Witness History

In the late 1960s, the widow of President Kennedy had a secret romance with Aristotle Onassis, who was then the richest man in the world. Simon Watts spoke to Nico Mastorakis, a Greek journalist who visited Onassis’s yacht in disguise to confirm the relationship and secure a sensational scoop. Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis would go on to marry in October 1968 in a spectacular ceremony on the private island of Skorpios.PHOTO:Jackie Kennedy with Aristotle Onassis in 1968. Credit: David Cairns/Getty Images.

In 1969 a satirical book, The Peter Principle, suggested that promotion led to incompetence. Written by a Canadian Professor of Education, Dr Laurence J. Peter and playwright Raymond Hull, the book was a parody of management theory but it's core message struck a chord with many. It became an instant classic, selling millions of copies around the world. We present a rare archive recording of Dr Peter, explaining his theory that “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence". Photo: Dr Laurence J. Peter on the BBC in 1974 (BBC)

In 1971 a group of squatters, artists and activists took over a disused military barracks on the edge of Copenhagen. They established a self-governing hippy commune called Freetown Christiania, after the surrounding district of Christianshavn. Residents began to build houses along their own experimental designs and soon Christiania had its own theatre, bakery and kindergarten. The semi-autonomous enclave is still there today and is one of the oldest and largest communes in the world. Viv Jones speaks to Danish filmmaker Jon Bang Carlsen, one of Christiania’s first settlers. Photo: Christiania (Getty Images)

In 2010 the Haitian capital and surrounding areas were hit by a catastrophic earthquake. Much of Port Au Prince was flattened and more than a hundred thousand people were killed. Amid the destruction and death people's first instinct was to pull together and help one another. Zak Brophy has been speaking to Kinsley Jean who was just a teenager when his family home collapsed around him.Photo: Men gather to try to reach those still buried in the rubble beneath the Haitian Department of Justice building in January 2010.(Photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

King Louis XVI of France and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were killed during the French Revolution. Their son and heir was said to have died in prison in 1795 but did he in fact escape? The 10-year-old spent his last two years of life in solitary confinement with no human contact. During his final few months he neither talked nor walked, rumours spread that this was an imposter and that the real dauphin had been smuggled out in a laundry basket and replaced with another boy. Years later, dozens of men from all over the world were claiming they were Louis-Charles, the rightful heir to the French throne. It could never be proven one way or the other, but in 2000 a team of scientists took DNA samples from the heart of the boy, which had been recovered and kept in a royal crypt. Claire Bowes has been speaking to professor Jean Jacques Cassiman and historian Deborah Cadbury about the mystery.(Photo: Illustration of Louis XVII - formally Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France in prison.Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In September 1971 prisoners in a high security jail in the USA turned on their guards taking 42 people hostage. After 4 days of negotiations, armed police retook the jail. By the time the siege ended 39 people were dead. Rebecca Kesby spoke to Carlos Roache, a former prisoner who took part in the uprising.PHOTO: Attica prisoners making the black power salute (Getty Images)

In the Aftermath of the Al Qaeda attacks against America on September 11th 2001, many Muslims living in the US had their allegiance to America questioned. In the days after 9/11 all over America hate crimes against Muslims and anyone perceived to be Muslims soared. In 2001, according to crime statistics by the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs in the US increased by 1,700 percent. Stories about Muslim women in hijabs and Muslim men with beards being attacked became commonplace. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Kevin James, a Muslim first responder who was at Ground Zero in New York immediately after the attacks.Photo: Nadia Nawaz holds a sign remembering the victims of the attack. Credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

In October 2001, just a month after the 9/11 attacks, the first airstrikes against Afghanistan began in what the US and its allies called Operation Enduring Freedom. The country was being targeted because it had provided a haven for al-Qaeda. In 2011 Louise Hidalgo spoke to two Afghans who were in Kabul the night the bombing started.(Photo: The aftermath of a US airstrike on Kandahar. Credit: Getty Images)

The al-Qaeda attacks against America took place on the morning of September the 11th 2001. The news was broken to the US President, George W Bush by his Chief of Staff Andrew Card, as he was on a visit to an elementary school. Simon Watts reports. This programme was first broadcast in 2020.(Photo: President George W. Bush shortly after learning of the 9/11 attacks. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

On the 9th of September 2001 the Afghan fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud who led the opposition to Taliban rule, was killed by a suicide bomber. Just two days later, Al Qaeda carried out their attacks in the USA. In 2011 Louise Hidalgo spoke one of Ahmed Shah Massoud's friends who was with him the day he died.PHOTO: Ahmed Shah Massoud (Getty Images)

Throughout 2001 the US authorities were being given warnings that a terror attack was imminent. A Congressional Commission, FBI officers and the CIA were all worried. There were even specific warnings about planes being flown into buildings. Louise Hidalgo spoke to former Senator Gary Hart who co-chaired the Congressional Commission that tried to convince the government to take action.This programme is a rebroadcast.Photo: Smoke pours from the World Trade Centre after it was hit by two passenger planes on September 11, 2001 in New York City. (Credit: Robert Giroux/Getty Images)

When World War Two ended and the Korean peninsula was divided, Soviet soldiers occupied the North, and US soldiers occupied the South. So how did one man, Kim Il-sung, take control of communist North Korea and create the long-lasting dynasty that still runs the country today? Kevin Kim has been hearing from Professor Kim Hyung-suk about his meeting with Kim Il-sung, and about the mystery behind his rise to power.Photo: North Korean illustration of Kim Il-sung surrounded by happy citizens.

Palermo businessman Libero Grassi published an open letter in Sicily’s main newspaper denouncing the Mafia for constantly demanding extortion payments. Grassi was hailed as a hero, but his public refusal to pay was intolerable to the Mafia and a few months later, in the summer of 1991, he was executed in person by one of Cosa Nostra’s top bosses. Libero Grassi’s defiance is credited with inspiring a new grass-roots movement among businesses in Sicily that stands up to the Mafia. Simon Watts spoke to his daughter, Alice Grassi.This programme is a rebroadcast

When South Vietnam fell in 1975, most could not escape. In the last days, the US airlifted its remaining personnel and some high ranking Vietnamese officials - but millions were left behind to await their fate. This is the account of one South Vietnamese veteran who remained in Saigon as North Vietnamese forces took the city. Dr Tran Xuan Dung served as a doctor in the South Vietnamese Marines. He would spend three years imprisoned in a "re-education" camp before fleeing with his family in 1978.Photo: A South Vietnamese soldier helps his wounded friend during fighting with communist forces in Saigon, 28th April 1975 (Bettmann/Getty Images)

This electric car revolution is finally on the horizon: many car manufacturers have promised to make only electric vehicles in the near future, in response to the climate emergency. But the first mass-produced modern electric car, the General Motors EV1, was launched back in 1996. Within a few short years it was scrapped: almost every vehicle was recalled and crushed, and the car of the future disappeared in history’s rear-view mirror. Viv Jones hears the story from one of the car’s creators, research engineer Wally Rippel.Photo: The GM EV1 (Kim Kulish/Sygma via Getty Images)

Muhammadu Buhari's military government launched an unusual campaign to clean up Nigeria in August 1984. Under the policy, Nigerians were forced to queue in an orderly manner, to be punctual and to obey traffic laws. The punishments for infractions could be brutal. Veteran Nigerian journalist Sola Odunfa spoke to Alex Last about the reaction in Lagos to the War Against Indiscipline.This programme is a rebroadcast.Photo: The Oshodi district of Lagos, 2008 (AFP/Getty Images)

The Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani was one of the most influential and famous Arab cultural figures of the 20th century. His enduring legacy has become contested territory in the conflict that has torn his homeland apart.

In the mid 2000s disability campaigners in Mexico were stepping up their efforts to secure changes in laws and attitudes in their country. They faced indifference from politicians and business leaders, and stereotypical portrayals in the media. For the estimated 4.3 million women with disabilities in Mexico, the situation was even more difficult. Maryangel Garcia-Ramos, who has become one of her country's leading disability activists, tells Mike Lanchin about her own personal struggle and the battle for recognition for women with disabilities, who she calls "the forgotten sisters."Photo:Maryangel Garcia-Ramos at UN headquarters, New York, June 2019 (courtesy of Maryangel Garcia-Ramos)

When the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, roughly 700 passengers survived by escaping in the ship's lifeboats. Among them were six Chinese sailors travelling in third class. Unlike other survivors, their stories remained untold for decades. They faced racism and a hostile immigration system when they reached America. Viv Jones speaks to Tom Fong, the son of one of the Chinese sailors. He only found out what had happened to his father after his death.Photo: Tom’s father, Fang Lang. Credit: LP Films.

The economist John Maynard Keynes transformed 20th century economic policy. Considered one of the great minds of his age, his seminal work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, sought to diagnose and find solutions to the misery and mass unemployment of the Great Depression. For decades his ideas were central to economic policy adopted across the western world and have made a comeback after the financial crash of 2008. Alex Last presents rare recordings of Keynes from the BBC archive and speaks to Lord Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at Warwick University and biographer of Keynes.Photo :John Maynard Keynes, the famous economist pictured at his home in London, 1929 (Getty Images)

Nicolae Ceaușescu was the first communist leader to be given a full state visit to the UK, but it was controversial from the outset. The Romanian president was a known dictator who ran a brutal regime, but Britain was still cash-strapped after World War Two and was desperate to build new trading partners. Dorian Galbinski was one of the main translators for the visit and he explains to Rebecca Kesby some of the background to the event.(Photo: June 1978: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu rides in the state carriage with Queen Elizabeth II on his official visit to Britain. Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

In August 1990 following the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of neighbouring Kuwait hundreds of foreign nationals were held hostage by the Iraqi government. Among them were the Rahims, a British Muslim family who had been in Iraq on a religious pilgrimage. Sameer Rahim has been speaking to Farhana Haider about his time as Saddam's prisoner. Image: Saddam Hussein with western hostages, Iraq 1990 Credit: Shutterstock

When Indian independence leaders, including Gandhi, were jailed in 1942, activists set up a secret radio station to carry the message of rebellion against British rule. Among the campaigners who worked at the station was Usha Mehta, who was later imprisoned for broadcasting anti-British news and playing patriotic music. Claire Bowes has been listening to archive material of Usha Mehta and speaking to her nephew, Indian film-maker Ketan Mehta. Image: Usha Mehta Credit:Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Mumbai

The last remaining US forces pulled out of Vietnam on April 30th 1975 as communist North Vietnamese troops took control of the country. There was a desperate scramble to evacuate US personnel and some Vietnamese colleagues who feared brutal reprisals at the hands of the communists for having helped the Americans. With the airport destroyed, they had to use helicopter airlifts from inside the US embassy compound to transport people to the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier waiting offshore. Rebecca Kesby speaks to two former US servicemen, Stu Herrington and Vern Jumper, who were involved in the mission.(Photo: A CIA employee helps Vietnamese evacuees onto an Air America helicopter from the top of 22 Gia Long Street, a half mile from the U.S. Embassy. April 1975. Getty Images.)

Genocide has a long and grim history, but until the 1950s, the mass extermination of a people or a group was an atrocity without a name, a definition or an international law against it. One man did more than anyone else to change that: the Polish Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin. He coined the term genocide and fought for decades to stop it. He also survived it, but lost his whole family in the Holocaust. Viv Jones hears his story from Israeli journalist Lili Eylon, who met him at the United Nations and witnessed his one-man lobbying campaign. Photo: Raphael Lemkin in 1950 Credit: Bettmann / Getty Images.

Vera Lengsfeld was a prominent human rights activist in East Germany who was arrested and jailed for taking part in a peaceful protest. She was sent to Hohenschönhausen, the main political prison of the former East German Communist Ministry of State Security, the Stasi. There she was kept in solitary confinement until shortly before the Berlin Wall came down. Vera Lengsfeld spoke to Lucy Williamson about her time in jail.This programme is a rebroadcast.Photo: A cell inside Hohenschönhausen Prison which has now been made into a museum. Credit: Flickr Commons.

For years Germans have been bathing nude at the beach. Many are members of a naturist movement called the FKK, which was banned under the Nazis and faced official disapproval during the early years of communist rule in East Germany. Mike Lanchin spoke to one East Berliner who recalled the heyday of naked sunbathing beside the Baltic Sea.This programme is a rebroadcast.Photo: Bathers enjoying the beach at Baerwalder See, Eastern Germany (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

East Germany's most famous singer-songwriter was exiled to the West in November 1976, causing an international outcry. Wolf Biermann was stripped of his GDR citizenship while on tour in West Germany.Wolf Biermann spoke to Lucy Burns about his political songs and his fame on both sides of the Berlin Wall.This programme is a rebroadcastPicture: Wolf Biermann in concert. Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

How a young West German student helped East Berliners escape communism at the height of the Cold War. Volker Heinz told Robin Lustig how he worked with a Syrian diplomat to smuggle people across the Berlin Wall in the boot of the diplomat's car. From March to September 1966 the pair managed to help more than 60 people to make the crossing.This programme is a rebroadcast(Photo: East German border guards in 1966 scanning the Berlin Wall. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In August 1961, communist East Germany began building the Berlin Wall, which divided the city for nearly three decades and became a symbol of the Cold War. Simon Watts introduces the memories of Germans from both sides of the Wall.PHOTO: Soldiers at the Berlin Wall in the early 1960s (Getty Images)

In the early 1990s, when homosexuality was still a criminal offense in India, a group of gay men and lesbian women set up the Counsel Club in the city of Kolkata. It was one of the first queer support groups in India. Their first meetings took place in secret at the home of one of the members. Later, the group campaigned for gay rights in India and helped other gay people with family problems or anxieties over coming out. Mike Lanchin has been speaking to Pawan Dhall, one of the club's founding members.Photo credit: REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw

When the US led invasion of Afghanistan ousted the repressive Taliban regime in 2001, it was no longer illegal to listen to music or news on the radio. Afghan businessman Saad Mohseni returned to his home town of Kabul to launch Arman FM, a new radio station which played modern music and comedy programmes amongst other things which had been banned under the Taliban. He tells Rebecca Kesby why he wanted to help rebuild the cultural life of Afghanistan, how one radio station expanded into a multimedia company, and how persistent security problems have impacted his staff.(Photo: Afghan radio DJ, Seema Safa, talks on Arman FM radio station in Kabul in 2014. WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)

When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out. More than a million people died before the fighting stopped. We bring you one child’s story of getting caught up in the frontline. Paul Waters hears from Patricia Ngozi Ebigwe, now better known as TV and music star Patti Boulaye, who was 13 years old when she had to try to escape the conflict. ‘We were told: Careless talk kills‘ Patricia remembers. ‘When you walked past dead bodies in the street, I didn’t want to look at their faces, because maybe it was someone I knew.’ Photo: 13-year-old Patricia Ngozi Ebigwe (Courtesy of Patti Boulaye)

The 1970s were a time of rapid development in the Indian Himalayas. New roads had recently been built, allowing logging companies greater access to the region’s vast, remote forests. Local people made a subsistence livelihood from these woods, and when the trees were cut down they endured erosion, poor farming conditions and catastrophic floods. A resistance movement was formed, named Chipko – Hindi for ‘hugging’ – after its trademark protest tactic of embracing the trees. Many of its first organisers were women. Environmentalist and ecological activist, Dr Vandana Shiva was a young student when she first learnt about Chipko. She tells Viv Jones how she was inspired to volunteer for the movement. (Photo by Bhawan Singh/ The India Today Group via Getty Images)

In 1961, the Washington Post newspaper hired an African American woman as a reporter for the first time. Dorothy Butler Gilliam was only 24 when she got the job. At the time there were hardly any women or minorities working in newsrooms. Most of her white colleagues wouldn’t speak to her, taxis wouldn’t stop for her. Dorothy has been speaking to Farhana Haider about the difficulties she faced as a black woman journalist in 1960s America and her fight to diversify the media in the US.(Photo Dorothy Butler Gilliam Washington Post newsroom 1962. Copyright Harry Naltchayan, The Washington Post.)

Remembering the earthquake and tsunami which devastated Japan and triggered a nuclear emergency in 2011. Max Pearson, who reported from Japan at the time, presents eyewitness accounts of the disaster which left thousands dead and led to many questioning the future of the country's nuclear industry. Photo: Tsunami smashes into the city of Miyako in Iwate prefecture shortly after an earthquake hit the region of northern Japan, 11th March 2011 (JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)

After decades of campaigning in Japan, the pill was finally legalised in 1999. In contrast, the male impotency drug Viagra was approved for use in just six months, and legalised before the contraceptive pill for women. Politician Yoriko Madoka pushed hard for the right to take the pill and told Rebecca Kesby that sexism and male dominance in Parliament is why it took so long.(Photo: A collection of contraceptive pills. Getty Images)

In January 1972 a Japanese soldier was found hiding in the jungle on the Pacific island of Guam. He had been living in the wild there for almost 30 years unaware that World War Two had ended. His name was Shoichi Yokoi. Mike Lanchin spoke to his nephew and biographer.This programme is a rebroadcastPhoto: Shoichi Yokoi on his arrival back in Japan in 1972. Credit: Getty Images.

Daisuke Inoue was playing keyboards in a band in Kobe, Japan, when he invented the Karaoke machine in 1971. He had a customer who wanted to impress business clients by singing along to his favourite songs. Ashley Byrne spoke to Daisuke Inoue about his invention in 2015.(Photo: A group of women sing karaoke. Credit: Getty Images)

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. Lucy Burns spoke to Isao Makibayashi, one of the train's first drivers.This is a rebroadcast(Photo: Shinkansen, or bullet train. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In the early 2000s, rebels in Sudan's Darfur region took up arms against the government. In response, the Khartoum regime launched a scorched earth campaign along ethnic lines. The Sudanese military allied to a local militia, the Janjaweed, laid waste to villages across the region, killing and raping as they went. Some 300,000 people are believed to have been killed in the conflict, more than 2 million displaced from their homes. We hear the story of Debay Manees, a young boy at the time, who's life was changed by the war.Photo: A young Darfurian refugee walks past a Sudan Liberation Army Land Rover filled with teenage rebel fighters on October 14 2004 in the violent North Darfur region of Sudan. (Photo by Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images)

On 22 July 2011 Norway suffered its worst terror attacks in recent history. A far-right extremist, Anders Breivik, launched a bomb attack on government offices in Oslo, and then, two hours later, attacked a summer camp for young political activists on the island of Utøya, 38 kms from the Norwegian capital. In total 77 people were killed that day - the majority on the island. Mike Lanchin has been speaking to one of the camp's leaders Lisa Husby, who was 19-years-old at the time . Lisa hid under a bed in a small cabin as the gunman roamed the island looking for his next victim. 'It was 50-50 that day', she says. 'Either you found a good hiding place, or you didn't...it was just random'.Photo:A wounded young woman is brought ashore after the attacks on Utøya island. (Credit: Svein Gustav Wilhelmsen/AFP via Getty Images)

In 1941, Italian colonial rule in East Africa ended when Mussolini’s soldiers made a dramatic final stand in the northern Ethiopian town of Gondar. After a bloody battle, General Guglielmo Nasi surrendered to troops from the British empire and Ethiopian fighters loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie. Simon Watts listens to an account in the BBC archive from Rene Cutforth, who was then a British army officer and later became a distinguished BBC war correspondent.PHOTO: Italian soldiers surrendering in the build-up to the Battle of Gondar (Getty Images)

Ground-breaking legislation came into effect in Brazil in 2006. For the first time the courts were ordered to recognise different forms of domestic violence. The 'Maria da Penha law' was named after a women's rights activist who was left paralysed by her abusive husband. Maria told Mike Lanchin her chilling story. This programme is a rebroadcast. Photo: Maria da Penha now.

In the summer of 2001 race riots gripped towns in the north of England. They began in Oldham in late May 2001, spreading to Burnley in June, and Bradford in July. All had their own specific local triggers, but all involved clashes between men of white and of South Asian background. A report into the violence found communities were living in complete segregation, brewing suspicion and hatred. Barnie Choudhury reported on the riots for the BBC. He speaks to Farhana Haider about how they unfolded and their repercussions for the UK today.Photo: Two youths pass by a burnt out car wreck, Oldham 29 May 2001. (Credit: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Taliban fighters first took control of Afghanistan's capital city Kabul in late September 1996. They imposed their strict interpretation of Islam on Afghans, outlawing music and TV, banning the education of girls, and requiring men to grow beards. The Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan until 2001 when, following the 9/11 attacks against America, a US-led coalition drove them out of power.Photo: Taliban gunners outside Kabul in November 1996.(Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)

In the 1960s a young Englishwoman made a discovery that changed our understanding of animal behaviour. Jane Goodall was living among wild chimpanzees in Tanzania when she observed them using sticks and grasses as tools to get food. Farhana Haider spoke to her about her life in 2014.(Photo: Jane Goodall visits a chimpanzee rescue center in 2018 in Entebbe, Uganda. Credit: Sumy Sadurni/AFP via Getty Images)

As a schoolboy in communist China, Kim Gordon took part in huge rallies to praise Chairman Mao. But when Mao's so-called Cultural Revolution began to target intellectuals and foreigners, Kim's British parents came under suspicion despite being convinced communists. When they tried to leave the country they were arrested with Kim and locked up in a hotel room for two years. Monica Whitlock has been listening to Kim's story.Photo: Kim Gordon as a schoolboy in China. Courtesy of Kim Gordon.

Using eyewitness recordings from the BBC archive we hear from the pioneers of the jet engine, Sir Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain, about the struggle to develop a revolutionary new engine in the 1930s. An invention which would change the world. Photo: Sir Frank Whittle (1907-1996) is pictured here with the Whittle WV engine at the Science Museum in London c 1988 (Getty Images)

On 9 July 1985 the Greenpeace campaign ship was bombed by French secret agents in Auckland, New Zealand. One environmental campaigner was killed and the Rainbow Warrior was sunk. Claire Bowes heard from the ship's captain Pete Willcox who was on board when the attack took place.This programme is a rebroadcast(Photo: Captain Pete Willcox, courtesy of Greenpeace)