Witness History: Archive 2014

In December 1999 a young Dutch man, Bart Spring in't Veld, won the first ever Big Brother reality TV show. It was to be the start of a global television phenomenon.

But for 22-year-old Bart the victory proved to be a mixed blessing.

Photo: Big Brother winner Bart Spring in't Veld, Credit: Endemol

In 2004, some of the most high-profile people in Portugual went on trial on charges of sexuallly abusing boys from a children's home called Casa Pia. Six defendants were eventually found guilty, including a famous televison presenter. Simon Watts talks to Pedro Namora, a lawyer who campaigned for the Casa Pia victims.

Photo: Getty Images.

Fought during the winter months of 1944, it was the last major German attack on the Western Allies in World War II. Witness speaks to Keith Davis, an American survivor of the Battle of the Bulge.

Photo: American tanks in Belgium in January 1945. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

In 1964 a 'pirate' radio station began broadcasting from a ship off the coast of England, in defiance of British law. Keith Skues was one of the first DJs on Radio Caroline. He tells Witness about the difficulties, and the fun, they had on board.

Photo: Radio Caroline's ship Mi Amigo at anchor off East Anglia, Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images

On Christmas Eve 1914 the guns fell quiet over the trenches of World War One. Soldiers from British and German regiments exchanged gifts and sang carols. Hear first hand accounts from the BBC archives.

Photo: German and British troops in Belgium in December 1914. Credit: AP/Imperial War Museum

Julia Butterfly Hill lived in an ancient redwood tree in northern California for 738 days to protect it. Her bed was a tiny platform. She speaks to Witness about the challenges and the beauty she experienced during her remarkable solo protest.

(Photo: Julia Butterfly Hill in the ancient redwood tree she called Luna. Credit: AP)

In 2006 the Nepalese government and Maoists signed a peace accord ending 10 years of civil war. Witness has been speaking to the UN envoy to Nepal at the time and to one of the Maoists' lead negotiators.

(Photo: Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koiral (L) and Maoist Chairman Prachanda shake hands after they exchanged documents following the signing of a landmark peace agreement, in Kathmandu 21 November 2006. Credit: Devendra M Singh/Getty Images)

In December 1944, American bandleader Glenn Miller went missing over the English Channel. Witness speaks to trombonist Nat Peck, who played in Miller's band.

Photo: Nat Peck (left) with other members of the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band

It was in January 1961 that the USA first broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Wayne Smith was one of the last diplomats to leave the US embassy in Havana.

(Photo: An advert on the Miami waterfront after Fidel Castro came to power. Credit: Graf/Getty Images)

In December 1961, Goa became the last part of India to break free of colonial rule. The rest of India had become independent in 1947 when the British had left - but Goa had been a Portuguese colony, and Portugal did not want to give it up.

Witness speaks to Libia Lobo Sardesai, who worked on the radio station Voice of Freedom, campaigning for Goan independence.

Protests which led to the collapse of communism in Romania, and the death of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, began on 16 December 1989. Followers of an opposition Hungarian priest, Laszlo Tokes, had gathered to support him in the town of Timisoara - but their protest prompted a violent response from the Romanian military. Zsolt Szilagy was there when the shooting started.

(Photo: An old man greets a soldier after the uprising in Timisoara. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

The premiere of one of the most successful films ever made, was held in Atlanta on 15 December, 1939. A sprawling romantic epic it was set during the American Civil War. Years later some of the cast and crew spoke to veteran Hollywood reporter Barbra Paskin.

(Photo: Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, the stars of Gone With the Wind. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Aids patient Jeff Getty was given a bone marrow transplant, from a baboon, in December 1995. It was the first time a human being had been given baboon cells. Witness speaks to Dr Steven Deeks, the doctor who oversaw the transplant.

Photo: Jeff Getty is surrounded by the press and well wishers following his release from San Francisco General Hospital after the baboon bone marrow transplant, Credit: AFP/Getty Images

On 11 December 1997, delegates from 160 countries worked through the night in Kyoto, Japan, to agree the first international treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Some countries present did not ratify it, notably the United States. But it was the first agreement of its kind. We talk to two people who helped make it possible - a young UN intern, Joanna Depledge, and her boss, the chair of the negotiations, Raul Estrada-Oyuela.

(Photo: Delegates at the opening session of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. Credit: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images)

Drummer Jimmy Cobb recalls playing with Miles Davis on the album that changed jazz for ever. Kind of Blue was recorded in just two sessions by Davis' sextet at the 30th St Studios in New York City in 1959.

Photo: Miles Davis. Credit: Don Hunstein/AP Photo/Sony/Legacy)

In 1995, a frantic search was under way for a crucial 'cancer gene' called BRCA2. Scientists knew it was linked to hereditary cases of breast cancer. Professor Sir Mike Stratton was one of those racing to identify the gene. Annmarie Blomfield was one of the first women to be tested for it.

(Photo: A Scientist looks through a microscope: Credit: Science Photo Library)

In 1661, following the restoration of the monarchy, the body of Oliver Cromwell was dug up for ritual execution. Cromwell had overthrown King Charles I and ruled Britain during its only period as a republic. We hear from civil war historian Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer.

(Photo: The death mask of Oliver Cromwell, 1599 - 1658. Credit: Getty Images/Hulton Archive)

During the Lebanese civil war the hotel district in Beirut was turned into a battlefield. Hear from two hotel workers who worked at the luxury Holiday Inn, and who lived through what came to be known as The Battle of the Hotels.

Photo: The ruins of the Holiday Inn. Credit: Getty Images

The American journalist Terry Anderson was freed after nearly seven years in captivity on 4 December, 1991. He had been kidnapped by Shia militants in Lebanon during the country's civil war. Terry talks about his time in captivity.

(Photo: Terry Anderson and daughter Sulome, Credit: AP)

In December 1919, the first woman took her seat in the British parliament. Her name was Lady Nancy Astor and she had been born in America. Witness History listens back through the BBC archives, and talks to her grandson David Astor about his memories of her.

(Photo:American-born Nancy Witcher Langhorne, or Viscountess Astor, at the declaration of the poll in Plymouth which made her Britain's first woman member of parliament. Credit: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

California students staged a sit-in which became the model for student activism across the USA in the 1960s. It all started over who could, or could not, use a small strip of land outside Berkeley's front gates. Lynne Hollander Savio, who took part in the sit-in, remembers the mood of the time.

(Photo: The leader of the Free Speech Movement, Mario Savio. Credit: AP)

Throughout much of 1967 striking workers and students filled the streets of the colony. They were inspired by the Cultural Revolution in China and wanted an end to British rule. Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, now the president of Hong Kong's Legislative Council, was then an idealistic young student. Hear his story.

(Photo: Left wing workers put up Anti British posters in Hong Kong outside Government House. Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

In November 1993, one of Bosnia's most famous landmarks, the old Ottoman bridge in Mostar, was destroyed by Croat guns in the Bosnian war. Built by the Ottomans in the 16th Century, the bridge was a symbol of Bosnia's multicultural past. We talk to Eldin Palata, who filmed the destruction of the bridge; and to local journalist Mirsad Behram about what the bridge meant to the people of Mostar.

Photograph: the gap where Mostar's historic bridge had stood, November 1993. Credit: AP

For decades, Australia's countryside was ravaged by billions of rabbits. So in the 1950s, the government released the disease myxomatosis to kill off the rabbit plague. We hear from farmer, Bill McDonald, who remembers Australia's battle against the bunnies.

(Photo: Rabbits around a waterhole at the myxomatosis trial enclosure on Wardang Island in 1938. Credit: National Archives of Australia)

In November 1974, West German band Kraftwerk released their seminal album Autobahn. They would go on to become one of the world's most influential bands. Witness listens to BBC archive interviews with Kraftwerk frontman Ralf Hütter and former drummer Wolfgang Flür, along with Kraftwerk biographer David Buckley.

(Photo: Kraftwerk perform Autobahn during the Kraftwerk Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2012. Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

On 25 November 1970 the acclaimed Japanese author and film-maker Yukio Mishima killed himself in a very public way. Listen to his friend and biographer Harry Scott Stokes remembering the man and his beliefs.

(Photo: Yukio Mishima with some of his young followers. Credit: AFP)

In 1935 a new school opened in India. The Doon School went on to produce some of the country's leading figures including former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and author Vikram Seth. We hear from one of the first pupils, award-winning journalist George Verghese.

The flamboyant and eccentric gay writer and raconteur died on 21 November, 1999. He was on a visit to England from his home in New York - a city that he loved. Hear from his biographer Tim Fountain, about the man who became a celebrity after his memoir The Naked Civil Servant became a bestseller.

Photo:Quentin Crisp in 1980. Copyright: BBC.

In November 1945 the first major war crimes trials in history opened in the German city of Nuremberg. Witness talks to the only surviving American prosecutor at the trials, Benjamin Ferencz, who helped unearth evidence of mass murder by the Nazi mobile death squads and prosecuted them.

(Photo: Chief prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz presents evidence during the Einsatzgruppen (death squads) trial. Ferencz is flanked by German lawyers for two of the defendants. Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Benjamin Ferencz)

In November 2006 Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death in a Baghdad courtroom. The trial of the deposed President by the Iraqi Interim Government followed the American led invasion of Iraq. Witness has been speaking to Ramsey Clark, one of Saddam Hussein's defence team.

(Photo: Ramsey Clark (L) and Saddam Hussein (R) courtesy of Ramsey Clark)

In November 1994, a French magazine revealed that President Mitterrand had a secret daughter, with his mistress of more than 30 years. Witness speaks to Sebastien Valiela, the paparazzo who broke the story.

(Photo: Mazarine Pingeot with her father Francois Mitterrand, as published in Paris Match November 1994. Credit: Sebastien Valiela)

In November 1989 government soldiers shot dead six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter. The shocking killings became a turning point in the Salvadorean civil war. We hear from Lucia Cerna, who was forced to flee the country because of what she witnessed that night.

(Photo: Mourners gather for the funeral of the Salvadorean Jesuits. Credit: AP/Luis Romero)

Manfred Marx was the man who discovered the diamonds which transformed Botswana's economy. As a young geologist in the 1960s his find in the Kalahari desert completely changed the country's fortunes after independence.

Photo: Diamonds, Credit: Getty Images

The left-wing Sri Lankan rebel died in government custody on 13 November 1989. He was the leader of an armed Marxist uprising which led to tens of thousands of deaths. His former friend and lawyer, Prins Gunasekara remembers.

(Photo: Rohana Wijeweera speaking, courtesy of the JVP party)

This act by the white minority government in 1965, led to a decade of war with black nationalists. Ian Findlay, a District Commissioner at the time, explains why Rhodesia tried to hold back the 'winds of change' sweeping across Africa.

(Photo: Armed Rhodesian police on the streets of Bulawayo, Nov 1965. Credit: Terry Fincher/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)

In the early 1990s, Saddam Hussein ordered the draining of southern Iraq's great marshes. It was one of the biggest environmental disasters of the twentieth century, and with it an ancient way of life - dating back thousands of years - was almost wiped out. Witness talks to Iraqi environmentalist Azzam Alwash, who is trying to restore the marshes, and to journalist Shyam Bhatia, who saw them being destroyed.

Photograph: An Iraqi Marsh Arab looks out across a barren stretch of the marshes of southern Iraq. Credit: Essam al-Sudani/AFP/Getty Images)

A Soviet spy ring was uncovered in London in 1961. Two of the spies, a married couple, were sending radio messages to Moscow from a transmitter in their bungalow. But British secret service agents were watching them from the bedroom of a teenage girl called Gay Search. Hear her story.

(Photo: The house where the spies lived in Ruislip, London)

It had been one of the enduring icons of the Cold War. It had divided East Berlin from West Berlin; and socialism from capitalism. But on 9 November, 1989, after weeks of anti-Communist protests across East Germany, that all changed. Hear from two East Germans - Aram Radomski and Siegbert Schefke - who were among the first to cross from East to West Berlin.

Photo: copyright Siegbert Schefke

Lord Lucan disappeared in 1974 after his nanny was murdered, and his wife brutally beaten. The son of the nanny, Neil Berriman tells the story of one of Britain's most well-known unsolved crimes.

(Photo : Lord Lucan on his wedding day. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In November 1971 a young American conceptual artist decided to get a friend to take a shot at him. His name was Chris Burden and the shooting would go down in the history of performance art. He has been speaking to Witness about the ideas behind the event. This programme was first broadcast in 2012.

In November 1899, Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud published a book called The Interpretation of Dreams. It was the beginning of a new science he called psychoanalysis, which would revolutionise our understanding of human psychology. Witness hears from Sigmund Freud himself in the only known recording of his voice - from a BBC interview in 1938.

(Photo: Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud c.1920. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In 1960 a young Englishwoman made a discovery that changed our understanding of animal behaviour. Jane Goodall was living among wild chimps in Tanzania when she observed them using sticks and grasses as tools to get food.

(Photo: Jane Goodall with chimpanzeess. Credit: AFP)

As the UK ends combat operations in Afghanistan, hear from a translator who worked alongside British troops in the country, and who was eventually forced into exile because of hostility towards the coalition forces.

Photo: British troops on patrol in Helmand Province. Credit: Press Association

In October 1973 Arab nations slashed oil production in protest at American support for Israel during it's war against Egypt and Syria. Oil prices sky-rocketed. We hear from former deputy secretary general of OPEC, Dr Fadhil Chalabi, about the struggle for control of oil in the early 1970s.

(Photo: An American car displays a 'No Gas' sign during the 1973-74 oil crisis)

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot by her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October, 1984. 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.

This programme was first broadcast in 2013.

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 October 1964 thieves carried out an audacious jewel robbery. They stole some of the world's most famous gems from the American Museum of Natural History. Witness hears from Jack Murphy, one of the gang members.

In October 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. The war lasted three weeks and both sides would claim victory. But it was a war that would eventually lead to the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab state. US diplomat Hal Saunders talks about his memories of the war and the peace process.

Photo: Israeli troops cross the Suez canal during the October war, Credit: AFP/Getty Images

In October 1975 the prominent Brazilian journalist Vladimir Herzog was killed by the secret police. His murder became a symbol of the brutality of the military regime. Witness speaks to his son, Ivo, who was just nine years old at the time.

Photo: Vladimir Herzog with Ivo as a baby (courtesy of the Herzog family).

In 1999, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of Turkey's Kurdish rebel group, the PKK, was arrested. He has been in jail ever since. We hear why the relationship between the Turkish state and the Kurds is so fraught, from the Kurdish political activist Adem Uzun.

(Photo: Turkish Kurds hold posters of Abdullah Ocalan. Credit: AP)

In 1984 Ethiopia suffered one of its worst ever famines. A BBC news report from the area shocked the world - and led to a huge global fundraising campaign. Witness speaks to Dawit Giorgis, who was in charge of Ethiopia's internal relief effort.

(Photo: BBC reporter Michael Buerk cradles a starving child in Ethiopia)

In October 1986, during military rule in Nigeria, the campaigning Nigerian journalist and editor, Dele Giwa, was assassinated in Lagos. He was the founder of the investigative magazine Newswatch. We hear from his friend and colleague, Kayode Soyinka, who was with him when he died.

In 1996 the play 'The Vagina Monologues' was performed for the first time. It has now played to audiences in 140 countries worldwide. We speak to playwright Eve Ensler.

Photo: Eve Ensler performing The Vagina Monologues (credit: Joan Marcus).

In 1889 a strike by London dock workers politicised the workforce in Britain and eventually led to the formation of one of the country's main political parties.

(Photo: British trade unionist John Burns addressing a group of London dockers on 7 September 1889. Credit: Rischgitz/Getty Images)

In October 1989, a series of huge demonstrations in East Germany's second city Leipzig shook the communist government to its foundations. It was the beginning of a process which would end in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Martin Jankowski was one of the protesters.

(Photo: Martin Jankowski, photographed by Andreas Schanze, 1990)

On 14 October 1964 Moscow announced that the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was standing down. His retirement was unprecedented and although it was the result of a Kremlin coup, Khrushchev was allowed to live out the rest of his days in Moscow. His great-grandaughter, Nina Khrushcheva, tells us about her memories of the Cold War leader.

(Photo: Nikita Khrushchev with his his grandaughter, Julia, and great-grandaughter, Nina Khrushcheva (left), at Khrushchev's retirement dacha in 1971. Credit: Khrushchev family archive)

In October 1957 John Lennon and Paul McCartney performed together for the first time in The Quarrymen, which went on to become The Beatles. Rod Davis played banjo in The Quarrymen, and tells us about the origins of the most famous group in the world.

(Photo: The Quarrymen on the back of a lorry as part of a procession round Woolton Village in Liverpool, 6 July 1957. Rod Davis is far right, John Lennon is third from right. Credit: Rod Davis)

In the early 1980s talks began between Britain and China over the future of Hong Kong. The negotiations resulted in a promise of 'One country, two systems' when the territory changed hands in 1997. Hear from one of the British diplomats involved, Sir Anthony Galsworthy.

Photo: Margaret Thatcher and the Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang exchanging copies of the Hong Kong Handover agreement in 1984. Credit Associated Press.

In 1985, 89 leading scientists from around the world met in Villach, Austria, in what is seen as a turning point in the history of climate change. Their call for urgent action led to the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and put pressure on world leaders for a global treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

(Photo: smoke from industrial chimneys billows over St Petersburg. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

In October 1967 the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was captured and killed in Bolivia. Witness speaks to Felix Rodriguez, the CIA operative who helped track him down, and was one of the last people to speak to him.

(Photo: Felix Rodriguez (left) with the captured Che Guevara, shortly before his execution on 9 October 1967. Courtesy of Felix Rodriguez)

In 1899, white Afrikaner settlers went to war against the British empire in South Africa. Tens of thousands died during the three year conflict, mostly from disease. Using BBC archive recordings, we tell the story of the Boer War.

(Photo: British soldiers crossing a river during the Boer War - circa 1900. Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images)

In October 1942 Norwegian commandos began a series of raids on a heavy water plant in German-occupied Norway. They had to destroy it in order to stop the Nazis from developing an atomic weapon. Joachim Ronneberg is the last surviving member of the Norwegian team.

(Photo: The hydro-electric power station where the heavy water plant was situated. Credit: Hulton Archives/Getty Images)

In 1985 a benefit concert was held for farmers living in the world's richest country, the USA. The money went toward preventing suicides and helping farmers keep their land. Witness speaks to the main organiser, the Country music legend Willie Nelson.

(Photo: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings by Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve, Inc)

On 1 October 1964, the fastest train the world had ever seen was launched in Japan. The first Shinkansen, or bullet train, ran between Tokyo and Osaka, and had a top speed of 210km per hour. Witness speaks to Isao Makibayashi, one of the train's first drivers.

(Photo: Shinkansen, or bullet train. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In 1989, Denmark became the first country to celebrate same-sex civil unions. Witness has been speaking to Ivan Larsen and Ove Carlsen, who were one of the first couples to sign on the dotted line.

On 30 September 1955 the Hollywood actor, James Dean, crashed his car and died. Listen to three people who remember his death well - Otie Hunter, the policeman who booked him for speeding earlier that day, Carroll Baker who acted alongside him in his final film, and his cousin Marcus Winslow.

(Photo: James Dean. Credit: Associated Press)

In September 1996 the Taliban took over the Afghan capital Kabul. One of their first acts was to kill the country's former communist president Dr Najibullah. Witness has spoken to two people who were in Kabul that day.

(Photo: A Taliban gunner on the frontline, 30 kms from Kabul. Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

In 2002 the 'Joola' ferry sank off Senegal with the loss of more than 1800 lives. It was Africa's worst maritime disaster. We hear from Jean Diedhiou, one of the few survivors, and his desperate struggle to survive.

Photo of the upturned ferry before it completely sank, AFP/Gettyimages

In September 1998 five Cuban spies were arrested in Miami by the FBI. After a controversial trial, they were given lengthy jail sentences. Three of them are still in American prisons. Witness speaks to one of the Cubans, Rene Gonzalez, who was released in 2011.

(Photo: Portraits of the Cuban Five. Credit: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images)

In September 1994 a new show called Friends hit American TV screens. It was based on the lives of six 20-something New Yorkers and became one of the most successful comedies of all time, syndicated around the world. Witness has been speaking to one of the shows creators, Kevin Bright.

On 23 September 1998, a New Zealander called Clint Hallam became the recipient of the world's first hand transplant. But two years later, after a poor physical and psychological reaction to the transplant, Hallam asked for it to be removed, claiming that it felt "like a dead man's hand". Witness speaks to Nadey Hakim, who was part of the transplant team - and who later amputated the hand.

(Photo: Clint Hallam. Credit: Press Association)

On 20 September 1979 the Central African dictator Jean Bedel-Bokassa was driven from power by French troops. He had styled himself as an 'Emperor' but his brutality and excess became legendary and he had to flee into exile. Goodwin Cooke was the US ambassador in Central Africa during his reign.

(Photo: Jean Bedel-Bokassa with his throne. Credit: Getty Images)

In September 1970 the Jordanian military took up arms against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and its fighters.

South Africa sent 600 soldiers into Lesotho to quell political unrest in September 1998. We hear what happened next from opposition politician Mamello Morrison.

Photo: South African soldiers in the capital Maseru. Associated Press.

In 1985, an earthquake devastated the centre of Mexico City, killing at least 10,000. With the emergency services struggling to cope, a small group of Mexicans began to dig out survivors themselves. Nicknamed Los Topos, or 'The Moles', they are now an elite rescue group who travel the world freeing people trapped in rubble. Witness talks to Eduardo Acevedo, one of the first members of Los Topos.

(Photo: Eduardo Acevedo, left, on a mission with Los Topos. Credit: Associated Press).

It is 60 years since William Golding's acclaimed novel was first published. The story, of schoolboys marooned on an island, tackles questions of human nature and whether people are intrinsically good, or evil.

(Photo: William Golding. Credit: BBC)

In September 1993 the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, made history by shaking hands on the White House lawn. But it was a moment that almost didn't happen. Witness talks to White House insider, John Podesta, who was there.

(Photo: Left to right, Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton and the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat. Credit: J. David Ake/AFP/Getty Images)

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: AP Photo/Chao Soi Cheong

In 1968, the Scottish folk group, the Corries, performed a song that became Scotland’s unofficial anthem decades later. We speak to Corries member, Ronnie Browne.

(Photo: A Scottish flag. Credit: PA)

In 1990, 184 Tamils were killed by the Sri Lankan army at Batticaloa in the east of the island during the civil war between the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority. Farhana Haider has been speaking to the Bishop of Batticaloa, Kingsley Swampillai.

(Photo: AP )

It is 30 years since a British scientist found out how to identify individuals by their DNA. Professor Alec Jeffreys of Leicester University remembers the eureka moment that changed police investigations forever..

Photo Credit: Leicester University.

The Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong died on 9 September 1976. Among those jockeying for power after his death, was his widow Jiang Qing. American, Sidney Rittenberg, remembers her rise and fall.

(Photo: Jiang Qing (right) alongside Mao Zedong in 1967. Credit AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistan declared that members of the Ahmadiyya sect were not Muslims in September 1974. Thousands of Ahmadis were forced from their homes, many were killed in communal violence. Witness speaks to Abdul Bary Malik and Mohammed Ashraf - two Ahmadi men who lived through that time.

Image: Photos of Pakistani Ahmadis murdered in communal violence (Getty Images)

In September 1987 the authorities in Myanmar suddenly announced that most of the banknotes in circulation in the country were invalid.

The decision, made without warning, had been ordered more or less on a whim by Myanmar's leader General Ne Win. He was a superstitious man and withdrew all 25, 35, and 75 kyat notes because they were not divisible by nine.

Farhana Haider reports on the chaos that ensued.

(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Kitty Hart-Moxon and her mother were sent to the Nazis' most notorious death camp in April 1943. More than a million people died in Auschwitz. Kitty tells Witness how she and others survived.

Photo: Family at the raiway terminal of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, probably taken May-June 1944 (AFP/Getty Images)

In September 1958 the first Russian-language edition of Boris Pasternak's famous novel Dr Zhivago was published - not in the Soviet Union, but in Europe. Pasternak had entrusted his novel to a handful of foreigners, after it became clear the Soviet authorities would refuse to publish it. We talk to the Italian journalist Sergio d'Angelo who first smuggled out the manuscript of Pasternak's last masterpiece and tells us how the Soviet authorities tried to get it back.

Photo: Boris Pasternak, the Russian poet and novelist, in 1946, Credit: Keystone/Getty Images

In September 1964, a ground-breaking new boutique called Biba opened in Swinging London. Witness speaks to Biba creator Barbara Hulanicki.

Picture: 30 September, 1966 - two sets of identical twins who work as shop assistants at Biba's boutique in Kensington, west London (left to right Rosy Young, Nicole Hellier, Michelle Hellier and Susy Young.) Photo by Caroline Gillies/BIPs/Getty Images.

At the start of World War One, British and German colonial forces went into battle in East Africa. Tens of thousands of African troops and up to a million porters were conscripted to fight and keep the armies supplied. We hear very rare recordings of Kenyan veterans of the King's African Rifles, talking about their experiences of the war. The interviews were made in Kenya in the early 1980s by Gerald Rilling with the help of Paul Kiamba. Photo: Locally recruited troops under German command in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (then part of German East Africa), circa 1914. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In the summer of 1978 a British woman, Janet Parker, became the last known victim of the deadly virus smallpox. Witness speaks to Professor Alasdair Geddes, who diagnosed Mrs Parker.

(Image: Science Photo Library)

In the summer of 1964 writer Ken Kesey and his Merry Band of Pranksters set off on a psychedelic journey - experimenting with LSD while driving across America in a converted school bus. Immortalised in the book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, their trip would become one of the defining moments of American counterculture. Witness has been speaking to surviving Prankster Ken Babbs.

Picture: Ken Kesey on April 24, 1997 in Springfield, Oregon, with his bus, 'Further' (AP Photo/Jeff Barnard, File)

In 1954 the president of Brazil, Getulio Vargas, chose to die rather than submit to the military. His sudden death resulted in a wide expression of public grief. His legacy was a letter to the Brazilian people that has passed into history.

Photo: Getulio Vargas, 1930 (Getty Images)

In August 1944, a US Air Force plane crashed into a village, Freckleton, in northwest England, killing 61 people. More than half the victims were children attending the local primary school. Survivor Ruby Currell speaks to Witness.

PHOTO: Ruby Currell in the nurse's uniform she was given after recovering in hospital. (Private Collection).

As an agreement between the Kurds and Saddam Hussein in 1970 disintegrates into war, Iran and America support the Kurds with weapons and money. But in 1975 the Shah tells the Kurds they're abandoning them; he's a made a deal with Saddam instead. Witness talks to a Kurdish politician who was at that acrimonious meeting.

Picture: the veteran Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani and Saddam Hussein celebrating the 1970 agreement, which quickly collapsed into war. (Credit:Central Press/Getty Images)

British India was divided into two new independent countries - India and Pakistan - in August 1947. But millions of people found themselves on the wrong side of the new borders. Witness speaks to the veteran Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar about Partition.

Picture: Kuldip Nayar (right) during a vigil at the border between India and Pakistan on 14 August, 2011. NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images

In August 1944, French and US forces freed Paris from German occupation. The liberators were met by crowds of celebrating Parisians. Listen to reports of some of the war correspondents who arrived first in the liberated city.

Photo: A Parisian offering a glass of wine to a French soldier, August 1944 (STF/AFP/Getty Images)

Dambudzo Marechera was a celebrated Zimbabwean writer and enfant terrible, as famous for his explosive behaviour as for his powerful prose. Born in a Rhodesian township, he went on to win the Guardian First Book award for his short story House of Hunger - but on 18 August 1987, he died of an AIDS-related illness after living rough on the streets of Harare.

Witness speaks to his publisher, James Currey.

Photo: Dambudzo Marechera in Zimbabwe, Harare, February 1986. Copyright Ernst Schade

In August 1994, the terrorist, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez known as 'Carlos the Jackal' was arrested in Khartoum after decades on the run. We speak to a former CIA operative, Billy Waugh, who tracked him down.

Photo: Rare photo of Carlos the Jackal, taken in the 1970s (AFP/Getty Images)

In August 1964 Stuart Christie, an 18-year-old Scottish anarchist, smuggled explosives into Spain in a plot to kill General Franco. Now in his 60s, Christie recalls his clandestine journey across Europe, the secret signals and passwords he used, and his eventual arrest by Franco's secret police.

Photo: Stuart Christie, photographed by Spanish police shortly after his arrest

In August 1939, one of the most popular musicals of all time had its premiere in Hollywood. Featuring the young Judy Garland, the Wizard of Oz brought to life a well-known American fairytale. It made Garland a star for the rest of her troubled life. Witness brings together BBC archive recordings of members of the film's cast and crew.

Picture: Judy Garland, Credit: Associated Press/Warner Bros.

In August 1964 The Supremes began an unprecedented run of success in the US music charts with five hits, challenging the British dominance of the music scene. Mary Wilson, one of the original group members, speaks to Witness.

Photo: Diana Ross and The Supremes, 1968 - left to right, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Cindy Birdsong. (Keystone/Getty Images)