Witness History: Witness Archive 2016

Yelena Malyutina was a Soviet female bomber pilot who fought in WW2 and was wounded in action in 1944. She was in one of the three Soviet women's flying regiments which fought on the front line. Before her death in 2014, she was interviewed by Lyuba Vinogradova, author of 'Defending the Motherland: Soviet Women' who fought Hitler's Aces. Dina Newman reports.

Photo:Yelena Malyutina and Lyuba Vinogradova (credit: private archive)

In 1976, Colombian archaeologists found the ruins of a huge indigenous settlement hidden in a remote mountain range near the Caribbean coast. Known to local tribes as Teyuna, the site is one of the biggest and oldest of its kind in Latin America. It later became known as the Lost City. Simon Watts talks to lead archaeologist, Alvaro Soto-Holguin.

(Photo: The Lost City)

In the early 1980s Mercedes Doretti, a student of anthropology in Buenos Aires, began helping in the search for some of the victims of Argentina's military rule. She went on to form the prestigious Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, which has carried out exhumations in more than 30 countries. Her work gathering evidence of some of the worst atrocities of our times, has taken her to Bosnia, South Africa, El Salvador and Mexico. Mercedes spoke to Mike Lanchin about the challenges of her harrowing task and about a life-time dedicated to the cause of truth and justice.

Photo: Mercedes Doretti excavates a skull from what used to be the convent of the church at El Mozote, El Salvador, Oct. 1992. (AP Photo/Luis Romero)

In December 1976 unidentified gunmen tried to kill Bob Marley at his home in Kingston, Jamaica. The legendary reggae singer miraculously survived with just light injuries. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from Nancy Burke, one of Marley's friends and neighbours, who was trapped inside the house as the gunmen stormed in, guns blazing.

Photo: Bob Marley, 1970s (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

After India's traumatic Partition Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru persuaded the maverick Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier, to help reinvent a newly independent India by building a new capital city for the province of Punjab.

Le Corbusier had revolutionised architecture and urban planning in the first half of the twentieth century. He was loved and hated in equal measure for his modernist approach, favouring flat roofs, glass walls and concrete.

Nehru said this new city would be "symbolic of the freedom of India, unfettered by the traditions of the past".

Starting in 1950 the city of Chandigarh was built from scratch on farmland and is unlike any other city in India. The broad boulevards, pedestrianised plazas and green spaces were designed to encourage a feeling of order and of being close to nature.

Claire Bowes spoke to Sumit Kaur, former Chief Architect and lifelong resident of Chandigarh, about the personal legacy left by Le Corbusier.

Photo:The Chandigarh Legislative Assembly building. 1999 (AFP PHOTO / John Macdougall)

In the early 1960s there were virtually no laws covering car safety in the USA. Even seatbelts weren't compulsory. Then a campaigning young lawyer called Ralph Nader came along. He researched car accidents, and safety requirements in other countries. Then he published a book called 'Unsafe at Any Speed' - soon the law changed.

Photo: Ralph Nader (R) examines a wrecked car in a crash test facility. Credit: Reuters.

On November 25th 1960, three sisters and political activists in the Dominican Republic were beaten to death on the orders of the dictator, General Trujillo. Their deaths sparked outrage, and inspired the assassination of the leader himself six months later.

(Photo; The three Mirabal Sisters, Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa)

How coal miners in post-war France went from being seen as heroes to being seen as pariahs. Their left-wing views were even perceived as a threat to democracy itself. Lisa Louis has been speaking to Norbert Gilmez, who lost his job and was blacklisted after taking part in the 1948 strike.

Photo: French President Francois Hollande welcomes former striker Norbert Gilmez during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris in September 2016. Credit: Reuters.

In 1916 the authorities in India uncovered what they believed was a plot to overthrow British rule in the subcontinent. It involved an Islamic teacher from the city of Deoband in northern India. Messages written on sheets of silk had been intercepted by the British. Owen Bennett Jones presents reports from the colonial archives.

(Photo: The Darul Uloom Deoband, the seminary at the heart of the Silk Letter Movement)

Amid the slaughter of African elephants by poachers, a Kenyan-British woman became the first to successfully hand-rear orphaned baby African elephants . As infants, elephants are dependent on their mother's milk and are extremely vulnerable. Without their mothers, orphans struggle to survive. In 1987 Dame Daphne Sheldrick worked out a formula that can keep them alive. The charity she set up, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, has now raised over 200 orphaned elephants in Kenya.. Photo: Feeding time for orphaned elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust nursery in Nairobi, Kenya (AFP/Getty Images)

In November 2001 a group of British tourists was arrested and put on trial for spying in Greece. But they were not spies, they were aeroplane enthusiasts. Chloe Hadjimatheou hears from Paul Coppin, one of the men detained and later jailed.

Photo: Paul Coppin with Greek police (AP News)

In November 1966 the hit musical opened on Broadway. Set in 1930s Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, the show chronicles the love story between a cabaret singer Sally Bowles and an American writer amid the city's decadent cafe society. The Broadway production was a huge hit, inspiring numerous subsequent productions as well as the Oscar winning 1972 film. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Cabaret's legendary director, Hal Prince.

(Photo: Jill Haworth, playing Sally Bowles from Cabaret, New York, 1966. Credit: Mark Kauffman/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

In November 1996 the renowned international ornithologist Tony Silva was convicted of smuggling endangered birds into the US. Some of the animals had been stuffed into cardboard containers for the journey from South America; others were hidden in false-bottom suitcases. Silva argued that he was trying to protect the birds from extinction. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to federal prosecutor Sergio Acosta, who worked on the high-profile case.

Photo: A pair of Hyacinth Macaws groom each other at the Sao Paulo Zoo, Brazil. They are one of the rarest species of birds in the world with only 130 pairs living in the wild in the Brazilian province of Bahia. (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images)

In 1995 one of Madagascar's most historic sites was destroyed by fire. The palace complex, which contains the stone clad Queen's Palace, dominates the capital Antananarivo. It is the burial site for Madagascar's kings and queens and is considered sacred by many. The destruction of the site caused widespread grief and anger in Madagascar. We hear from Simon Peers, who witnessed the devastating fire.

Photo: Workers restoring the Queen's Palace which was almost entirely destroyed by a fire in 1995 (AFP/Getty Images)

On 12 November 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on independence activists in East Timor's capital, Dili. Marco Silva has spoken to the British cameraman Max Stahl, who filmed the attack on unarmed demonstrators in the Santa Cruz graveyard.

(Photo: East Timorese activists preparing for the demonstration. Copyright: Max Stahl)

The publication of Salman Rushdie's book in the autumn of 1988 outraged many Muslims who believed the book was blasphemous. There were protests against the book around the world, including Britain. Ishtiaq Ahmed took part in the demonstrations and the public burning of The Satanic Verses in the UK. He tells Farhana Haider that this provocative decision was not just about grievances over the Satanic Verses, it was also to do with feelings about Muslims not being fully accepted in Britain.

(Photo: Satanic Verses being burnt in Bradford, 24 January 1989)

In 1962 Monty Norman wrote the music for the first James Bond film, Dr No, including the theme tune which has featured in all the 24 Bond films since. As he tells Rebecca Kesby, the iconic tune was born out of a melody he'd originally composed for an Asian/Caribbean theatre production. But a few important changes made it the world's best known spy-thriller theme.

(Photo credit: EON / MGM)

In 1999 the famous folk singer was awarded one of Turkey's most prestigious musical awards. But his announcement at the ceremony that he would record a song in his native Kurdish spelt the end of his career. Cagil Kasapoglu speaks to his widow, Gulten Kaya, about the night that changed their lives.

Photo: Ahmet Kaya on stage (credit: GAM Productions)

In November 1967 an iconic popular culture magazine was launched in the US. It quickly became known for its music coverage, interviews with stars and in depth political reporting. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to Michael Lydon, the first managing editor of 'Rolling Stone' Magazine.

Photo: Front page of the first issue of "Rolling Stone" magazine, 9 November 1967 (Credit: Alamy)

In 1991, the first Loebner Prize was held. The judges at the competition had to determine whether they were communicating with humans or computer programmes. The winner of the prize was the computer programme that most fooled the judges.

Rachael Gillman has been speaking to Dr Robert Epstein, who was the organiser of the first competition.

Photo Credit: Digital Equipment Corporation

In 2004 a child sex abuse trial on a remote island in the Pacific shocked the world. Nearly half the adult male population of Pitcairn Island stood accused of rape and sexual assault. The victims and the accused were all descendants of British sailors, including the famous rebel Fletcher Christian, who'd mutinied on a ship called Bounty in the eighteenth century. Claire Bowes spoke to Kathy Marks, one of just six journalists who were given permission to travel to Pitcairn to report on the trials.

Photo: Adamstown, seen in this June 2003 photo of Pitcairn Island (AP)

On 4 November 1965, the American war photographer, Dickey Chapelle, was killed in Vietnam by shrapnel from a booby-trapped mortar. She was the first American woman war reporter to be killed in action, and had made her name covering many of the 20th Century's greatest conflicts at a time when war reporting was almost exclusively the domain of men.

(Photo: Dickey Chapelle taking photos during a US Marines operation in 1958. Credit: US Marine Corps/Associated Press)

In October 1990 the Mexican poet and essayist was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. A prolific writer, Paz was the first Mexican to win the Prize. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from Professor Jason Wilson and Mexican writer, Alberto Ruy Sanchez, who knew him well.

Photo: Octavio Paz and his wife speaking to the press in New York after learning he won the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature (EVY MAGES/AFP/Getty Images)

In 1966 China's communist leader declared the start of a Cultural Revolution. It was carried out by millions of young people, part of Mao's Red Guards. Lucy Burns has been speaking to Saul Yeung, who was just 20 years old when he joined up.

Photo: Chinese Red Guards reading from Chairman Mao's Little Red Book (Getty Images)

In November 1950, Clarence Adams, an African-American soldier fighting in the Korean war, was captured by the Chinese Red Army. He was held in a prisoner of war camp until the war ended. But instead of returning home, Adams and 20 other GIs chose to settle in China. Rob Walker has been speaking to his daughter, Della Adams.

(Photo: Clarence Adams and his Chinese wife, Liu Lin Feng, courtesy of the family)

In 1904, the great American escape artist, Harry Houdini, made his reputation with a sensational performance at a theatre in London's West End. It became known as the Mirror Handcuff Challenge. Simon Watts introduces contemporary accounts of the show, and talks to magician and Houdini expert, Paul Zenon.

(Photo: Houdini later in his career. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In 1965 French agents in Paris helped kidnap and disappear Mehdi Ben Barka, a Moroccan dissident and global left-wing activist. He was taken to a villa in Paris where it is believed he was murdered by Moroccan security officials. His body has never been found. The case became a national scandal in France. The BBC's Alex Last hears from Bachir Ben Barka, who is still fighting to find out what really happened to his father. Photo: Mehdi Ben Barka (AP)

In October 1986 London's financial heart, the Stock Exchange, underwent one of the biggest shake-ups in its history. Old-fashioned practices such as the long lunches and early train home, gave way to new ways of working, and to the computer. Susan Hulme has been hearing from former stockbroker, Justin Urquhart Stewart, about the impact of those changes.

Photo: Traders in the London Stock Exchange, Aug 1984 (Victor Blackman/Express/Getty Images)

In October 1956 students and workers took to the streets of Budapest to protest at Soviet rule in Hungary. The demonstrations turned violent and for a while the revolutionaries were in control before being brutally repressed. Ed Butler spoke in 2010 to one of the rebels, Peter Pallai.

(Photo: November 10, 1956 - A crowd of people surround the demolished head of a statue of Josef Stalin, including Daniel Sego, the man who cut off the head, during the Hungarian Revolt, Budapest, Hungary.) (Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In World War One, thousands of troops began suffering from psychiatric disorders which were given the name 'shell shock'. It was initially thought that shell shock was caused by soldiers' proximity to exploding shells, but it soon became clear that the conflict was having an unprecedented psychological impact. Alex Last presents BBC archive recordings of WW1 veterans talking about their experiences. Photo: French soldiers taking cover during a German bombardment, 1918 (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

In 1961 a new generation of comic-book super heroes with more credible characters, was launched in the US to great acclaim. The 'Fantastic Four' was the creation of Marvel's writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. It propelled the company from a small division of a publishing company to a pop culture conglomerate. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to Roy Thomas, who began as a young writer at Marvel in the 1960s and rose to become its editor-in-chief.

(Photo: The Fantastic Four, first issue, Nov 1961. Credit: Marvel Comics)

On 21st October 1966, tragedy struck a village in Wales when a landslide of coal waste engulfed a primary school. 144 people, most of them children, were killed. Rob Walker introduces interviews and reports from the BBC archive to commemorate the disaster.

Photo: Rescue workers trying to reach children trapped in Pantglas Junior school. Credit: Press Association.

In October 1942, the great French conceptualist artist Marcel Duchamp helped put on the first major surrealist exhibition in New York. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to Carroll Janis, whose parents were friends of Duchamp, about the exhibition, the man and his art, including Duchamp's famous urinal.

Picture: A replica of Marcel Duchamp's iconic work, Fountain, at the opening of an exhibition in London in 2010. Duchamp first exhibited Fountain in 1917 (Credit: Geoff Caddick)

During the 1950s in Kenya, rebels known as the Mau Mau were fighting a bitter battle against colonial rule. Thousands of rebels were taken captive and interned in camps. Many of the prisoners suffered beatings and torture at the hands of the British authorities. Louise Hidalgo has spoken to a former Mau Mau rebel, Gitu wa Kahengeri, about his internment and about the day the Mau Mau leader, Dedan Kimathi was caught.

Photo:Gitu wa Kahangeri in Kenya in 2016. Credit: BBC

In the 1930s, a controversial Catholic priest called Father Charles Coughlin had a weekly radio programme with millions of listeners in the United States. As the decade wore on, Father Coughlin's views became so extreme and anti-Semitic that he was seen as a threat to national security by the White House. Simon Watts introduces recordings of Father Coughlin and talks to his biographer, Sheldon Marcus.

PHOTO: Father Coughlin at the microphone (Associated Press)

In the mid 1980s the US discovered that the Soviets had hidden listening devices deep inside the walls of its new embassy building in Moscow, while it was still under construction. It sparked a trans-Atlantic row between the two super powers. President Reagan threatened to have the whole building pulled down. Mike Lanchin hears from Thomas Jendrysik, an American engineer stationed at the embassy, tasked with dismantling the secret Soviet equipment.

(Photo: A US Marine stands guard inside the high fence surrounding the American Embassy construction site in Moscow, May 1983. Credit: Dave Martin/AP Photo)

In 1992 the vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hoover began offering free flights to British customers with every appliance they bought. The promotional campaign soon came unstuck when thousands of people took them up. Harry Cichy led the campaign to try to make the company provide the flights. He's been speaking to Susan Hulme for Witness.

Photo: A cleaning lady vacuuming a red carpet. Credit: Getty Images.

On October 13th 1990, the Syrian airforce forced their most outspoken opponent in Lebanon, General Michel Aoun, to take refuge in the French embassy in Beirut, ending the last chapter of Lebanon's bitter 15-year civil war. Veteran Lebanese journalist, Hanna Anbar, remembers that day.

Photo: Syrian soldiers celebrate in front of the presidential palace in east Beirut after capturing it from troops loyal to General Michel Aoun, October 13th 1990 (Credit: Nabil Ismail/AFP/Getty Images)

In October 1988 Chile held an unprecedented referendum on whether the country's ruler, General Augusto Pinochet, should remain in power. A majority of voters rejected the dictator, ending 15 years of brutal military rule. Mike Lanchin has been speaking to Eugenio Garcia, who was creative director of the campaign to oust the dictator.

(Photo: Getty Images)

In 1918, more than fifty million people died in an outbreak of flu, which spread all over the world in the wake of the first World War. We hear eye-witness accounts of the worst pandemic of the twentieth century.

PICTURE: An American policeman wearing a mask to protect himself from the outbreak of Spanish flu. (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

On 9 October 1986 the dissident poet was released from a prison camp on the eve of a US-Soviet nuclear summit between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. Irina Ratushinskaya has been speaking to Louise Hidalgo about her imprisonment, her poetry, and the day she was set free.

(Photo: Irina and her husband Igor, arriving in London in December 1986. Credit: Topfoto)

In October 1966, California pop group the Beach Boys released their "pocket symphony" Good Vibrations. It's regularly named as one of the best pop songs ever written - but it came at a turning point for the band. Singer Mike Love tells Witness about recording the song.

PICTURE: The Beach Boys in 1964. From left to right, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson (1944 - 1983) and Carl Wilson (1946 - 1998). (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

In 1994, a TV programme broadcast in Northern Ireland lifted the lid on child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Rape help lines in Belfast and in the Republic of Ireland were inundated with calls as other victims came forward. Rebecca Kesby spoke to Chris Moore who made the programme for "Counterpoint" on UTV, "Suffer Little Children". Further investigations by Chris and his team uncovered hundreds of other cases, exposing the extent of child abuse around the world.

(Photo: An Irish churchgoer holds a cross and rosary beads 2010. AFP/Getty Images)

On October 6th 1976 Thai security forces opened fire on student demonstrators in Bangkok. Dozens of students were killed and thousands were arrested. The killings heralded a new era of military rule in Thailand.

Photo: Police stand guard over Thai students on a soccer field at Thammasat University, in Bangkok, Thailand. (Credit: AP Photo/Gary Mangkorn.)

In October 1982 seven people in the US died after taking, Tylenol, a painkiller which had been deliberately contaminated with cyanide. Claire Bowes has been speaking to David E Collins, the drug company executive who dealt with the aftermath of the tragedy.

(Photo: Mrs. Helen Tarasiewicz, mother of Tylenol cyanide victim Theresa Tarasiewicz Janus, weeps over the casket containing her daughter"s body during graveside services at Maryhill Cemetery in Chicago Tuesday, 6 Oct 1982. Theresa, her husband Stanley Janus and Stanley"s brother Adam Janus all poisoned by cyanide from the same Tylenol bottle. Credit: Charles Knoblock/AP Photo)

In 1946, Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware were travelling on a train when they sparked up a conversation about intelligence testing. That chance encounter sparked the high IQ club, Mensa. Rachael Gillman speaks to the society's archivist Ian Fergus about those early days.

(Photo: A computer generated image of the human head and brain. Credit: Getty Images)

In 1926 Stanley Spencer, one of the most admired British painters of the twentieth century, began work on an ambitious project in the village of Burghclere near London. He'd been commissioned to fill a new chapel with images of his experiences in the First World War, at home and abroad. Vincent Dowd speaks to Spencer's daughters, Shirin and Unity Spencer, about their father and his work.

Photo: Stanley Spencer in 1958.(AP)

On September 29th 1957 there was a major accident at a secret nuclear facility in the Soviet Union. Dozens of workers died and a huge cloud of radioactivity spread across the surrounding countryside. But news of the disaster was only made public decades later. Dina Newman has spoken to Zhores Medvedev, the first scientist to disclose what happened to the international community.

Photo: The Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant in 2010. Credit: European Pressphoto Agency.

In 1971 inmates at Attica maximum security facility in New York State rioted and seized control of the jail, taking guards hostage. When negotiations failed, the authorities stormed the prison, dropping tear gas from helicopters and firing hundreds of live rounds. At least 39 people were killed, including nine of the hostages. Former prisoner, Carlos Roche, spoke to Rebecca Kesby and described the chaos. This programme was first broadcast in 2013.

(Photo: Rioting Inmates at the Attica maximum security facility, New York State Credit: AP)

In the dying years of the Apartheid regime, the white minority government in South Africa was desperate to keep control as people took to the streets demanding change. A state of emergency was declared allowing the police and security forces sweeping new powers, which some individuals executed with extreme brutality. Rebecca Kesby spoke to Rev Dr Allan Boesak who was a political activist and church leader - he was one of those calling for an end to the unfair Apartheid system.

(Photo: A young South African boy in Duduza township, Jul 1985 (Gideon Mendel, AFP)

During WWII some Germans and Austrians classed as 'enemy aliens' by the British were sent halfway across the world to be interned in prison camps in the Australian outback. Bern Brent was a 17 year old refugee from Berlin, who'd fled the Nazis on the Kindertransport - but he was taken away from his life in London and put on a troop ship heading for Melbourne. Hear his story.

Photo: 'Enemy aliens' being rounded up in Britain. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

In September 1726, a Surrey woman called Mary Toft claimed to be giving birth to rabbits. The case became a sensation which gripped Georgian England - but the real story may have been much darker. Witness hears eye-witness accounts from the time, and historian Karen Harvey puts the story into context.

IMAGE: "Cunicularii or the wise men of Godliman in consultation", etching by William Hogarth illustrating the Mary Toft story, 1726. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

On September 22nd 1996, an Australian doctor called Phillip Nitschke, helped cancer sufferer Bob Dent, to die. He had connected a computer to a syringe full of lethal drugs - allowing Bob Dent to choose the time of his death. It was all done under a new law which had just been brought in to Australia's Northern Territory. But soon afterwards, politicians began working to overturn that law. Kevin Andrews MP, led the campaign to outlaw assisted suicide in Australia. Both he, and Dr Nitschke have been speaking to Ashley Byrne about the case.

Photo: Dr Nitschke with his computer and automated syringe. Copyright: Philip Nitschke.

In September 2006 ground-breaking legislation came into effect in Brazil that for the first time recognised different forms of domestic violence. The "Maria da Penha" law was named after a women's rights activist who was left paraplegic by her abusive husband. Mike Lanchin has been hearing her chilling story.

Photo: Maria da Penha now.

Just three days after the 9/11 attacks on America, Congress gave the President the power to order military action against any person, organisation or country suspected of involvement in the attacks - without needing Congressional approval.

Witness speaks to Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the only member of the legislature to oppose the new powers.

Photo: Barbara Lee in 2002. Credit: Getty Images News.

On 17 September 1892 gold was discovered in Coolgardie in Western Australia. It was not the first find but it was the biggest, and the one which began a gold rush that changed the fortunes of the colony which had just become independent from Britain. Claire Bowes presents an archive interview with Frank Gerald, who as a young man, witnessed the discovery. His account was recorded in 1937.

(Photo: Gold prospectors in Australia panning water and silt in search of small nuggets. Credit: Three Lions/Getty Images)

In September 1992 security forces in Peru tracked down and arrested the leader of the Maoist rebels, Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. Abimael Guzman was found hiding in a safe house in the capital, Lima, which fronted as a ballet school. Mike Lanchin hears from two police officers who caught the elusive Guzman.

Photo: Abimael Guzman behind the bars of a cage during his presentation to the press by Peruvian authorities, Sept. 1992 (HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images)

Tanks were first used in warfare on 15 September 1916 by British soldiers fighting against German troops during the Battle of the Somme in World War One. Alex Last presents interviews with some of those soldiers from the BBC archive.

A British tank in France during World War I. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

One week after the 9/11 attacks, a series of letters were sent to journalists and politicians in the USA. They contained the deadly biological agent Anthrax. The United States was gripped with fear as postal workers fell ill. The FBI launched one of the biggest and most expensive investigations in its history. In 2013 Rebecca Kesby spoke to Special Agent Scott Stanley about the case.

(Photo: Workers washing out rubbish bins. Credit: AP/Steve Mitchell)

Smyrna on Turkey's Aegean coast was one of the richest cities in the Ottoman Empire. It had a diverse mix of peoples and religions - Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Levantines, and Jews. The city was famous for its tolerant and cosmopolitan way of life.

But that began to change in the aftermath of World War One. The Greek army occupied Smyrna and its surroundings and was responsible for atrocities against Turks. Then in September 1922, Turkish forces routed the Greek army and re-entered the city. They began a campaign of rape, murder and looting mainly targeted at Armenians and Greeks. Within days the city was ablaze.

Rob Walker has been speaking to Jacques Nalbantian, who was five years old when the fire broke out, and to the historian Giles Milton.

(Photo: Turkish soldiers on the march near Smyrna in September 1922. Credit: Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

On September 12th 1940 a group of French schoolboys discovered the Lascaux caves with their palaeolithic cave paintings in the Vézère Valley in south-western France. It was one of the biggest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Lisa Louis has spoken to Simon Coencas, one of the boys who found the cave.

In September 2001, 68 people died after a massive outbreak of alcohol poisoning in Parnu, Estonia. Rachael Gillman has been speaking to Dr. Raido Paasma, who was working as a doctor in the town when the first cases were discovered.

Photo: Victims of the Parnu alcohol poisoning outbreak (AP Images)

In September 1988, a speech by Jacques Delors, the President of the European Commission, helped convince British trade unionists to support the European Community.

For years, many on the left had been sceptical of the EC, regarding it as a 'rich man's club'. The Labour party and the unions had even called for withdrawal from the European Community, but as Europe geared up for the opening of the single market in 1992, Jacques Delors began to talk about something new. It was called the social dimension, and one TUC official, David Lea, wanted to know more, so he invited him to Britain's Trade Union Congress. Claire Bowes spoke to Lord Lea along with John Edmonds, formerly of the GMB union.

Photo: Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission, addressing the Trade Union Congress in Bournemouth in 1988 (Credit: Press Association)

On 8 September 1966 the cult American science fiction series first went on air. It was not an immediate hit with audiences. Herb Solow, the original producer of the series, spoke to Ashley Byrne about how the first Star Trek was made.

(Photo: Left to right, William Shatner as Captain James T Kirk, DeForest Kelley as Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

On September 9th 1976 the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong died. American Sidney Rittenberg first met him in the 1940s and he spent decades living in Communist China. He spoke to Rebecca Kesby about of one of the world's great revolutionaries.

Photo: a poster of Chairman Mao in Beijing in the 1960s. Credit: AFP.

In September 1943, Partisan fighters in Italy began organising in large numbers to help the Allies defeat Nazi Germany and rid their country of the remnants of Benito Mussolini's fascist state. As World War Two drew to a close, there was vicious fighting in many villages between the Partisans and Italians still loyal to the dictator. Alice Gioia speaks to a brother and sister who both took part in the Partisan struggle.

PHOTO: Italian Partisans celebrating victory, May 1945 (personal collection)

On September 3rd 1967 all Swedish drivers had to change the habits of decades, and swap to driving on the right-hand side of the road. It brought them into line with most of the rest of Europe (except of course for Britain and Ireland) but caused a day of chaos. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to Bjorn Sylven who remembers that day.

Photo: The moment when the traffic changed from left-hand drive to right-hand, in Kings Street, Stockholm, at exactly 5am, on September 3rd 1967. Credit: AP

In September 1847 American soldiers marched triumphantly into Mexico City. It was the end of a bloody conflict between the two nations, but the start of the first American occupation of a foreign capital. Mike Lanchin presents written testimonies from the time.

(Photo: General Scott's entrance into Mexico City. Hand coloured lithograph. Credit: Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot)

In the summer of 1978 a British woman, Janet Parker, became the last known victim of the deadly virus smallpox. Professor Alasdair Geddes describes diagnosing smallpox in Janet Parker in 1978 and the events that followed.

This programme is a rebroadcast. Claire Bowes spoke to Professor Alasdair Geddes in 2014.

Image: Smallpox virus, Credit: Science Photo Library

In 1920, the Communist Red Army bombed the old city of Bukhara and took over the Central Asian kingdom. This was the end of an important centre of Islamic culture. Dina Newman speaks to the son of one of the Bukharan reformers who had made a pact with the Communists.

Photo: The Last Emir of Bukhara, 1911 (credit: Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii; Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Prokudin-Gorskii Collection)

This week more than seventy thousand people are gathering in the middle of the desert in Nevada for Burning Man - part festival, part counter-culture phenomenon. This year it's the event's thirtieth anniversary - and we've been speaking to founder and Chief Philosophical Officer Larry Harvey about how they first got started.

Picture: Dancers at the 1998 'Burning Man' festival create patterns with fireworks in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada just prior to burning a five-story, neon-lit effigy of a man on the last night of the week-long festival (MIKE NELSON/AFP/Getty Images)

In August 1973, a Latin music supergroup called Fania All Stars played a historic concert at New York's Yankee Stadium. It helped spread the sound of salsa music from New York to the world. Simon Watts talks to Larry Harlow, pianist and producer with the All Stars, and Puerto Rican salsa DJ, Ray Collazo.

PHOTO: Fania All Stars singer Hector Lavoe (Getty Images)

In August 2008 a massive military convoy set off across the desert in Helmand carrying a gigantic turbine for a hydro electric power station. Eight years later that turbine is finally being installed - and should help bring electricity to Southern Afghanistan. Monica Whitlock has been speaking to Joe Fossey, then a Major in the British Royal Engineers, who helped get the convoy through.

Photo: Major Joe Fossey in Helmand Province. Courtesy of Major Fossey.

In 1986 the British government launched the world's first ever public health campaign on Hiv Aids. It was highly controversial and faced considerable opposition from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mike Lanchin speaks to former Health Minister, Norman Fowler, whose insistence made the campaign a reality.

Photo: Norman Fowler of a poster reading "Aids Don"t Die Of Ignorance," Nov. 1986 (Crown Copyright)

In August 1969, Arthur Mitchell founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem - the first classical ballet company to focus on black dancers. Virginia Johnson, now the organisation's director, was a founder member.

(Photo: The Dance Theatre of Harlem, circa 1970. Virginia Johnson pictured back row, third from left. Credit: Marbeth)

In August 1973 Kristin Enmark and three colleagues were taken hostage during a bank siege in Stockholm, Sweden. Kristin came to trust one of the kidnappers more than the police, the condition later named the 'Stockholm Syndrome'. Dina Newman spoke to Kristin about her story.

(Photo: The hostages photographed as the police opened the bank vault door. Kristin Enmark is in the middle. (Credit: AFP/ EGAN-Polisen)

In August 1982 the notorious London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray were allowed out of prison for their mother's funeral. Though the Kray twins were serving life sentences for murder, their reign of terror and violent crime had seen them mix with London's social elite. Witness has been hearing from Maureen Flanagan, who was Mrs Kray's hairdresser and a close family friend.

Photo: Ronnie and Reggie Kray, London 1964 (Photo by Terry Disney/Express/Getty Images)

In August 1916, the US Congress created the National Park Service to protect America's finest landscapes and encourage people to visit them. One of the inspirations for the Park Service was the work of the Scottish-born naturalist, John Muir, whose lyrical writings about the Yosemite Valley gained huge popularity. Simon Watts tells John Muir's story through readings from his work and contributions from Mary Colwell, author of "John Muir: The Scotsman who saves America's Wild Places".

PHOTO: John Muir (Getty Images).

NOTE: The wildlife audio in this programme is used courtesy of the National Park Service, the National Audubon Society and Kevin Colver.

On August 18 1976 an American platoon was sent into the DMZ between North and South Korea, to trim a tree that was obscuring the view of a manned checkpoint. Two US soldiers were killed as tensions escalated in the no man's land. Rachael Gillman has been speaking to US army veteran Eugene Bickley about his experiences that day.

Photo credit: Getty Images

In August 1986 the first Studio Ghibli film hit the cinema screens. It would go on to bring Japanese animation to a world audience. Hirokatsu Kihara was a young animator who joined the studio to work on 'Castle in the Sky' its first feature length film. He has been speaking to Ashley Byrne of Made in Manchester about the early days of the great animation studio.

Photo: Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki, one of the founders of Studio Ghibli. Credit: Getty Images.

In 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.

Photo: Ellery Schempp aged 16 courtesy of Ellery Schempp

Audio of Supreme Court provided courtesy of Oyez, a free law project hosted at the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University.

In 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)

At 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)

In 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)

In 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)

On 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)

In 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)

The 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 performing at the 2015 Baalbek International Festival. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

It 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)

In 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)

On 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)

In 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)

On 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)

In 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

In 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)

In 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)

In 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.

On 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

In 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)

In 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)

In 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)

At 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)

In 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.

In 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)

Over 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 (Credit: Peter Northall/AFP/Getty Images)

In 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 Guardia (right) on charges of drug trafficking (FILES/AFP/Getty Images)

In 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)

In 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. (Credit: AFP)

Alan 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.

In 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 march in Kiev on October 14, 2009. The UPA was a group of Ukrainian nationalist partisans who engaged in a series of guerrilla conflicts during WW2. Photo: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images

In 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)

On 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.)

In 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)

Between 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 programme upsetting.

Photo: Felicia Mamaniconsa, a victim of forced sterilisation (credit: Ronald Reategui).

On 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)

Michael 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.

Robert 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)

In 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 occupation of Paris by the German army on the 14th June 1940 (Credit: Harwood/Keystone/Getty Images)

It 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)

On 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 Ewert)

In 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, 1975, courtesy of ConservativeHQ.com)

There 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)

In 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)

In 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)

In 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 maintenance of the highway.

(Photo: The majestic Karakorams on the border of Pakistan and China. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

In 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

The 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 Science Photo Library.

How 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. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In 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)

In the late 1960s Tanzania's first post-independence president, the charismatic Julius Nyerere, believed that endemic poverty in rural areas could only be addressed if peasant farmers relocated to larger villagers and worked collectively. It was part of a new experimental form of socialism, known as Ujamaa.

Photo: Tanzanian women cultivating the soil (AFP/Getty Images)

In June 1973, the Russian rival to Concorde, the Tupolev TU144, crashed at the Paris Air Show, killing the crew of six and eight people on the ground. At the time the Soviet Union and the West were competing to produce the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft. Former British test pilot, John Farley, recalls the day of the fatal crash of the plane dubbed 'Concordski'.

(Photo: The Russian TU-144 supersonic airliner shortly before it exploded and crashed at the Paris Air Show. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

On May 30th 1961 Rafael Trujillo, the dictator in the Dominican Republic, was shot dead. Tim Mansel has spoken to 3 people with different reasons for remembering the day he was killed.

Photo: Antonio Imbert, one of the men who shot Trujillo. Credit:Tim Mansel.

On May 27th 1968, executives of Chemie-Grunenthal, the German company that made the drug thalidomide, went on trial charged with criminal negligence. Thalidomide had caused serious often fatal birth defects in thousands of babies after their mothers took the drug during pregnancy thinking it was safe. It was one of the biggest pharmaceutical scandals of post-war Europe, and the trial would last more than two years.

Photograph: A Thalidomide child undergoes rehabilitation, 1963 (Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In 1996, a delegation of Chechen separatist rebels negotiated peace with Russia's President Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin. It took them just two hours to reach an agreement. Akhmed Zakayev was a member of the Chechen delegation. He spoke to Dina Newman. Photo: Akhmed Zakayev in 2004. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

In May 1991, at the end of Ethiopia's civil war, 14000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in just 36 hours during "Operation Solomon". An ancient Jewish community had lived in Ethiopia for centuries but amid war and famine, many tried to reach Israel. In 1984, Israel had rescued thousands of Ethiopian Jews from refugee camps in Sudan, Operation Solomon was meant to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel. We hear from Daniel Nadawo, an Ethiopian Israeli, about his memories of the dramatic airlift. Photo: Ethiopian Jews known as 'Falashas' sit on board an Israeli Air Force Boeing 707, during Operation Sololmon, May 25th 1991 (AFP/Getty Images)

In May 1986, more than five million people took part in Hands Across America - an attempt to form a nationwide human chain to raise awareness of poverty and homelessness. Hear from the organiser of the event, Hollywood promoter Ken Kragen.

Photo: Santa Monica California. Credit: Associated Press.

In May 1536 the Queen of England was executed on the orders of her husband, Henry VIII. She was the second of his six wives, but why did she deserve to die?

(Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In 1984, Naida Glavish, a New Zealand telephone operator became famous for greeting customers in her native Maori language. Instead of "good morning" she insisted on saying "Kia Ora". The New Zealand prime minister supported her, and two years later Maori became an official language of New Zealand. Dina Newman spoke to Naida Glavish.

(Photo: Naida Glavish as president of the Maori Party in 2013. Credit: Joel Ford/Getty Images)

In 1954, French forces surrendered after a bloody 56 day siege of their base at Dien Bien Phu in the north of Vietnam. Their defeat by the communist independence movement, the Viet Minh, signaled the end of French colonial rule in Indochina. We hear from two veterans who fought on opposing sides in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

(Photo: A French military Red Cross helicopter preparing to land, while French soldiers try to defend their positions in Dien Bien Phu against the Viet Minh, 23 March 1954 Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

In 1916 Marcus Garvey arrived in the US and began a movement for black pride. His dream was that black people would live independently of whites in a new empire in Africa.

Photo: August 1922 Marcus Garvey is shown in a military uniform as the "Provisional President of Africa" during a parade on the opening day of the Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World in Harlem, New York City. (Credit: AP Photo/File)

In 1941 the young Orson Welles revealed his first film. He had written, directed and starred in, the story of a great American press baron who dies bitter and alone. Hear archive interviews with Orson Welles about the movie, and the inspiration behind it.

(Photo: Orson Welles as Citizen Kane. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

On May 11th 1988 one of the most notorious double agents of the Cold War, the English communist spy, Kim Philby, died in Moscow. Philby, who was the so-called Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring, had defected to the USSR a quarter of a century earlier. Witness has been speaking to his granddaughter, Charlotte Philby, about her memories of visiting him in exile.

Photo: In November 1955, Kim Philby (right) denies to journalists that he is the Third Man, after the defection of two other Cambridge spies to Moscow. (Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In May 2001 Pope John Paul the Second made a historic visit to Syria, and became the first pontiff to officially enter a mosque. The Grand Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro, accompanied the Pope to the ancient Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, where they both called for peace and unity of all faiths in the region.

Photo: Pope John Paul II with Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro in Damascus 2001. Credit: Getty Images)

In the spring of 1982 Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falkland Islands. Caught up in the conflict were many scientists who worked for the British Antarctic Survey on remote outposts in the South Atlantic. BBC weather presenter Peter Gibbs remembers waiting on the island of Signy - hoping for rescue.

Photo: Peter Gibbs at the beginning of his stay in Antarctica in 1980. Copyright: Peter Gibbs.

During World War Two, Soviet propaganda promoted a heroic feat that never happened. It was the story of a small ill-equipped unit who destroyed over a dozen German tanks, delaying the German advance on Moscow. But it's unlikely that they destroyed a single tank, despite being widely promoted as heroes, during and after the war.

Photo: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev walks near World War Two veterans at a wreath-laying ceremony in Dubosekovo on May 7, 2010 during a visit to a memorial to the 28 Panfilov heroes. Credit: Dmitry Astakhov/AFP/Getty Images.

After World War Two, details emerged of Nazi Germany's nuclear weapons programme, which could have given Hitler an atomic bomb. Witness hears material from the BBC archives.

(Photo: Hiroshima mushroom cloud after the first atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped by a US Air Force B-29, 6 August 1945. Credit: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/Associated Press)

In 1941, Belfast in Northern Ireland was devastated by German bombing. More than a thousand people were killed, thousands more fled the city. Belfast was poorly defended, despite it being a key industrial centre for the British war effort. We hear from two survivors of the Belfast Blitz; Marion Kirkpatrick and Kathleen Regan. Photo: Residents survey the severe damage to houses along a street in Belfast, in April 1941 (AP Images)

For more than twenty years, the Nobel prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway had a house in Cuba. Movie stars, such as Gary Cooper and Ava Gardner, were regular guests at Finca Vigia, his large country-house overlooking Havana. As a young boy, Alberto Ramos worked for Hemingway at the Finca, and later became his cook. He speaks to Witness about his memories of the hard-drinking author.

Photo: Hemingway at work in Finca Vigia (Villareal Family Collection)

In May 1960, at the height of the Cold War, an American U2 spy-plane was shot down over Soviet territory. Its pilot, Gary Powers, was lucky to escape alive. His son, Gary Powers Jr, tells Witness about the story of his survival, and subsequent trial and imprisonment in Moscow.

(Photo: Pilot Gary Powers appearing before a US Senate Armed Forces Committee in Washington, after his release from the Soviet Union. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

Between June and September 1692 nineteen men and women were found guilty of witchcraft and executed in the small religious community of Salem, in north-eastern America. Most were convicted on the spurious evidence of young village girls who claimed to have been bewitched. Other villagers also accused were only spared the gallows by confessing. The witch-hunt was brought to an end by the Governor of Massachusetts after his wife was also falsely accused of being a witch.

Photo: A grave marker for Mary Parker, hanged for being a witch in Salem in 1692 (Darren McCollester/Newsmakers)

In 1959 the British Motoring Corporation unveiled a new, and very small, family car. It was called the Mini and it was an immediate hit with the public. It would become an icon of British design.

(Photo: The Mini at its launch, surrounded by all the people, and luggage that could fit inside. Credit: R Viner/Getty Images)

In spring 1950, American academic and China expert Owen Lattimore was one of the first Americans to be publicly accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy of communist connections. Senator McCarthy named professor Lattimore as the main Soviet agent in the US; it would take him four years to clear his name. The professor's career in America, like that of many others accused by Joseph McCarthy of being Communist sympathisers, would never recover. Witness talks to one of Owen Lattimore's students about that time.

(Photo: Senator Joseph McCarthy (centre) during hearings into the US army, which McCarthy accused of being soft on communism. Credit: APA/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In April 1882, the great English naturalist Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution changed forever the way we look at the world and our place in it, was buried at Westminster Abbey. The funeral was the greatest honour that Britain could give. But, as Witness reports, the national commemoration almost didn't take place.

(Photo: English naturalist, Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. Credit: Spencer Arnold/Getty Images)

In April1986 a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, in the USSR. Sergii Mirnyi was in charge of a monitoring unit which measured radiation levels in the 30 km exclusion zone around the plant.

(Photo: Chernobyl nuclear power station after the accident. Credit: Associated Press)

In 1966 the great French fashion designer went to Morocco for the first time. The trip would influence his designs - and as a result - the clothes of fashionable western women.

(Photo: Yves Saint Laurent in 1957. Copyright: AP)

In 1769, the great English actor, David Garrick, organised the first national celebration of Shakespeare at Stratford-On-Avon. The three days of festivities were attended by the cream of society, but were nearly ruined by one of the biggest floods in the town's history. Simon Watts introduces accounts from the time.

(Photo: Shakespeare. Credit: Getty Images)

In 1911 a factory fire shocked New Yorkers and was said to have inspired the series of huge economic and social reforms which came decades later, known as the New Deal.

Photo: Fire hoses spray water on the upper floors of the Asch Building (housing the Triangle Shirtwaist Company) on Washington and Greene Streets, during the fire in New York City, March 25, 1911. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

In April 1961 a group of Cuban exiles launched an invasion of communist-ruled Cuba in a failed attempt to topple Fidel Castro. After 72 hours of fighting many of the invaders were captured or killed. Gregorio Moreria was a member of the local communist militia who fought against the US-backed invaders. He was injured and briefly captured during the fighting. He spoke to Witness about his ordeal.

(Photo: Members of Castro's militia during the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. Credit: Three Lions/Getty Images)

In 1982, a British naval task force sailed to the south Atlantic to retake the Falkland Islands. To provide crucial air cover, the British fleet relied on an unusual and underrated aircraft, the Harrier, We hear from piilot and author, David Morgan DSC, who flew the Harrier during the conflict. Photo: A Sea Harrier on the flight deck of HMS Hermes heading to the Falklands , April 1982. .(Getty Images)

In April 1966, Ethiopia's emperor Haile Selassie made a spectacular arrival in Jamaica. It was his first and only visit to the birthplace of the Rastafarian movement which revered him. A quarter of a million people greeted him at the airport.

(Photo: Emperor Haile Selassie speaking to the BBC in 1954)

In 1971 the first Starbucks coffee shop opened in Seattle. Witness hears from two of the founders of the company that changed the way millions of people start their day.

Photo of the first Starbucks coffee store in Pikes Place Market in Seattle (courtesy of Zev Siegl).

In April 1931, the King of Spain was overthrown and a Republic was declared amid huge public excitement. The new government made it a priority to introduce modern education and culture to everyone in the country, including the rural poor. Some of Spain's leading writers and artists volunteered to go on 'Missions' to villages where the inhabitants were illiterate and life had not changed since the Middle Ages. Simon Watts introduces first-person accounts from the time.

Audio of the Choir of the Missions courtesy of the Residencia de Estudiantes, Madrid.

Photo: The Republican flag is raised in Madrid in April 1931 (Getty Images)

In 1961, in Kirghizia, in Soviet Central Asia, 21 managers and senior officials were executed for "serious economic crimes", after they introduced capitalist production methods. Dina Newman reports.

Photo: Russian shoppers queue at the GUM department store in Moscow, circa 1960; photo by Richard Harrington/Getty Images.

On 13 April 1919, British Indian troops fired on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in the Punjab. Hundreds were killed. The massacre caused an outcry in India and abroad, and would be a turning point for the growing Indian nationalist movement. Witness hears eye-witness testimony from the time.

(Photo: A young visitor looks at a painting depicting the Amritsar Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, 2010. Credit: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images)

On April 10th 2000, Angela Merkel became the first female leader of a German political party - and then Chancellor in 2005. But before she became one of Europe's most powerful politicians, she had an entirely different career - as a theoretical chemist in communist East Berlin. Witness speaks to her former colleague Michael Schindhelm.

PHOTO: Angela Merkel waves two bouquets after her election as chairman of the CDU in Essen, Germany on April 10th 2000.

In a challenge to centuries of tradition Japan's Crown Prince Akihito married a non-royal bride on April 10th 1959. The wedding marked a turning point in Japanese society. This is a Made in Manchester production.

Photo: Crown Prince Akihito and his bride Princess Michiko. Credit: Associated Press.

In 1977 Somalia invaded Ethiopia in an attempt to take control of disputed territory where most of the inhabitants were ethnic Somalis. The ensuing war would become one of the defining events in recent East African history. Hear from General Mohamed Nur Galal, one of the architects of the Somali invasion.

Photo: Young men in a Somali rebel camp in Ogaden. Credit: AFP/Getty Images.

In 1989 the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was removed from power in Romania. As the country opened up to the outside world, news began to emerge of children living in terrible conditions in the country’s orphanages. Izidor Ruckel was one of them - he was abandoned by his birth parents at a home for “irrecoverable” or disabled children. He spoke to Witness about his childhood.

Photo: BBC News

On April 4th 1979 Pakistan's first democratically elected Prime Minister was hanged at a jail in Rawalpindi. He'd been overthrown in a military coup almost 2 years earlier. Hear from the officer who ran that jail, and watched over Mr Bhutto during the last year of his life.

Photo: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto 10 years before his death - in 1969. Credit: BBC.

On 31 March 1970, a group of left-wing extremists from the Japanese Red Army Faction hijacked a plane with samurai swords and demanded to be taken to North Korea. The incident still affects Japanese-North Korean relationships today - because some of the hijackers are still in North Korea. Witness speaks to Daniel MacDonald, who was one of the passengers on board the plane.

(Photo: South Korean ground crew supply oxygen and electricity to the hijacked Japan Airlines Boeing 727 jet Yodo on 1 April 1970. Credit: Associated Press)

In the spring of 1977, just weeks before he was removed from office, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto introduced a ban on alcohol for Pakistan's muslim population. But did prohibition stop Pakistanis from drinking?

(Photo: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

On March 30th 1981 a man tried to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan. Mr Reagan and three of his security men were shot and wounded. Special Agent Jerry Parr helped save the President's life that day.

Photo: Security men rush to disarm the attacker. Credit: Associated Press.

In March 1976, the British prime minister Harold Wilson unexpectedly resigned. Wilson had dominated British politics for over a decade, and no-one could understand why he was stepping down. Witness has been talking to one of two journalists who Wilson summoned shortly afterwards to a series of secret meetings. What would he reveal?

(Photo: Harold Wilson on his way to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth. Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

On March 28th 1941 the British novelist Virginia Woolf took her own life. She was a member of the Bloomsbury Group and helped shape British culture in the early twentieth century. We'll hear archive interviews with her husband, sister, friends and even the writer herself.

Photo: Virginia Woolf in 1902 aged 20. (credit: Hulton Getty)

At Easter 1916, Irish rebels tried to launch a revolution against British rule. Their small army held out in the General Post Office in Dublin for a week before surrendering to British troops. Simon Watts tells the story of the Easter Rising through archive eye-witness accounts.

PHOTO: The aftermath of the Easter Rising (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

At the end of the First Gulf War in 1991, after Iraqi troops had been driven out of Kuwait, thousands of Iraqis rose up against Saddam Hussein. Some of the rebels were returning conscripts, some were Kurds, but many were Shias who had suffered oppression at the hands of Saddam's Baathist regime.

(Photo: Iraqi Shia women in ruined Karbala, breast-feeding their children. Their homes were destroyed during clashes between the Iraqi forces and Shia rebels. Credit: Rabih Moghrabi/AFP/Getty Images)

Emperor Tewodros II is one of the towering figures of modern Ethiopian history. He tried to unify and modernise Ethiopia. But his reign was also marked by brutality. He faced a rising tide of rebellion inside the country and then in 1868 a British military expedition marched into the Ethiopian highlands. Their aim was to free British diplomatic envoys the Emperor had imprisoned. Tewodros II made a last stand at Magdala, his mountain top fortress.

Drawing of Tewodros II. Credit: Getty Images.

In March 1998, a new 'wonder' drug was first approved for use. It marked a breakthrough in the treatment of male impotence. We hear from two men who helped develop Viagra: Dr Ian Osterloh, who worked for the drug company Pfizer and consultant urogolist, Clive Gingell, who conducted the first clinical trials. (Photo: Viagra pills. Credit:Getty Images)

In March 1990, Namibia - formerly the South African colony of South West Africa - became independent. Andimba Toivo ya Toivo was one of the founders of liberation group SWAPO, the South West African People's Organisation.

Photo: Andimba Toivo ya Toivo on release from detention in March 1984 - Associated Press

Archive recordings of the tunnellers who fought underground in WW1. They would dig tunnels under no-mans-land to detonate explosives under enemy positions. It was extremely dangerous work. During the war, all sides carried out military mining against enemy positions. The explosions were so large they could kill thousands of soldiers in an instant, and would scar the battlefield with huge craters. Photo: The La Boiselle crater was made when a huge mine was detonated on the first day of the Somme offensive during WW1 in July 1916. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

In 1979, former communist allies, China and Vietnam, fought a short but bloody war. It was only part of a much wider regional power struggle. China had the bigger army, but as the Americans found before them, Vietnamese troops proved to be formidable opponents. Ngo Nhat Dang was a young Vietnamese conscript fighting on the border, he told Witness about his experiences.

Photo; Chinese prisoners of war, guarded by Vietnamese conscripts, Getty Images.

In March 1996 the British government admitted that there was a probable connection between a disease affecting cattle and a devastating brain illness affecting humans, called variant CJD. A ban was introduced against the sale of beef on the bone. But for some people it was too late, members of their families were already sick.

Photo: copyright BBC.

In March 1977 the worst accident in the history of civil aviation took place in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Two jumbo jets, one Pan Am, the other KLM, collided on a runway. Captain Robert Bragg was co-pilot of the Pan Am plane - hear his memories of the crash.

Photo: Central Press/Getty Images

In March 1957, Rezso Kasztner was assassinated in Tel Aviv. He was a Hungarian Jew who had saved nearly 1700 people from the Holocaust by negotiating with Nazis. In Israel he had been accused of being a Nazi collaborator.

(Photo: Rezso Kasztner, courtesy of Kasztner family)

The Turin Shroud is one of the most revered relics of the Catholic Church: a piece of linen cloth that appears to show the imprint of a blood-stained crucified man. Some Christians believe it is the ancient cloth that Jesus Christ was buried in.

In 1988, the Church allowed scientists to perform a radiocarbon dating test on a small sample of the shroud. The results are still controversial.

Witness speaks to Professor Michael Tite who supervised the testing process.

(Photo: Picture showing a facsimile of the Shroud of Turin at the Cathedral of Malaga. Credit: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)

Alexandra Kollontai was one of the most influential feminists of all time. She insisted on complete equality for men and women, and demanded state childcare for all. But she was sidelined from mainstream politics after publicly clashing with Lenin at the 1921 Communist Party Congress. Dina Newman explores her legacy.

Photo: Alexandra Kollontai, March 1940. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images

In March 1991, six men wrongly accused of carrying out two bombings in the British city of Birmingham finally had their convictions quashed, ending one of Britain's worst miscarriages of justice. The Birmingham Six had spent more than 16 years in jail for a crime they did not commit. Witness talks to one of their daughters, Breda Power, about how it affected her and her family.

(Photo: Left to right: William Power, Richard McIlkenny, John Walker, Gerry Hunter, Paddy Hill and Hugh Callaghan. Credit: Press Association)

In the wake of the first World War, millions of British women were left single after the men they would have married had died during the conflict. They were forced to find different ways to live their lives - and they became a force for huge social change. For International Women's Day, Witness delves into the BBC archives to find some of their stories.

Picture: Florence White, organiser of the National Spinsters' Charter, campaigning for pensions for single insured women at 55 instead of 65. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

In 1999, Kosovo Roma Gypsies escaped ethnic violence but ended up in a refugee camp next to a disused lead processing plant. It took years of campaigning, and dozens of deaths, before they were rehoused. Dina Newman reports.

Photo: Four year old Jenita Mehmeti (bottom row centre), the first official victim of lead poisoning. Credit: Paul Polansky archive

Flora Leipman, a British Jew, spent decades in a Soviet labour camp on false spying charges. She managed to leave the USSR in 1984 and spoke to the BBC in 1987 about her experiences in the camp. Dina Newman tells her story using BBC archives. Photo: Flora Leipman in a BBC documentary, 1987

In March 1921, Marie Stopes opened Britain's first birth control clinic in London. The Mother's Clinic in Holloway offered advice to married mothers on how to avoid having any more children. Hear testimonies on the early days of birth control in Britain from the BBC archive. This programme was first broadcast in 2013.

(Photo: Dr Marie Stopes, photographed in 1953. Credit: Baron/Getty Images)

In February 1947 Edwin Land unveiled his new invention, the first instant camera, to a gathering of scientists in New York City. The Land Camera, or Polaroid, became an overnight hit. Land's biographer, Victor McElhney, talks to Witness about the great man and his amazing camera that changed photography for ever.

Photo: An early Polaroid instant camera, May 1949 (Express/Express/Getty Images)

On 29 February 1996, the last Bosnian Serb guns were removed from the hills around the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, ending the longest siege of a city in modern history. For almost four years, people in the city had endured constant bombardment, living without electricity and surviving only on what humanitarian aid could be brought in. Witness talks to Bosnian actress Vedrana Seksan, who was 15 when the siege began.

(Photo: people run to avoid snipers on a street in Sarajevo. Credit: Getty Images)

In 1996 an American multi-millionaire murdered one of the wrestlers he was sponsoring. The murder victim, Dave Schultz ,was an Olympic champion. The killer, John du Pont, was the heir to the Du Pont chemicals fortune and had spent millions supporting athletes and allowing them to train on the facilities he had built on his farm, Foxcatcher. Dave Schultz's brother Mark talks to Witness.

(Photo: John du Pont (centre) talking to two wrestlers at the Foxcatcher farm, 1992. Credit: Tom Mihalek/Getty Images)

In February 1989 government austerity measures sparked days of violent protests in Venezuela. Hundreds of shops and businesses were looted in the capital, Caracas. More than 300 people were killed as the Army took back control of the streets. But many of the victims were innocent bystanders, not involved in the violence - like the husband of Yris Medina, who told her story to Witness.

(Photo: Venezuelan police in the street controlling crowds. Jose Cohen/AP Photo)

In February 1986, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos took to the streets to overthrow President Ferdinand Marcos. His corrupt and brutal regime had ruled the Philippines for 20 years, After four days, President Marcos and his wife Imelda, were forced to flee. We hear from acclaimed Filipino writer, Jose Dalisay, who was one of those who took part in the People Power revolution.

(Photo: Anti-Marcos demonstrators in Manila)

At the end of the 19th Century, African-Americans in the southern states of the US faced a wave of political and racial violence. Lynchings reached a peak. Black people were prevented from voting and subject to laws which enforced racial segregation.

In response, thousands sought to leave the US and travel to Liberia. More emigrants left from Arkansas than any other southern state.

We hear from Professor Kenneth Barnes of the University of Central Arkansas. He uncovered a fascinating series of letters that reveal why so many black Arkansans dreamed of Liberia and what happened to them when they got there.

(Photo: Departure of African American emigrants for Liberia; from The Illustrated American, 21 March 1896. Credit: The New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1890 - 1899)

In February 2002 the controversial Angolan rebel leader was killed by government forces. He had led his UNITA guerrillas for almost four decades, as Angola found itself on the front-line of the Cold War between East and West. But by the time he died, Savimbi had been abandonned by his former backers in Washington. Hear from one of his closest aides, Alcides Sakala.

(Photo: Jonas Savimbi addresses his troops in Jamba, December 1985. Credit: Trevor Samson/AFP/Getty Images)

On 19 February 2001, a vet carrying out a routine inspection at an abattoir in the south of England spotted a suspected case of foot-and-mouth. Within days the highly infectious disease had spread to other parts of country and it was clear the government was struggling to control it. It was the first major foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain for more than 30 years. Millions of livestock were slaughtered in the months that followed and the final cost to the UK was estimated at well over $10 billion.

Witness speaks to Peter Frost-Pennington, one of the vets who responded to the crisis, and Phil Heard, a farmer from Devon.

(Photo: Smoke rises from hundreds of cattle and sheep infected with foot-and-mouth disease being incinerated at a farm in Lockerbie, Scotland. Credit: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)

In February 1916, France and Germany began one of the most devastating battles of the First World War During 10 months of fighting at Verdun, around 800,000 men were killed, wounded or were declared missing. In France, the battle became synonymous with the horrors of war on the Western Front. Using archive recordings of French and German veterans, we tell the story of Verdun. Photo:French troops under shellfire during the Battle of Verdun. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

In 1944, two Austrian mountaineers fled into the forbidden land of Tibet to escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in India. Heinrich Harrer and his friend Peter Aufschnaiter spent seven years as guests of the Tibetans, gaining a unique perspective on a way-of-life that was about to disappear. Harrer became the young Dalai Lama's tutor and later wrote a famous account of his visit called Seven Years in Tibet.

PHOTO: The Dalai Lama in the 1930s (Getty Images)

In February 1947, French designer Christian Dior transformed post-war fashion. His first collection was based on extravagant full skirts and tiny corseted waists - it would become known as the New Look.

PHOTO: Christian Dior designs are displayed at the "Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950" exhibition at The Victoria and Albert Museum on May 15, 2012 in London, England. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

In 1997 Israeli secret agents tried to kill a Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Jordan. But they botched their assassination attempt and a diplomatic scandal followed. In February 1998 the head of Israel's secret service, Mossad, was forced to step down after an official inquiry into what went wrong. Hear from Mishka ben David, a former Mossad agent, who played a part in the events in Jordan.

Photo: Khaled Meshaal in 2003. Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images.

On Friday 13 February 1970, Black Sabbath released their first album and a new genre was born - heavy metal. Witness speaks to guitarist Tony Iommi about the band's origins in Britain's industrial West Midlands - and the day his career nearly ended when he lost the tips of two fingers in a metal-working accident.

(Photo: Black Sabbath backstage at Top of the Pops (BBC). From left: Bill Ward, Ozzy Osborne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler)

In February 1943, as German and Italian troops withdrew from Libya, thousands of miles away, Britain's secret army of British code-breakers were listening in. Witness talks to Rozanne Colchester, one of the thousands of young men and women who worked at Bletchley Park in England, breaking their enemies' secret codes, like Enigma, and deciphering their top-secret military communiques.

(Photo:Code-breakers in Hut Six at Bletchley Park, deciphering German Air-force codes. Crown copyright, reproduced by kind permission of Director, GCHQ)

In 1994 Pakistan opened its first all-female police station, in the city of Karachi. Witness has been speaking to two women police officers, Shagufta Majeed and Syeda Ghazala, who worked there.

(Photo: Police officers Syeda Ghazala (L) Shagufta Majeed (R) in Karachi)

In the early months of 2011 demonstrators took to the streets across the Arab world. We go back to some of the first protests to take place in Syria. The roots of the country's bitter civil war lie in the government crackdowns that followed. Hear from one Syrian who was there.

(Photo: Anti-government activists on the streets of Daraa in Syria in March 2011. Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images)

The larger than life vaudeville star - Sophie Tucker - died on February 9th 1966. The jewish singer and nightclub entertainer was known across America for her risqué performances and her self-effacing humour. But she was also an early pioneer in the recording business. Hear from two people who knew her.

Photo: Sophie Tucker Getty Images.

In the spring of 1988 a new kind of anti-depressant went on the market. The media called it a 'wonder drug' and it became so well-known that people would ask for it by name. But was Prozac over-hyped? Dr David Wong was part of the team who developed it for the drug company Eli Lilly - he has been speaking to Ashley Byrne about Prozac.

Photo: A packet of Prozac. Copyright:BBC.

In February 1938, the world's first full-length animated feature film went on general release. It was Walt Disney's classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Disney had had to gamble all his money, and take out a loan against his life insurance to finish it. Witness listens back through the archives to some of those who worked on it, and talks to film writer and enthusiast, Brian Sibley, who met many of those involved.

Photograph: An illustration from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Walt Disney from a French book, 1940 (Credit: Apic/Getty Images)

(correction: Snow White cost $1.5 million to make, not the figure quoted in the programme)

A major undercover corruption investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation became public in February 1980.

Codenamed 'Abscam', the operation used a fictitious Arab sheikh who was supposedly looking to invest millions of dollars in the US.

The case shocked America when it was revealed that half a dozen Members of Congress had been recorded receiving bundles of cash from representatives of the bogus sheikh in return for political favours.

Witness speaks to John Good who was the FBI agent in charge of the investigation.

(Photo: Former FBI agent, John Good)

On 31 January 1980, 37 people were killed, many of them burnt alive, when police stormed Spain's embassy in Guatemala City, to end an occupation by peasant farmers. Witness hears from Gustavo Molina, the son of a prominent Guatemalan politician who was among the dead.

(Photo: Red Cross workers with stretchers outside the Spanish embassy in Guatemala City, Jan. 1980. Credit: AP)

In January 1966 the popular comic superheroes, Batman and Robin, hit TV screens in America for the very first time. The series became an overnight sensation. We speak to the daughter of William Dozier, the executive producer who created the tongue-in-cheek shows.

(Photo: Batman and Robin sitting in the batmobile. Credit: 20th Century Fox/Getty Images)

In 2000, Zamfara became the first Nigerian state to implement full Sharia law. In a country split between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south, the move sparked a national political storm. We hear about life in Zamfara from Ibrahim Dosara, a former state employee who began working for the BBC amid the Sharia controversy.

(Photo: A cinema in Zamfara state prepares to close ahead of the introduction of Sharia)

In January 1986 a space shuttle launch went horribly wrong. Six astronauts and a teacher - Christa McAuliffe - were killed. Hear from Barbara Morgan, another teacher who trained alongside the Challenger crew.

(Photo: Christa McAuliffe (left) and Barbara Morgan. Credit: Nasa)

A British fleet of 11 ships established a penal colony in Australia in 1788. It was the first step towards claiming Australia as a British territory. For the indigenous population, the arrival of British settlers brought violence and disease which would decimate the population.

(Photo: Royal Navy ships took 750 British convicts to New South Wales, where they established the first European settlement in Australia. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In January 1986 newspaper owner Rupert Murdoch took on the print workers' unions in a bitter industrial dispute which would revolutionise the British press. Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde was head of print workers union SOGAT 82 at the time.

Picture: Rupert Murdoch holds copies of his Sun and Times papers at his print works in Wapping, East London. Press Association 26/01/1986

In January 1969 hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to mourn student activist, Jan Palach, who had set himself alight in protest at the crushing of Czechoslovakia's 'Prague Spring'. Hear from two of the students who helped organise his funeral, and the priest who spoke.

Photo: Members of the public filing past Jan Palach's coffin, 28th January 1969. Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive-Getty Images

In 2004, a Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was mysteriously poisoned during his election campaign, as he was set to defeat his Moscow-backed rival. Mr Yushchenko explains how he was poisoned, how he managed to survive and how he won the election, following the Orange Revolution.

Photo: Viktor Yushchenko in November 2004; AP

In January 1972 a Japanese soldier was found hiding in the jungle on the Pacific island of Guam. He had been living in the wild there for 27 years since the end of World War Two. His name was Soichi Yokoi.

(Photo: Soichi Yokoi. Credit: Associated Press)

In January 1995 Mexico's economy went into melt-down following the sudden devaluation of its currency, the peso. The government was forced to seek a multi-billion dollar bailout from the US and the IMF. Witness hears from Luis de la Calle, a top Mexican official who helped negotiate the package.

(Photo: American and Mexican officials sign a US$20 billion rescue package for the Mexican economy at a ceremony at the US Treasury in Washington. Credit: Pam Price/AFP/Getty Images)

In January 1929, Belgian cartoonist Herge created one of the most famous cartoon characters in history - Tintin. Herge's real name was Georges Remy. He spoke to the BBC in 1977.

(Photo: Covers of comics series Tintin translated in several languages. Credit: Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images)

On 15 January 1966 a small group of Nigerian army officers launched a bloody coup against the civilian government. It marked the start of the military's involvement in Nigerian politics which would last for decades and set Nigeria on a path to civil war. We hear from one of the soldiers who took part, Colonel Ben Gbulie.

**This programme was first broadcast in 2014**

(Photo: Nigerian troops on the streets of Lagos, 16 January 1966. Credit: AP)

In January 1972 a vast new monument was opened to the public in Tehran. It was called 'Shahyad' and was dedicated to centuries of Iranian royalty. Hossein Amanat was the young architect employed to design it. After the Iranian revolution of 1979 the monument's name changed, but it has remained a centrepiece for public events and demonstrations in the city.

Photo: Hossein Amanat in front of his tower. Credit: Hossein Amanat.

In 1901, the German psychiatrist Dr Alois Alzheimer treated a 51-year-old woman, Auguste Deter, who had developed a type of dementia. The illness he documented became known as Alzheimer’s disease. We speak to Professor Konrad Maurer, who discovered Dr Alzheimer's original case file on Auguste Deter, which had been lost for almost a century. Photo: Auguste Deter photographed in the psychiatric hospital in Frankfurt where Dr Alzheimer worked, c.1901

Fifty years ago, a Russian painter and archaeologist, Igor Savitsky, created a museum in the remote desert of Uzbekistan, where he stored tens of thousands of works of art that he had saved from Stalin's censors. The Savitsky museum, in Nukus, would come to be recognised as one of the greatest collections of Russian avant-garde art in the world. Witness talks to the son and grandson of one of the artists, Alexander Volkov, whose work Savitsky saved.

(Photo:the Karakalpak Museum of Art, home of the Savitsky art collection. Credit: Chip HIRES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

In October 2006 a man killed five Amish schoolgirls, and injured five more, in one of the many mass-shootings that take place every year in the USA. Hear from Terri Roberts, the killer's mother, for a unique perspective on gun violence, grief and forgiveness.

In January 1959 left-wing revolutionaries marched triumphantly into the Cuban capital, ending decades of rule by the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. We hear from Carlos Alzugaray, then a 15-year-old school boy, who was among the crowds that turned out to watch the rebel tanks roll into town.

(Photo: Fidel Castro speaks to the crowds in Cuba after Batista was forced to flee, Jan 1959. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In 1956, designers Charles and Ray Eames created one of the most famous piece of furniture of the twentieth century – the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman. Witness speaks to their grandson, Eames Demetrios.

PICTURE: Charles and Ray Eames’ laid-back, leather-covered reclining armchair lounger with matching molded Ottoman, is part of a Library of Congress exhibit showing examples from over a million items of the Eames’ works. (AP Photo)

In January 1971, the first students enrolled in the Open University in Britain. The new university offered degree courses through distance learning to students previously excluded from higher education.

Its approach was radically different from conventional universities: it had an open admissions policy, there was no campus for students and lectures were broadcast on BBC television and radio.

Witness hears from John Cowin who left school with no qualifications and was in the University’s first intake.

(PHOTO: A student watching an Open University broadcast on TV in 1971. Credit: Peter Trulock/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In late 1978, huge numbers of refugees began fleeing Vietnam, trying to escape the country's repressive communist government.

Many of the refugees took to sea in flimsy boats at huge risk. Diep Quan and her family were rescued from their sinking vessel by a British merchant ship and were among the first Vietnamese refugees to arrive in Britain.

In January 1979, her family were given the keys to a new home in the English city of Peterborough. Diep tells Witness about her journey to Britain as a nine year old and the challenges of adapting to a new life in the UK.

(Photo: Several boatloads of refugees reach Hong Kong waters in 1979. Credit: COR/AFP/Getty Images)