Witness History

It’s 85 years since the start of World War Two. During the conflict, the Russian city of Leningrad came under siege in 1941. To camouflage the landmarks from enemy attack, a small group of mountaineers climbed up high with paint and canvas. Mikhail Bobrov was just 18 years old when he first got sent up the city’s spires. Mikhail was speaking to Monica Whitlock in 2017.He died in 2018. Eye-witness...

In 1971, the CT scanner was invented by South African physicist Allan Cormack and British engineer Sir Godfrey Hounsfield. It was a ground-breaking moment in modern medicine and they're now in almost every hospital around the world. Rachel Naylor speaks to Allan's son, Robert Cormack. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you...

In 2005, the pieces of an ancient monument were flown back to Ethiopia, having been stolen by Italy. The Obelisk of Axum, built around 1,700 years ago, was 24-metres (78 feet) high and weighed around 160 tons. It was looted from Ethiopia on the orders of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. He had it re-erected in Rome outside the former Ministry of the Colonies building near Circus Maximus. Despite...

In 1980, Abebech Gobena was on a pilgrimage to Wollo in Ethiopia, when she witnessed the devastating effects of a severe famine and drought, one of the worst in the country's history. Within a year she had rescued 21 orphans and brought them to live with her in Addis Ababa. The organisation she founded has since raised thousands of Ethiopian orphans. Dan Hardoon speaks to Hannah Merkana, one of th...

In 1994, a college student called Yohannes Haile Selassie unearthed a 4.4 million-year-old skeleton in Ethiopia. She was the first near-complete skeleton of a species of human ancestor called Ardipithecus ramidus. The paleoanthropologists who discovered her called her Ardi. The discovery upended how scientists view human evolution. Yohannes Haile Selassie speaks to Ben Henderson. Eye-witness accou...

In 1936, Haile Selassie came to Bath in the west of England to escape Mussolini and the fascists who had invaded Ethiopia. He bought a property – Fairfield House - and moved his entire family and staff there. He quickly became the talk of the town. The local paper ran daily updates on the Emperor’s schedule and dispelled rumours such as the Emperor’s beard "having turned white with anguish" or tha...

Haile Selassie was Emperor of Ethiopia. His dynasty ruled for centuries, supposedly descending from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In 1974 he was overthrown in a coup by a Marxist-Leninist military junta called the Derg. Over the following months, the insurrectionists executed 60 members of Haile Selassie's government, before murdering the former Emperor in his bed in 1975. Lij Mulugeta Asse...

In 1988, Jorge Gonzalez was a basketball star in Argentina and became the first athlete from this country drafted by an NBA team, the Atlanta Hawks. He was over 2.5m tall due to gigantism, which led to big day-to-day challenges like finding shoes his size. But it also gave him great opportunities. The Atlanta Hawks’ never put Jorge on the court because he was too heavy to play. But the owner of th...

On 13 April 1970, a Moon mission almost ended in tragedy, after an explosion on board the spaceship. Fred Haise was one of the Apollo 13 astronauts. In 2010, he spoke to Richard Howells about how they managed to get back to Earth against the odds. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our wor...

Until 1973, married women in Ireland were banned from working in state jobs. It was one of the longest lasting marriage bars in the world. Rachel Naylor speaks to Bernie Flynn, who postponed her wedding and became one of the first married women in the public service. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that...

In 1976, the 3,000-year-old mummy of Ramesses II was found to have a fungal infection. The embalmed body of the Egyptian pharaoh was flown from Cairo to Paris for a once-in-a-deathtime makeover. It received a royal welcome at the airport, and was guarded throughout its restoration, which took place at the Musee de l’Homme. Anne-Marie Goden worked as a receptionist at the museum. She tells Gill Kea...

On the 26 September 2014 Nathan Law stood on a makeshift stage outside Hong Kong's central government complex and chanted ‘Democracy Now’ and ‘Freedom’ into a microphone. He was leading hundreds of protesters who had gathered to demand that China grants Hong Kong free and fair elections. As the day went on the protest continued to grow and it wasn’t long before Nathan’s face was all over the news....

Amateur radio enthusiast Maggie Iaquinto spent a year trying to make contact with Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station using special equipment. It took careful planning as she had to know when they were orbiting past her house in Australia and what frequency they’d be on. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Maggie relayed crucial information to cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. Magg...

More than 200,000 people were killed during Guatemala's 36-year civil war between the military and left-wing rebels which ended in 1996. Of these, an estimated 45,000 people were forcibly disappeared, their bodies buried in unmarked pits. Jeremias Tecu's two brothers were among the disappeared. They went missing after a family party in 1981.Jeremias tells Vicky Farncombe how his mother put herself...

In 1987, an unknown 18 year-old Somalian model called Waris Dirie walked into the studio of renowned British photographer Terence Donovan. She had never had her picture taken before but after striking her first pose it was clear belonged in front of the lens. Although she says modelling was "easy-peasy” it was not an obvious career path for Waris. She was born in the Somalian desert to a nomadic f...

In 1964, the Disney film 'Mary Poppins' was released. It was based on the character created by writer PL Travers. Travers disliked the Oscar-winning Disney production so much, that she never allowed any more Mary Poppins books to be adapted into films. In 2018, Vincent Dowd spoke to Brian Sibley and Kitty Travers about their memories of PL Travers. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive....

In 1967, the small town of St Paul, Canada declared that they were a place that welcomed everyone, even the aliens. They did this by building a giant UFO landing pad, hoping to attract intergalactic tourists. They timed it to coincide with Canada's centennial celebrations. Although most of the town saw it as a light hearted joke the driving force behind the alien parking space Margo Lagassee, was...

In 1945, a fight broke out between two groups of teenage boys during a parade in the Spanish town of Buñol in Valencia. The boys ended up throwing tomatoes at each other. They decided to repeat the deed every year on the anniversary of the first fight, defying disapproving looks from older neighbours and even bans by the city council. Eight decades later, their shenanigans have led to one of Spain...

In 1996, an Indian government minister said that the work of women serving in bars "is not suited in our Indian culture”. There were protests and restrictions on women working in bars up until 2007 when a ruling lifted restrictions and saw female bartenders in India become headline news across the world. Shatbhi Basu became known as India’s first female bartender and has been in the business since...

In 2001, Argentina suffered an economic catastrophe so severe the country went through five leaders in two weeks. On the streets police engaged in battles with protestors. Eduardo Duhalde was the fifth President tasked with pulling his country back from the brink. He speaks to Ben Henderson. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We ta...

After World War Two, Egypt’s government recruited thousands of Nazis and their collaborators to bolster the country’s defence and security. This was part of Egyptian President Nasser’s efforts to modernise the country and present himself as the leader of the Arab world in its conflict with Israel. Johann Von Leers was one of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi propagandists. Nasser’s government recruited him in 1...

In 2003, the French rock star Bertrand Cantat murdered his actress girlfriend, Marie Trintignant. The attack happened in Lithuania where Marie had been shooting a film. Cantat was sentenced to eight years, but was released after just four and returned to music. Journalist Michelle Fines tells Vicky Farncombe how the case divided opinion in France with some calling it a brutal murder, others a crim...

Two bombs ripped through the Kuta area of the Indonesian island of Bali on 12 October 2002. 202 people were killed. 28 burns victims were taken to Royal Perth Hospital, Australia, where plastic surgeon Professor Fiona Wood worked. She led a team working to save patients suffering between two and 92 percent body burns using ‘spray-on skin’.Professor Wood speaks to Megan Jones. Eye-witness accounts...

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as ‘Carlos the Jackal’, carried out bombings, killings and kidnappings. Born in Venezuela, he was considered one of the most notorious political militants of the 1970s and 80s. After years on the run, he was captured in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in 1994. Former CIA operative Billy Waugh tracked him down. He spoke to Alex Last in 2014, before his death in 2023.Eye-w...

On the morning of 17 August 1945, the Indonesian nationalist leader, Sukarno, read out a statement declaring independence. It was broadcast to the country on radio and it came just two days after Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II.The announcement marked the culmination of years of struggle against Dutch colonial rule, which had lasted for over three centuries. Sukarno’s youngest daughte...