Cuba's Mariel boatlift

Cuba's Mariel boatlift

In April 1980, thousands of Cubans tried to escape the country by claiming asylum at the Peruvian embassy in Havana.

In response, Cuban President Fidel Castro opened the port of Mariel to anyone who wanted to leave, including criminals. From April until October more than 100,000 Cubans left for the US. Mirta Ojito was one of them. She spoke to Simon Watts in 2011.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Cuban refugees in 1980. Credit: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images)

Jaksot(2000)

The Yangtze Incident

The Yangtze Incident

In 1949 a British warship, HMS Amethyst, launched a daring escape after it was held captive for months by Chinese Communists on the Yangtze river. The ship had been badly damaged when it was fired on ...

9 Elo 201911min

British troops take to the streets of Northern Ireland

British troops take to the streets of Northern Ireland

In August 1969 the British Army was first deployed in Northern Ireland. Their job was to keep the peace on the streets of Londonderry where sectarian violence had broken out. To begin with the soldie...

8 Elo 20199min

Criminals in the community

Criminals in the community

In the 1970s the UK tried to reduce its growing prison population. An experimental new punishment was introduced for convicted criminals. It was called Community Service. The scheme was soon copied a...

7 Elo 20199min

Under the North Pole

Under the North Pole

In 1958 the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travelled under the North Pole. Julian Bedford spoke to retired vice Admiral Kenneth Carr in 2012 about the mission spurred by the Cold War battle for techno...

6 Elo 20199min

The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'

The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'

Hundreds of thousands of French people who'd been living in Algeria for generations fled for safety to France in the summer of 1962. It was in the last days of the war of independence in the North Afr...

5 Elo 20199min

The invasion of Kuwait

The invasion of Kuwait

Thousands of Iraqi troops and tanks began pouring into Kuwait on 2 August 1990. The tiny, oil-rich Gulf state was immediately taken over by Saddam Hussein's military. Sumaya Bakhsh has spoken to Sami...

2 Elo 201910min

The Warsaw uprising

The Warsaw uprising

On 1 August 1944, resistance fighters in the Polish capital rose up against German occupying forces. The uprising lasted for 63 days and some 200,000 people were killed, Warsaw itself was largely dest...

1 Elo 20199min

The anti-nuclear protesters who won

The anti-nuclear protesters who won

In 1980 the Bavarian government announced plans to build a nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf in southern Germany. Eight years later construction on the plant was halted after a sustained prote...

31 Heinä 201910min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
i-dont-like-mondays
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
kolme-kaannekohtaa
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
sita
aikalisa
kaksi-aitia
mamma-mia
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
rss-murhan-anatomia
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
meidan-pitais-puhua
rss-nikotellen
terapeuttiville-qa
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-haudattu