Witness History: Witness Archive 2016

In November 1994, the Russian conceptual artist Oleg Kulik posed in front of an art gallery in central Moscow, naked, pretending to be a guard dog and attacking passers by. It was his way of highlighting the fact since the collapse of the USSR three years earlier, Russians had lost their ability to relate to each other, and were reduced to living like animals. Dina Newman speaks to Kulik about his protest performance, which made him famous around the world.

Photo: Oleg Kulik impersonating a Mad Dog, 25th Nov 1994, Moscow. Credit: private archive

After the collapse of the USSR, Vogue Magazine launched in Russia in 1998. But it was a difficult beginning for the glossy fashion publication as the country was in the middle of an economic crisis at the time. Aliona Doletskaya was the first editor in chief, and she told Rebecca Kesby how she wanted to represent the best of Russian design as well as bring the West to Russians.

(Photo: Russian top model Natalia Vodianova holds up a T-shirt decorated with her portrait in front of a poster of her at the Vogue Fashion's Night Out in Moscow. Credit: Yuri Kochetkov/EPA)

One of the most potentially dangerous legacies of the collapse of the Soviet Union was its huge nuclear arsenal and nuclear weapons industry. There were particular concerns about the Soviets' former nuclear testing site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, a vast swathe of contaminated land where there were tunnels with spent plutonium. When the Soviet Union ended, the site was left open to scavengers. Louise Hidalgo has been hearing from the former head of America's nuclear weapons laboratory, Dr Siegfried Hecker, about the long secret operation by Russian and American scientists to make the site safe in what's been called the greatest nuclear non-proliferation story never told.

Photo: the first historic visit by American nuclear scientists to the secret Soviet city of Sarov where Moscow developed nuclear weapons, February 1992. First on the left is the great Russian physicist, Alexander Pavlovsky. Next, looking down, is Yuli Khariton, the father of the Soviet atomic bomb. Opposite, with a white turtle-neck jumper, is Dr Siegfreid Hecker, then director of Los Alamos Laboratory where America developed the world's first nuclear bomb (Credit: Dr Siegfreid Hecker)

After the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991, freedom came at a price for some of the newly independent Soviet states. Georgia found itself on the verge of civil war, while President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was forced into hiding and gunmen took to the streets. In 2010 Tom Esslemont spoke to a survivor of Georgia's crisis.

Photo: Former Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia (L) with bodyguards in the bunker underneath the parliament in Tbilisi during Georgia's brief civil war. (Photo IGOR ZAREMBO/AFP/Getty Images)

In December 1991 the leaders of three Soviet Republics - Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia - signed a treaty dissolving the USSR. They did it without asking the other republics, and against the wishes of the USSR's overall President Mikhail Gorbachev. By the end of the year Gorbachev had resigned and the Soviet Union was no more. Dina Newman has spoken to the former President of Belorussia, Stanislav Shushkevich, and the former President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, who signed that historic document alongside Boris Yeltsin.

Photo: the leader of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, the leader of Belorussia, Stanislav Shushkevich and the leader of Russia, Boris Yeltsin at the signing ceremony. Credit: AP

The biggest audience in TV history watch NASA's Apollo 8 mission beam back the first pictures from an orbit around the moon at Christmas 1968. The broadcast captured the world's imagination and put the Americans ahead of the Soviet Union in the Cold War battle to put the first men on the moon.

Simon Watts talks to Apollo 8 commander, Frank Borman.

Picture: The Earth as seen from the Moon, photographed by the Apollo 8 crew (NASA)

On December 22nd 1989, the great Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett died. Beckett, whose play Waiting for Godot had revolutionised post-war theatre, was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to fellow playwright and film director Israel Horovitz who was Samuel Beckett's friend.

Photograph: Writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) (Credit: Reg Lancaster/Getty Images)

A Turkish cargo ship ran aground on a tiny rocky island in the Aegean Sea in December 1995. But a dispute between Turkey and Greece over who owned the island sovereignty almost brought the two nations to war. Agreement still hasn't been reached over the territory called Kardak by the Turks and Imia by the Greeks. Cagil Kasapoglu spoke to the former Turkish diplomat Onur Oymen and the former Greek foreign minister, Theodoros Pangalos, about the crisis.

Photo: Turkish journalists prepare a Turkish flag to replace the Greek flag on Kardak/Imia island, January 27, 1996 (AP Photo/Hurriyet)

The experimental film-maker made his first full-length film in 1976, it was called Sebastiane - and it was in Latin. It was the first openly gay feature film in British cinema. Vincent Dowd has been speaking to Keith Collins who lived with him during his final years, and cared for him when he was dying of AIDS.

Photo: Derek Jarman in 1991. Credit: BBC

Giuseppe Pinelli was an Italian anarchist arrested by police in Milan. A few days later he was seen falling out of the police station window. It is still not clear exactly what happened to Pinelli. Right-wing activists were later convicted of carrying out the bombing for which he'd been arrested. His story was turned into a popular play by the Italian dramatist Dario Fo. Anna O'Neill has been speaking to Silvia and Claudia Pinelli about their father, and their continued search for the truth.

Photo:Giuseppe 'Pino' Pinelli, with his wife Licia and his daughters Silvia and Claudia. Credit: The Pinelli Family.

Vida Alves starred in Latin America's first soap opera, or telenovela. 'Sua Vida Me Pertence' was broadcast in Brazil in December 1951. It kick-started a TV genre that has spread across the globe and is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Vida speaks to Mike Lanchin about her memories of making TV history.

Photo: Vida Alves and Walter Forster in a scene from 'Sua Vida Me Pertence', Brazil 1951 (Museu Pró-TV)

In December 1991 a British government campaign was launched to help prevent the sudden unexpected deaths of apparently healthy babies. The incidences of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), at the time often referred to as 'cot death', had been increasing across the western world for decades. Claire Bowes has been speaking to Professor Peter Fleming, the doctor who found out why.

Photo: BBC - A father cradles the feet of his 5 day old baby girl.

In September 1995, millions of Hindus around the world were gripped by reports of their God, Ganesha, 'drinking' milk. Rachael Gillman hears from Hindu priest Radha Krishna Bharadwaj about first seeing the apparent 'miracle' at the Shree Durga Vishno temple in New Delhi.

Photo Credit: MUFTY MUNIR/AFP/Getty Images

During World War Two, a young Jewish woman, Sara Ginaite, escaped from the Kaunas Ghetto in Lithuania to fight the Nazis, With her husband Misha, she joined a detachment of communist-led partisans in the Rudnicki forest . They took part in the liberation of Vilnius, where she was famously photographed by a Soviet officer. Now in her 90s, Sara speaks to Witness. Photo: Sara Ginaite, a Jewish Lithuanian partisan , during the liberation of Vilnius, 1944. (USHMM)

In the 1970s, Maria Dolores Gonzalez Katarain, known as Yoyes, became the first woman to reach the leadership of the Basque separatist group, ETA, who were fighting a violent campaign for independence from Spain. Yoyes eventually decided to leave and start a new life, but she was considered a traitor. In September 1986, ETA killed her in a crime that shocked even its own supporters. Simon Watts speaks to Yoyes' friend, Elixabete Garmendia.

In the 1990s Sizani Ngubane began the Rural Women's Movement to fight for the rights of one of the most marginal groups in South Africa. It's estimated that across the whole of Africa between 70 and 85 per cent of all food is grown by women, but less than 2 per cent of the land is owned or even controlled by women. Helping women with farming tips and business ideas and supporting women evicted from their land, Sizani's movement has grown over the years, and now has more than 50,000 members nationwide. "I'm a trouble-maker" is how she describes herself to Rebecca Kesby.

Photo:Sizani Ngubane

In 2005 British scientist Elizabeth Fisher and a colleague successfully transplanted a human chromosome into a mouse for the first time. It transformed medical research into the genetic condition Down Syndrome that affects millions of people worldwide. Professor Fisher tells Louise Hidalgo about the challenges researchers faced and their thirteen-year struggle to create the first Down Syndrome mouse.

Photo: Science Photo Library

In 2004, Kenyan Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was an environmentalist and human rights activist who founded the Green Belt Movement in the 1970s. She focused on the planting of trees, conservation, and women's rights but repeatedly clashed with the government while trying to protect Kenya's forest and parks. She was arrested and beaten on several occasions. Witness speaks to her daughter, Wanjira Mathai. Photo: Kenya's Wangari Maathai (L) challenging hired security people working for developers in the Karura Forest, in the Kenyan Capital Nairobi (SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images)

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.