Witness History

On 21 October 1973, American heartthrobs The Osmonds were met by hysterical crowds when their plane landed at London's Heathrow Airport. A surge by some of the 10,000 fans caused a viewing balcony to collapse. Eighteen people were injured. Four fans were treated in hospital. The term "Osmondmania" was used across the newspapers. Donny Osmond shares his memories of it with Josephine McDermott. (Pho...

In 2011, models, stylists and fashionistas gathered for Lagos Fashion Week’s debut which would put Nigerian style on the global map. Omoyemi Akerele founded the event which helped to launch the careers of designers internationally. The annual event has become a major fashion occasion attracting Africa's biggest celebs and collections are sent around the world. Omoyemi Akerele speaks to Reena Stant...

In 1993 young women began disappearing in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez. Hundreds were reported to have been kidnapped and killed. Some of the first victims weren’t discovered until nearly 10 years later. In 2013, Mike Lanchin spoke to Oscar Maynez, a forensic scientist who used to work in the city and to Paula Flores, the mother of one of the murdered girls. (Photo: Wooden crosses in a...

In April 2013, Rana Plaza, an eight-storey building on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, collapsed. More than 1,000 people died and many others were injured. The building contained five garment factories which manufactured clothes for well-known international brands. It was the worst industrial disaster in Bangladesh's history. Parul Akhter, a sewing machinist who survived the col...

In 1992, the first peace walk was held in Cambodia aimed at uniting a country torn apart by years of conflict. Buddhist monks, Cambodian refugees and aid workers set out on the 415 km journey which became known as the Dhammayietra – or the pilgrimage of truth. The hope was to reunite Cambodian refugees who had fled into Thailand during Pol Pot’s brutal Marxist rule, with those people still living...

In 2013, India's Supreme Court made a landmark ruling aimed at transforming the lives of acid attack survivors. It followed a campaign led by Laxmi Agarwal, who at the age of 15 was burned by acid thrown over her body. The attack changed Laxmi’s life and scarred her face. In 2006, she took legal action demanding a ban on the sale of acid and more help for survivors. But it took seven years of camp...

In February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, one of Africa's most famous leaders, was ousted from power in Ghana. While he was out of the country, the Ghanaian military and police seized power in a coup. Ghanaian film maker Chris Hesse worked closely with Nkrumah and was with him at the time. In 2021, Chris spoke to Alex Last about his memories of the coup and his friendship with the man who led Ghana to inde...

In March 1957, Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence and a new flag was unveiled marking a fresh start for the former British colony known as the Gold Coast. The woman behind the design was Theodosia Okoh, an artist and former teacher who won a government competition for a new emblem which would signify the end of British rule. Her flag had red, gold and green h...

In 2004, Kimani Maruge became the oldest man to start primary school when he enrolled at the Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Kenya. The 84-year-old student was a former soldier who had fought against colonial rule in the Mau Mau independence movement. He missed out on school as a child so when the Kenyan government scrapped all fees for state primary education, he saw his chance to finally learn to...

On 24 May 2010, artist Yinka Shonibare unveiled Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. The piece was the world’s largest ship in a bottle, but it wasn’t just any vessel. It was a replica of HMS Victory, commanded by Admiral Lord Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar, except Yinka had made an eye-catching change. The ship’s plain sails had been replaced with colou...

In 2003, an oil company entered the indigenous Sarayaku community’s territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon in search of oil. Neither the government nor the firm had consulted the community beforehand. The locals responded by filing a lawsuit against the company. The ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights would go onto become an important case for indigenous communities all over the world....

In 1978, the Amoco Cadiz tanker ran aground off the coast of France. The supertanker split, releasing more than 220,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea. It was the largest oil spill caused by a tanker at the time. Marguerite Lamour is the former secretary to Alphonse Arzel, the mayor of Ploudalmézeau in Brittany. He played a crucial role in the region's campaign for compensation. Marguerite share...

In 1956 commercial quantities of oil were discovered in the Nigerian village Oloibiri. It marked the start of a huge oil industry for Nigeria but came at a cost for villages in the Niger Delta. Chief Sunday Inengite was 19-years-old when prospectors first came to his village in search of crude oil. In 2018 he spoke to Alex Last about the impact of the discovery. (Photo: An oil worker at an oil wel...

In the wake of the USSR breaking up, Kazakhstan was wrestling with the challenges of independence; hyperinflation, the economy collapsing and food shortages. But three-and-a-half kilometres underground on the north-east shore of the Caspian Sea, a giant financial opportunity was lying dormant – The Tengiz Oil Field. Less than two years after gaining sovereignty, the government signed the “deal of...

In October 1973, Arab nations protested the American support of Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria by slashing oil production, causing prices to sky rocket. Dr Fadhil Chalabi was deputy secretary general of Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). In 2014 he spoke to Alex Last about the embargo. (Picture: Empty gas pump in 1973. Credit:Getty Images)

The world's first cat cafe opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998. It started with just five street cats. For the first few months they hardly had any visitors. Then a film crew made a TV programme about the cafe, and it eventually became a global tourist destination. Cat cafes have become a worldwide phenomenon. Tracy Chang, founder and owner, tells her story to Gill Kearsley. (Photo: Inside the first...

On 3 October 2013, a fishing boat taking more than 500 migrants from Libya sank 800 metres off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island. It was one of the worst migrant shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea. As it happened so close to the shore, hundreds of dead bodies were recovered and their coffins were put on show for the world to see. The tragedy led to a joint European effort to tac...

In the early 1990s, the soap opera or telenovela craze was sweeping the world. One of the most popular was Kassandra made in Venezuela, about a girl switched at birth and raised in a travelling circus. The show was broadcast all over the world, including Bosnia. In 1997, ravaged by war, people found escape in the make-believe world of Kassandra. When supporters of Washington-backed president Billi...

On 26 September 1973, Concorde, the supersonic passenger aircraft, made her first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. The droopy-nosed plane took to the skies for the first time four years earlier. Some campaigners believed that the speed of the aircraft might damage buildings. In 2012 André Turcat, the French pilot of Concorde's first flight, spoke to Mike Lanchin. (Photo: Concorde. Credit: Gett...

In 1975, during the final days of the Vietnam War, most of the world was unaware that the North Vietnamese were advancing a new breed of nuclear reactor, gifted to the South by the United States government. Not only was it technology the North's Russian allies did not yet have, it was also a source of weapons-grade nuclear fuel. As a last resort, the US discussed bombing the facility, risking nucl...

The vuvuzela was notorious during the 2010 football World Cup. It became the subject of debate when it was labelled as 'the world's most annoying instrument'. Freddie 'Saddam' Maake claims to have invented the horn. He became known as 'Mr Vuvuzela'. He tells Gill Kearsley his story. (Photo: Football fans play vuvuzelas during a World Cup match in 2010. Credit: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2013, gunmen from a Somali Islamist group known as Al-Shabab attacked a shopping centre in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. They took hundreds of people hostage during the siege which lasted four days. More than 60 people were killed, with many more injured. In 2021, Rebecca Kesby spoke to Daniel Ouma who was a paramedic on duty at the time. (Photo: A Kenyan police officer deployed near the Westgate ma...

In November 2013 George Kourounis arrived in the Turkmenistan desert. He was determined to become the first person to enter the Darvaza Crater. The crater is a burning natural gas field that has been on fire for at least 50 years and has become known as the 'Gates of Hell.' On 6 November, George put on a giant silver aluminium suit and began his descent into the crater. He says he felt like a gian...

In 1978, campaigners won their long fight to legalise abortion in Italy. Emma Bonino and other members of the Radical Party went on hunger strike and were even jailed, after helping women access illegal abortions across the country. But they faced fierce opposition in the Catholic country, as the church was heavily integrated into Italian politics. Emma Bonino was so passionate about the cause tha...

In July 1933, the new German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, passed 'The Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases'. It required the sterilisation of Germans with physical and mental disabilities. Helga Gross was one of those sterilised. Ben Henderson uncovers archive interviews from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, recorded in 2003. (Photo: Helga Gross as a child. Credit:...