Witness History: Archive 2013

In 1963, the funeral of the legendary French singer brought Paris to a standstill. In this programme, Piaf's friends and lovers recall the career of the "Little Sparrow".

Millions of people took to the streets of Iran's main cities in December 1978. They were demonstrating against the Shah and his authoritarian government. Hear from two men who took part in the protests: Sadeq Zibakalam and Abbas Milani.

Photo: Demonstrators in 1978. Associated Press.

Thousands of foreign civilians were interned in camps when Japanese troops occupied the Philippines in World War II. Many of the inmates suffered from acute malnutrition. We hear the story of one boy, Desmond Malone, who was interned at the Santo Tomas camp in Manila.

Photo: American inmates of the Santo Tomas internment camp after liberation by US forces in February 1945 (AP Photo/Pool)

Gorilla expert Dian Fossey was murdered in her cabin at her research centre in Rwanda on 26 December 1985. Lucy Burns speaks to Kelly Stewart, who worked with Fossey and the gorillas.

A new computer game - designed in Scotland - became a surprise global hit in 1997. But Grand Theft Auto also courted controversy and sparked debate over violence and drugs in video games. Listen to Brian Baglow - one of the original team behind the launch.

British MP John Stonehouse faked his own death in Miami in November 1974 - and was discovered just weeks later in Australia on 24 December. Lucy Burns speaks to his barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC.

In December 1988 the Brazilian environmental campaigner, Chico Mendes, was shot dead by cattle ranchers. The 44-year-old leader of the rubber tappers union had become a powerful symbol of the struggle to save the Amazon. We hear from those closest to Mendes at the time of his death.

(Photo: Chico Mendes and his family. Credit: Str/AFP/Getty Images)

On 21 December 1988 an American airliner was blown out of the sky above Scotland. A bomb had been planted in its luggage hold. All of the 259 people on board, as well as 11 people on the ground in the small town of Lockerbie, were killed. Hear from from Father Patrick Keegans who lived on the street where much of the wreckage landed.

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images

On December 20, 1973 Luis Carrero Blanco, the Spanish PM was killed by a massive bomb which was detonated under his car in Madrid. It had been planted by the Basque separatist group ETA. He had been right-hand man to Spain's dictator Francisco Franco.

Photo: Spanish police examine the aftermath of the bomb attack. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

In December 1975, East Timor was invaded by its neighbour Indonesia, just a few days after the Timorese had declared independence from Portuguese colonial rule. Estevao Cabral was a teenager at the time, but he was caught up in the battle to defend Baucau airport against the occupying Indonesian paratroopers. He spoke to Lucy Burns about his experiences.

(Photo: People wave the East Timorese flag during independence day celebrations May 19, 2002 in Dili, East Timor. Photo by Edy Purnomo/Getty Images)

In December 1963 the 19-year-old son of Frank Sinatra - Frank Jr - was kidnapped for a ransom. He was released unharmed after two days. Barry Keenan, the man behind the crime, speaks to Mike Lanchin and describes the events of his doomed 'get rich quick' plot.

(Photo: Frank Sinatra and son, Dec 1963. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In December 1998, NASA astronaut Bob Cabana and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev were the first on board the International Space Station, after the first two modules - Zarya and Unity - were joined together in orbit.

PHOTO: AP / NASA TV

In 1995, post-apartheid South Africa hosted, and won, the Rugby World Cup. It was a hugely unifying moment for the country. Hear from Francois Pienaar, captain of the victorious Springboks team about what it meant to him, and to the nation.

Photo: AFP.

In June 1976 South African police opened fire on schoolchildren protesting against having to learn Afrikaans at school. Hear from Bongi Mkhabela who was a schoolgirl organiser on that march - about the violence and the resistance that followed.

Photo: BBC/Clarity Films/Peter Magubane

In 1961 the African National Congress decided to take up arms against Apartheid. The organisation's military wing was called Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation. Ronnie Kasrils was a young anti-Apartheid activist who planted one of the first bombs aimed at sabotaging the South African government's infrastructure.

(Image: Ronnie Kasrils in 1961. Credit: Ronnie Kasrils)

Following the death of Nelson Mandela we remember the system he was fighting against. Using BBC archive we present a snapshot of the attitudes and emotions on both sides of the racial divide as the South African authorites cemented the foundations of Apartheid in 1957.

In December 1993, Hindu activists demolished a Muslim holy site.

On 5 December 1933 prohibition came to an end. For almost 14 years it had been illegal to sell alcohol in the USA. The law was widely flouted and organised crime had flourished under the policy. Listen to archive accounts from the time.

(Photo: Men pouring alcohol down the drain circa 1920. Copyright: Hulton Archives/Getty Images)

From the 1950s until the 1970s, homosexuality was classed as a mental illness in the USA. Hear from Charles Silverstein, a campaigner who persuaded the American Psychiatric Association that just because he was gay, it didn't mean he was ill.

In the late 1970s, after the end of the Vietnam War, over a million people fled the country on small overcrowded boats. Hear the story of just one Vietnamese boat person: Nguyen Ngoc Ngan.

Photo: Cor/AFP/Getty Images.

In December 1980 three US Roman Catholic nuns and a layworker were abducted and murdered in El Salvador. Their work speaking out on behalf of the poor had made them targets for the country's fiercely anti-communist military. A close friend and colleague, Sister Patricia Murray, was one of the last people to see them alive.

In November 1970, Portugal launched a surprise raid on the independent West African nation of Guinea, which had been supporting liberation fighters opposed to Portuguese rule in neighbouring Guinea Bissau.

Hundreds of Portuguese colonial troops and Guinean exiles took part in the attack. They hoped to overthrow Guinea's leader, Sekou Toure.

Photo: Rebels fighting Portuguese rule in Guinea Bissau, Credit: AFP/GettyImages

In November 1943, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill all met together for the first time to discuss the progress of World War Two. The meeting was held in Tehran over four days.

(Photo: Joseph Stalin (left), Franklin Roosevelt (centre), Winston Churchill (right). Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In 1973, the campaign group Stop de Kindermoord or Stop the Child Murder launched in the Netherlands. It would change the face of the nation's infrastructure. Witness speaks to the group's chair, Maartje van Putten.

Image: Dutch National Archive.

In November 1936, a US socialite and her Chinese-American guide captured a giant panda cub in the forests of China. Ruth Harkness took the cub to the USA and kept it in her New York flat, before selling it to a Chicago zoo.

Photo: Quentin Young, the panda cub and Ruth Harkness. Courtesy of Jolly Young.

In 1993 the first webcam went online. Its camera was focused on a coffee pot so that computer scientists in Cambridge, in the UK could see if there was any coffee available. Dr Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Martyn Johnson and Paul Jardetzky explain how they developed the precursor to Skype.

On 23rd November 1963, the first episode of one of the world's best loved TV sci-fi programmes was shown.

But the BBC's debut of Doctor Who was tragically overshadowed by the assassination of US President John F Kennedy.

Lucy Burns speaks to Carole Ann Ford, who played the Timelord's grand-daughter, Susan.

Presented and produced by Lucy Burns.

First broadcast on BBC World Service November 2013.

In 1974, bombs exploded at two busy pubs in the English city of Birmingham, killing 21 people. The IRA were blamed. Witness speaks to Les Robinson, who survived the attack.

(Photo: Debris and damage from the bomb in the basement pub. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In November 1995, Nigeria's military government provoked international outrage when it executed the writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other activists from Ogoniland in the oil rich Niger Delta.

(Photo: Ken Saro Wiwa at a rally in Ogoniland. Credit: Greenpeace)

Before he shot President John F Kennedy, Oswald spent two and a half mysterious years living in Minsk. We hear from two people who got to know him during his time there.

(Photo: Lee Harvey Oswald after his arrest in Dallas, Nov 22 1963. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

In November 1978 an American cult leader, Jim Jones, ordered more than 900 people to kill themselves. He had brought his followers to live in a remote settlement in Guyana in South America - they called it Jonestown. Hear from one of his disciples who escaped the killing that day. This programme was first broadcast in 2009.

Photo: The aftermath of the Jonestown Massacre. Associated Press.

Red Cross doctors tried to treat both royalist and republican casualties in Yemen in the 1960s. Witness Pascal Grellety-Bosviel first journeyed to the frontline, to reach injured fighters, in November 1964. He later went on to help found the charity Medecins sans Frontieres.

Photo: Royalist fighters in the mountains. Keystone Features/Getty Images

In 1984 doctors in California tried a revolutionary operation on a two-week-old baby girl. She had been born with a fatal heart condition - but there was no infant human donor available. Hear from the lead surgeon, and an intensive care nurse involved in the fight to save Baby Fae's life.

Photo: Baby Fae listening to her mother's voice in the isolation unit. Courtesy of Loma Linda Hospital

In November 1982, the boxer Deuk-Koo Kim died of brain damage after a world title fight against the American Ray Mancini. Kim fell into a coma after being repeatedly knocked down in the 14th round. His death led to a series of reforms in boxing.

Ray Mancini shares his memories of the fight and its aftermath.

(Photo: Deuk-Koo Kim at home in Seoul before his departure for Las Vegas to fight Ray Mancini. Credit: Dong-a Ilbo/AFP/Getty Images)

In November 1933, one of the first in a series of dust-storms hit the central United States. In the following years, hundreds of thousands of farmers would migrate to California. Witness tells their story using archive recordings from the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin collection at the Library of Congress.

(Photo: Dust storm engulfing houses. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

On November 11th 1918 at 11am, the guns of World War One finally fell silent.

Listen to voices from the archives remembering that moment.

Photo: Marshall Foch and other military leaders outside the railway carriage where the WW1 Armistice was signed on Nov 11th 1918. (Three Lions/Getty Images)

On 10 November 1979 a train carrying hundreds of tonnes of dangerous chemicals crashed in Canada. It led to one of the biggest peacetime evacuations in North America.

(Photo: Aerial view of the crash scene. Credit: Courtesy of Mississauga Library System)

In November 1953 the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died in New York aged just thirty-nine. Witness presents interviews from the BBC archives.

Picture copyright BBC - Dylan Thomas, making a broadcast on the BBC in November 1948.

In November 1975, King Hassan the Second ordered hundreds of thousands of Moroccans to march into disputed territory in the desert. He wanted to claim the colony of Spanish Sahara for Morocco. The Green March led to a diplomatic victory for the King, but sparked a guerrilla war and decades of instability in the region. Witness speaks to a Moroccan who was on the march.

In 1963 southern Africa's first multi-racial school opened in Swaziland.

It was a direct challenge to neighbouring South Africa's apartheid regime.

We hear from two people who were there when the school first opened its doors.

Photo: Headmaster Michael Stern and his first pupils in 1963 (courtesy of Waterford Kamhlaba)

In 1937, Hitler and the Nazi party organised a huge exhibition of modern art in Munich. It was designed to ridicule works of art which they disapproved of - they called it Degenerate Art. It went on to be one of the best attended modern art exhibitions of all time.

Picture: Two men prepare to hang German Expressionist painter Max Beckmann's triptych 'Temptation' at the 20th Century German Art Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London. The exhibition includes work by all the German artists pilloried by Adolf Hitler in the 'Degenerate Art' exhibition in Munich of 1937. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

In November 1953 an English clergyman set up the first telephone helpline for people considering suicide. The Reverend Chad Varah began the pioneering service from a room in his own church house.

Today, the Samaritans receive more than five million calls every year in the UK alone. There are more than 100 branches overseas.

(Photo: The Reveren Chad Varah at the entrance to his office at the church of St Stephen, Wallbrook, City of London. Credit: PA)

On 31 October 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards. We speak to RK Dhawan, one of her closest aides, who was with her in the garden that morning and was a witness to her assassination.

(Photo: Indian school children light candles to pay tribute to the late former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Credit: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images)

In 1998 Central America was hit by Hurricane Mitch. More than 18,000 people died, hundreds of thousands were left homeless. We hear from two people who were in Honduras, the country worst hit by the huge storm.

(Photo: One young man balances on a log to get across a river swollen by the storms in Honduras. Credit: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

In 1949, Iva Toguri, a Japanese-American woman, was wrongly convicted for making propaganda broadcasts on behalf of Japan during the Second World War. She was accused of being the infamous radio presenter known to American servicemen as "Tokyo Rose". Witness speaks to Ron Yates, a reporter whose investigation helped to clear Iva Toguri's name.

PHOTO: Iva Toguri in the 1940s (US National Archives)

19 October 1987 became known as Black Monday after share prices on Wall Street fell by a record rate.

We hear from Art Cashin, a trader at the New York Stock Exchange.

Photo: The scene on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Black Monday (MARIA R BASTONE/AFP/Getty Images)

In 1963, Erik de Mauny became the first BBC correspondent based in the Soviet Union.

The BBC had tried to open a bureau there during World War II, but only succeeded 20 years later.

De Mauny's son, Marc, talks about the hurdles his father had to overcome while reporting from behind the Iron Curtain.

Photo: Erik de Mauny (BBC)

In 1993, Burundi's civil war began. We hear the story of Marguerite Barankitse who helped thousands of children affected by the conflict and came to symbolise hope for peace. She is known as 'the Angel of Burundi'.

Photo: Marguerite Barankitse in Burundi / UNHCR

On 23 October 1983, hundreds were killed in co-ordinated suicide attacks on the headquarters of American and French troops stationed in Lebanon. The troops were part of a multi-national force deployed to help end the Lebanese civil war. Hear the story of Randy Gaddo, a US marine who witnessed the devastating attack on the US Marine barracks.

(Photo: Aftermath of attack on US Marine Barracks in Beirut, 23 October 1983. Credit: AP)

In 1991, one of East Berlin's most famous poets was revealed to have been an informer for the secret police. Sascha Anderson speaks to Witness about his double life.

Photo: A shelf in the files department of the Stasi-archives in Berlin. Credit: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images.

In October 1973 Sydney Opera House was officially opened by the Queen. The impressive building, with its distinctive white-shelled roof, took 20 years to complete. We hear from Jack Zunz, one of the lead engineers about the dramas, both human and structural.

(Photo: The Syndey Opera House. Credit: ALLSPORT/Getty Images)

On 19 October 1983, Grenada's popular left-wing prime minister, Maurice Bishop, was killed following an internal party coup. Six days later the US invaded the tiny Caribbean island. We hear from Ann Peters, who was with Maurice Bishop in his final hours.

Photo: Maurice Bishop in 1983 . BBC Pictures

In 1931, nine black teenagers were convicted of raping two white girls in the southern US state of Alabama.

Eight were sentenced to death by an all-white jury; but after years of campaigning, all eventually went free.

We hear from the daughter of Clarence Norris, one of the accused.

Picture: Police escort two recently freed "Scottsboro Boys" New York, 1937, Credit: Associated Press

In October 1989, the anti-apartheid leader, Walter Sisulu, was freed from prison after 26 years.

He had been jailed along with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island.

One of Sisulu's daughters, Beryl, recalls the day her father came home.

Photo: Walter Sisulu with his wife, Albertina, soon after his release from prison (AP)

In October 1984, Margaret Thatcher survived a bomb attack on the hotel where she was staying.

Five people were killed and more than 30 others injured in the explosion, which was carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

We hear from a government official in the hotel at the time.

Photo: The Grand Hotel in Brighton after the IRA bombing (John Minihan/Express/Getty Images)

Hundreds of Jewish slave labourers in a Nazi death camp staged a revolt and escaped in October 1943.

Many were caught and shot. Around 50 made it to the end of the war.

Listen to the story of Thomas Blatt, one of the survivors.

Photo: Sobibor Death Camp (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

On September 15 1963, four young black girls were killed in a racist bomb attack against a church in Birmingham, Alabama in the US. The Baptist church at 16th Street had been a centre for civil rights activities in the city.

Sarah Collins Rudolph was badly injured in the attack, and her sister, Addie Mae was one of those who died. Listen to her story.

Photo: BBC Copyright.

One of Africa's most famous radical leaders, Captain Thomas Sankara, was gunned down in a coup in Burkina Faso in October 1987. His overthrow was orchestrated by his old friend, Blaise Compaore. We hear from Thomas Sankara's brother, Paul.

Photo: Captain Thomas Sankara in Zimbabwe, Aug 1986. AFP/Getty Images

In 1925 a young black American dancer became an overnight sensation in Paris. Her overtly sexual act soon made her one of the most famous women in Europe. Her name was Josephine Baker - hear from her adopted son Jean-Claude Baker about her dancing, and her life.

(Photo: Josephine Baker in her heyday. Credit: Walery/Getty Images)

In October 1964 a group of students helped 57 people escape from communist East Germany despite the wall built to keep them in. Hear from Ralph Kabisch and Joachim Neumann who spent weeks digging what became known as Tunnel 57.

(Photo: A refugee is pulled out of Tunnel 57. Courtesy of Ralph Kabisch).

Birmingham in Alabama was one of the most segregated cities in the USA in 1963. In May that year thousands of black schoolchildren responded to a call from Martin Luther King to protest against segregation at the height of racial tensions. It became known as the Children's Crusade.

Gwendolyn Webb was 14 years old at the time and took part. Listen to her story.

(Photo: Firefighters turn their hoses on civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama. Credit: AP Photo/Bill Hudson)

In October 1943, at the height of the Second World War, most of the Jews in Denmark evaded Nazi plans to send them to death camps. They were warned about a planned roundup by a German diplomat. Hear the story of Bent Melchior who was 14 years old when his family made the journey to safety in neutral Sweden.

(Photo: Bent, aged 15 and living in Sweden)

The outspoken Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead outside her Moscow flat in October 2006. She had been a fierce critic of Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, and a campaigner for human rights. Her son, Ilya Politkovsky, was the first family member at the scene of the crime.

(Photo: Anna Politkovskaya. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

When Chief Albert Luthuli won the Nobel Peace Prize he was living under a banning order in rural South Africa. His daughter Albertina talks to Witness. Also listen to archive recordings of his acceptance speech.

He won the prize for advocating peaceful opposition to the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

Picture: Albert Luthuli receives the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960, Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive

Following her own struggles with drink and prescription drugs, former American First Lady Betty Ford opened a drug and alcohol treatment centre on 4 October 1982. The Betty Ford Center is now one of the most famous rehabilitation centres in the world. Lucy Burns spoke to Joseph Cruse, one of the doctors who helped her recover.

Photo: Betty Ford, courtesy of Gerald R Ford Memorial Library (public domain).

In October 1986, an Israeli nuclear technician, Mordechai Vanunu, revealed his country's secret nuclear weapons programme. Vanunu told his story to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. He was later kidnapped by Israeli agents, taken back to Israel and put on trial for espionage.

Photo: Mordechai Vanunu in detention, Israel, 1986 (AP)

In 1974 American Vogue put a black model on its cover for the first time. We hear how Beverly Johnson made it to the front of the world's most famous fashion magazine.

In 2001, Australia refused entry to more than 400 refugees aboard a Norwegian freight ship, the Tampa. The people on board were mainly Afghans fleeing the Taliban, who had set sail in a fishing boat from Indonesia. The refugees became the centre of an international row over who should give them shelter.

(Photo: The Indonesian fishing boat carrying more than 400 refugees comes alongside the Norwegian Cargo ship Tampa which took them aboard. Credit: AP)

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: Haile Selassie in Addis Ababa, 1966. Getty Images

In 1963, a small group of black activists in Bristol in the UK started a pioneering protest against racism by the local bus company, which had specified that they did not want to employ black drivers. Inspired by the example of Martin Luther King, the boycott ended in victory and led to the passage of Britain's first anti-discrimination laws.

Paul Stephenson talks about his part in the protest.

Mao declares the formation of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949. We hear from an American who helped to plan the revolution in the caves of Yan'an. Sidney Rittenberg remembers what the early days of communist rule were like in China.

On September 30th 1938, Neville Chamberlain returned from negotiations with Hitler promising "peace in our time". He had agreed for Hitler to take over the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia, as part of a policy known as appeasement.

It is 60 years since an American academic Alfred Kinsey published an in-depth study of women's sex lives. He and his researchers had interviewed thousands of women about their experiences. The results shocked America.

Hear from his daughter, who took part in the research.

Photo: Dr Alfred Kinsey (centre) with his team of researchers from Indiana University. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

In 1991, the Yugoslav army pounded the Croatian town for 87 days. The battle horrified the world and marked the start of the wars in former Yugoslavia. WItness hears from a Croat who defended Vukovar and from the former BBC war correspondent, Martin Bell.

In September 1984, the famous Spanish matador, Francisco Rivera, also known as Paquirri, was gored to death by a bull during a fight in the small town of Pozoblanco. The bravery he showed during his final moments turned Paquirri into a legend. Witness speaks to El Soro, a matador who shared the bill that fateful day, and to Muriel Finer, an American journalist married to a Spanish bullfighter.

Photo: A recent bullfight (Getty Images).

The first episode of Baywatch aired on 22 September 1989. It went on to be one of the world's biggest TV shows, broadcast in 44 languages in 148 countries. Executive producer Michael Berk remembers the birth of the programme.

(Photo: Baywatch promotional poster. Credit: Getty Images)

Re-education is still used as a form of punishment in Communist China. Hear from Robert Ford, a British man who spent five years being re-educated in the 1950s after being captured by Chinese soldiers in Tibet.

(Photo: Chinese soldiers enter Tibet in 1950. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The jazz legend Duke Ellington played a concert in the Afghan capital Kabul in September 1963 . Hear from Faiz Khairzada, the man who organised, not just his appearance, but a series of ambitious cultural events.

(Photo: Duke Ellington in 1964, Copyright BBC)

One week after the 9/11 attacks, a series of letters were sent to journalists and politicians. 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. Special Agent Scott Stanley was one of those on the case.

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

In September 1993, after weeks of secret negotiations, a peace agreement was signed between Israel and the Palestinians. Hear from Mona Juul, a Norwegian diplomat, who had a close up view of the talks.

Photo: Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat on September 13th, 1993. Reuters.

In 1955, the Argentine military seized power in a coup and stole the remains of the revered former first lady, Evita Peron. Over the next few decades, the body was stored in several different places in several different countries, inspiring wild stories about its supernatural powers. Linda Pressley travelled to Buenos Aires to investigate.

Her full documentary, Evita's Odyssey, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

In the early 1970s the Bengal Tiger was said to be on the brink of extinction. In 1973 the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, launched 'Project Tiger' a campaign to save the animal.

(PHOTO: A Bengal Tiger. Courtesy of Valmik Thapar)

On September 11th 1973, Gen Augusto Pinochet ousted the socialist government in Chile. Hundreds of people were tortured and killed in the coup, among them the folk-singer Victor Jara. Hear his British widow Joan's first-hand account of those historical events.

(Photo: Victor Jara. Credit: Associated Press)

In December 1983, a US airman was shot down while attacking Syrian forces in Lebanon. Lt Robert O. Goodman was captured and taken to Damascus as a prisoner. His release was negotiated by the black civil rights leader, Rev. Jesse Jackson.

(Photo: Lt Goodman shortly after his release in January 1984. Courtesy of Goodman family)

In September 1971 prisoners in a high security jail in the US rose up against their guards taking 42 people hostage. After 4 days of negotiations, armed police retook the jail. By the time the siege ended 39 people were dead.

Photo: Discussions inside the prison on 10th September 1971. Associated Press.

George Lloyd, a young English composer, wrote a march for the ship he served on in World War II. The HMS Trinidad was sent to protect convoys carrying supplies to Russia, but it came to a tragic end - and George Lloyd suffered a breakdown which stopped him composing. His march has been revived for the Last Night of the Proms at the Albert Hall in London.

Photo: George Lloyd (far right) playing with the HMS Trinidad band.

In World War II , Britain set up a secret organisation which waged war in Nazi occupied Europe. Noreen Riols, a former member of SOE, who helped train the agents, recounts her experiences in Churchill' s secret army.

(Photo: A group of SOE agents during training. BBC copyright)

In 1973 two decades of civil war in Laos ended. It also brought an end to the 'secret war' - the American-led fight against Vietnamese communists in Laos. But when the fighting stopped many of the country's Hmong people who had supported the Americans had to flee to escape persecution.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Yee Chang (front row, young boy in black on the left, photo taken the day before he and his family crossed the Mekong river)

In September 1888, one of the most infamous serial killers in history stalked the narrow streets of the East End of London. Jack the Ripper killed at least five prostitutes and was never caught by the police despite a massive manhunt. Using contemporary accounts, Simon Watts describes how the murderer cast a spell over late Victorian England.

ILLUSTRATION: Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

In September 1961, an attack by rebels in Eritrea marked the start of the country's thirty year war of independence from Ethiopia. We hear the story of one doctor who joined the liberation struggle. Photo: EPLF fighters on patrol in Eritrea, 1978.

In 1993 young women began disappearing in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Hundreds are thought to have been kidnapped and killed since then.

Witness hears from two people closely involved in the cases.

Photo: Jorge Uzon. AFP/Getty Images

In 1946 Aboriginal farm workers went on strike against virtual slavery in Australia. It was the first time they'd taken industrial action and it helped changed their status.

PHOTO: A photograph of Aboriginal strikers, all of whom are now deceased. Courtesy of David Noakes.

POEM: Clancy and Dooley and Don McLeod by Dorothy Hewett, 1946.

On August 28th 1963, the American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, made his historic plea for an end to racial discrimination in the USA. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he addressed hundreds of thousands of activists who had marched to Washington to demonstrate for black rights.

Listen to John Lewis, the youngest speaker on the podium that day.

Photo: Associated Press.

In 1962, Sherri Finkbine, a TV presenter from Arizona, unwittingly took the dangerous drug thalidomide while pregnant with her fifth child. She and her husband then launched a very public campaign for the right to have an abortion. Refused treatment in America, the Finkbines eventually had to travel to Sweden. Their case galvanised the campaign for abortion to be legalised in the United States.

In 1883, the Krakatoa volcano exploded, triggering a tsunami that caused devastation in Indonesia and beyond. Using archive recordings, Simon Watts tells the story of one of the world's biggest natural disasters. He also speaks to historian Simon Winchester. This programme was first broadcast in 2010.

PHOTO: Associated Press.

In 1992, President Fernando Collor of Brazil was forced from office by a huge wave of street protests against corruption. The demonstrations were led by students who painted their faces with slogans and the colours of the Brazilian flag. Witness speaks to one of the first members of a movement that became known as Caras pintadas, meaning the Painted Faces.

Picture: Students with painted faces protest, Credit: AFP/Getty Images

In August 1976 more than 200 people developed a mystery illness at a convention of veterans' association the American Legion in Philadelphia. 34 of them died.

We speak to the doctor who led the Centre for Disease Control's response to the outbreak.

Photo: Rachel Rogers.

On August 21 1983, the opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, was shot dead in the Philippines.

He was killed at Manila airport, minutes after returning from exile in the US.

We hear from his brother-in-law, who was with him that day.

Photo: Benigno Aquino on the plane home (courtesy of K. Kashiwahara)

A former student describes how he made a desperate appeal for the support of the outside world as invading Soviet tanks rumbled through the streets of the Czechoslovak capital in August 1968. This programme was first broadcast in 2010.

Picture: Soviet troops in Prague (Getty Images)