Witness History: Archive 2014

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)