Witness History

People took to the streets of Los Angeles in fury after police, who had assaulted a black driver called Rodney King, were acquitted in 1992. His assault had been captured on video and played repeatedly on US television. In 2012 Nina Robinson spoke to Rodney King about the beating, the trial of the police, and the anger and mayhem that followed their acquittal. Photo: Rodney King in 2012. Credit: R...

In 1966, an all-black team went head-to-head with an all-white team for the National College Basketball championship - one of the biggest prizes in American sport. To much surprise, the African-Americans of Texas Western College defeated the University of Kentucky, then the number one team in the country. The game is now regarded as breaking the colour barrier in US basketball. In 2016 Nija Dalal-...

Four young black girls were killed in a racist attack on a church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. The 16th Street Baptist Church was a centre for civil rights activists in the city. One of the girls who died was Addie Mae Collins, her sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph was badly injured but survived. In 2013 she spoke to Eddie Botsio about the bombing. Photo: men carrying the coffin of Addie Mae Collin...

In 1954 the US Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. The case was a turning point in the long battle for civil rights in America. In 2017 Farhana Haider spoke to Cheryl Brown Henderson, the youngest daughter of Oliver Brown, who was the named plaintiff in the class action against the local board of education. Photo: African American s...

In the 1960s, doctors in Northern Ireland launched the world’s first mobile coronary emergency service using a new invention – the portable defibrillator. The defibrillators – which initially worked off ambulance car batteries - saved dozens of heart attack victims every year. Modern versions are now commonly seen and used in places like offices and shopping malls. The man behind the portable defi...

The WHO was first proposed as part of the new United Nations programme to reform the post-war world. The idea for an international health organisation to help promote good health globally was put forward by a member of the Chinese delegation, Szeming Sze. His memoirs reveal the political difficulties which dogged the process and his son remembers his passion for the project. We also hear from hist...

The artist Christo died on May 31st 2020. Famous for wrapping landmarks in fabric and plastic, one of his most ambitious projects was the former German parliament building which sat on the border between East and West Berlin. It had been gutted by fire in 1933 and extensively damaged during the Second World War. In June 1995 Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude completed the monumental public art pr...

Just one month after gaining independence there was an uprising in Zanzibar in 1964. It was billed as a leftist revolution but the worst of the violence was ethnically targeted. Zanzibar’s complex history meant the islands were home to a very diverse population, and the legacy of the slave trade had left deep scars and lingering resentment. Ahmed Rajab was a student in 1964 and remembers the night...

The Monteverde cloud forest reserve in Costa Rica was established in the 1970s with the help of a group of American Quakers. The aim was to protect its unique habitat and abundant exotic wildlife. It has become one of Central America's top tourist attractions. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from 97-year-old Marvin Rockwell and 88-year-old Lucky Guindon, two of the Quakers who left the US to settle...

Ann Cole Lowe designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress in the 1950s. As a black woman working in high fashion she was a groundbreaking figurein New York. Sharon Hemans has been speaking to Judith Guile who went to work with Ann Lowe in her Madison Avenue studio in the 1960s.

Many people were shocked when Winston Churchill's personal doctor published his memories of Britain's wartime leader in 1966. Churchill's family tried to halt the publication, but as historian Piers Brendon has been telling Vincent Dowd, the doctor, Lord Moran, had unique insights into the great man's behaviour. Photo: Winston Churchill arriving in Downing Street, May 1940. Credit: Topical Press A...

The South Korean army crushed a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju on 27 May 1980. Pro-democracy demonstrators had taken control of the city and were calling for an end to military rule. Hundreds of people, many of them students, were shot and beaten to death. Mike Lanchin spoke to Kim Jong and Linda Lewis who were living in Gwangju at the time. This programme is a rebroadcast. Photo: soldier...

The best selling book that highlighted the health and environmental benefits of a plant based diet. The publication of "Diet for a Small Planet" in 1971 helped start a conversation about the social and environmental impacts of the foods we choose. Frances Moore Lappé has been telling Farhana Haider about the writing of her ground breaking book. Photo Cover of first edition, first print Diet for a...

During times of crisis in the UK, World War Two is often remembered as a period when the country rallied together to fight a common enemy. British politicians still refer to the so-called "Blitz Spirit" when calling for national unity. But as Simon Watts has been finding out from the BBC archives, there was a crime wave during the war years, with a massive increase in looting and black marketeerin...

Ground-breaking work by developmental psychologist Professor Uta Frith has revolutionised our understanding of autism. Beginning in the 1960s, Professor Frith's research has overturned the long-held belief that autism was a social or emotional disorder, showing instead that it's the result of physical differences in the brain. Uta Frith has been talking to Louise Hidalgo. Picture: Uta Frith at her...

In 1983 Chuck Hull invented the first 3D printer. It could produce small plastic objects directly from a digital file on a computer. Instead of using ink the printer used plastic - adding layer upon layer to create an object. At first no-one was interested but now 3D printing technology is used widely, both by amateur hobbyists and industry. It's been taken up enthusiastically in the medical world...

A unique way of life came to an end in Hong Kong in 1993 when Kowloon Walled City was demolished. When the rest of Hong Kong was a British colony, the seven acres of the Walled City were still nominally under the control of mainland China – but it became a lawless world of its own, a haven for gang crime and illegal dentistry. At one point it was one of the most of the most densely populated place...

After four white policemen were acquitted of killing a black man - Miami rioted. Citizens took to the streets on the night of May 17th 1980. The unrest lasted for three days. 18 people died, hundreds were injured, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage were done to property. Sheila Cook has been hearing from Lonnie Lawrence who was a childhood friend of the dead man, but also a spokes...

The story of a scientist who helped solve a Cold War mystery involving flatulent fish and Soviet submarines. During the Cold War, foreign submarines infiltrated neutral Sweden's territorial waters. In response, the Swedish navy built up a secret database of tell-tale signs to detect the presence of lurking subs and conducted high profile submarine hunts. But the country's submarine scare continued...

Over a period of four years before his death in December 2004, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, the consort and husband of former Queen Juliana, gave a series of secret interviews to two Dutch journalists, on condition that nothing was published until after his funeral. In his conversations with the reporters, the German-born Prince sought to justify a string of extra-marital affairs and a mill...

After decades of campaigning in Japan, the pill was finally legalised in 1999. In contrast the male impotency drug Viagra was approved for use in just six months, and legalised before the contraceptive pill for women. Politician Yoriko Madoka pushed hard for the right to take the pill and told Rebecca Kesby that sexism and male dominance in Parliament is why it took so long. (Photo: A collection o...

How a group of broadcasters and social workers in the UK set up the world’s first 24-hour telephone counselling service for children. It revealed just how widespread child abuse was in Britain. Esther Rantzen was the TV presenter behind Childline, and she has been speaking to Laura FitzPatrick about how it got started. Photo: Esther Rantzen on the day Childline was launched in 1986. Credit: Childl...

The only part of the British Isles to be occupied during World War Two was liberated when the German army surrendered in May 1945. The Channel Islands are situated just off the coast of France, and yet even after the Allies had invaded the French coast, they remained under German occupation. Barbara Frost was 17 years old when liberation came. She has been telling Robbie Wojciechowski about life u...

On the 8th of May 1945, hundreds of thousands of Londoners took to the streets to celebrate the end of the Second World War in Europe. BBC correspondents captured the scenes of joy across the city - from the East End to Piccadilly Circus. This programme is made up of material from the BBC Archives recorded on VE Day in 1945. Producer: Simon Watts Photo: Londoners dancing on VE Day (Getty Images)

After Germany's surrender to Allied forces in May 1945 Soviet soldiers occupied the German capital Berlin. For ordinary German citizens it was a time of fear and uncertainty. The city had been reduced to rubble and for women in particular, the presence of Soviet troops was terrifying. In 2011 one German woman told her story of rape by a Red Army soldier to Steve Evans. This programme is a rebroadc...