turning...
Botswana Diamond Discovery
Manfred Marx was the man who discovered the diamonds which transformed Botswana's economy. As a young geologist in the 1960s his find in the Kalahari...
The Killing of Rohana Wijeweera
The left-wing Sri Lankan rebel died in government custody on 13 November 1989. He was the leader of an armed Marxist uprising which led to tens of tho...
Rhodesia Declares Independence
This act by the white minority government in 1965, led to a decade of war with black nationalists. Ian Findlay, a District Commissioner at the time, e...
The Destruction of Iraq's Marshes
In the early 1990s, Saddam Hussein ordered the draining of southern Iraq's great marshes. It was one of the biggest environmental disasters of the twe...
Spies in Suburbia
A Soviet spy ring was uncovered in London in 1961. Two of the spies, a married couple, were sending radio messages to Moscow from a transmitter in the...
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
It had been one of the enduring icons of the Cold War. It had divided East Berlin from West Berlin; and socialism from capitalism. But on 9 November...
The Disappearance of Lord Lucan
Lord Lucan disappeared in 1974 after his nanny was murdered, and his wife brutally beaten. The son of the nanny, Neil Berriman tells the story of one...