Greece’s debt crisis
Witness History16 Heinä

Greece’s debt crisis

It was a week that brought the future of Greece and the Eurozone to the brink. Ten years ago, on 6 July the Greek people voted against the terms of a financial bailout which included raising taxes and slashing welfare spending.

Greece owed €323bn to various countries and banks within Europe. Its banks were closed. A quarter of the population and half of Greece’s young people were unemployed.

The morning after the vote, Euclid Tsakalotos was brought in to replace Yanis Varoufakis as finance minister. His predecessor had accused European leaders of “terrorism” in their handling of the crisis. Parachuted in to last-ditch talks with angry European leaders, Euclid Tsakalotos describes to Josephine McDermott the make-or-break 17-hour summit in Brussels.

He reveals that when Angela Merkel, the leader of Greece’s biggest lender Germany, said she was leaving the room because she could not accept what was on the table, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, actually locked the door to stop her leaving and force an agreement to be reached.

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 football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: A queue outside a bank in Greece in 2015. Credit: Getty Images)

Jaksot(2000)

The Oslo Peace Talks

The Oslo Peace Talks

Top secret negotiations in Norway during 1993 eventually led to an Israeli-Palestinian agreement which became known as the Oslo Accord. Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul was one of the people who helped keep the talks on track. She spoke to Louise Hidalgo for Witness in 2012.(Photo: Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat at the signing ceremony for the Oslo Accord, September 13,1993. Credit: AFP/Getty Images.)

25 Huhti 20188min

Swimming The Bering Strait

Swimming The Bering Strait

In 1987, an American endurance swimmer called Lynne Cox swam across the "Ice Curtain" between the USA and the Soviet Union. The Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait are only 2.7 miles apart, but divided by near-freezing water and Cold War rivalry. Lynne Cox spoke to Simon Watts about her swim in 2012. This programme is a rebroadcast. PHOTO: Lynne Cox on the Bering Strait. (Copyright Rich Roberts)

24 Huhti 20188min

World War One: The Red Baron

World War One: The Red Baron

Using archive BBC recordings of veterans, we tell the story of one of the most famous figures of World War One. The legendary German air ace Baron von Richthofen who was killed in April 1918. Photo: German First World War air ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, with a comrade in front of his famous red tri-plane. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

23 Huhti 20189min

Earth Day

Earth Day

On April the 22 1970, 20 million Americans came out on to the streets to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in the first so-called Earth Day. Mass rallies were held to highlight concerns about pollution and the destruction of America's natural heritage. Some see it as the birth of the modern environmental movement. Farhana Haider spoke to Denis Hayes, the organiser of that first Earth Day. Photo credit: Robert Sabo-Pool/Getty Images

20 Huhti 20189min

The Last Keeper of the Light

The Last Keeper of the Light

The lighthouse on Skellig Michael off the south west coast of Ireland was continuously occupied by lighthouse keepers for more than 150 years until its automation 1987. Skellig Michael has now become a tourist attraction since its ancient monastery was used as a location in recent Star Wars films. The last keeper of the light there was Richard Foran who has been speaking to Catherine Harvey about life on the remote island. Photo: The lighthouses on Skellig Michael. Credit: Alamy

19 Huhti 20189min

Rebuilding the Site of the Twin Towers

Rebuilding the Site of the Twin Towers

After the September 11th attacks brought down the Twin Towers, reconstruction began at the devastated area in New York in April 2006. Rachael Gillman spoke to TJ Gottesdiener, who was a managing partner at the architecture firm tasked with designing a new skyscraper on the site.(Photo credit: Robert Sabo-Pool/Getty Images)

17 Huhti 20189min

World War One: Germany's Spring Offensive 1918

World War One: Germany's Spring Offensive 1918

In early 1918, Germany launched a huge offensive on the Western Front in a last great gamble to win the war. Following Russia's withdrawal from the war, Germany could move up to a million soldiers from the Eastern Front to the West to launch a decisive attack. Their plan was to break through British and French lines and force an end to the war, before American power could bolster the Allied cause. They came close to succeeding. Using recordings from the BBC Archive, we hear from German and British soldiers who faced each other in the spring of 1918. Photo: German troops advance in the sector near Villers-Bretonneux during Germany's Spring Offensive 1918. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

16 Huhti 20189min

The Shooting of Rudi Dutschke

The Shooting of Rudi Dutschke

In 1968 Europe was rocked by student demonstrations calling for a revolution. In West Berlin the protests intensified following the shooting of student leader Rudi Dutschke on April 11th 1968. He would become a symbol for a generation of young Germans. In 2013 Lucy Burns spoke to his widow Gretchen Klotz-Dutschke about the attack. (Image: Gretchen Klotz-Dutschke(L) Rudi Dutschke(R) Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

13 Huhti 20188min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

siita-on-vaikea-puhua
aikalisa
kolme-kaannekohtaa
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
sita
olipa-kerran-otsikko
i-dont-like-mondays
poks
murha-joka-tapahtui-2
antin-palautepalvelu
kaksi-aitia
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
mamma-mia
rss-murhan-anatomia
loukussa
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
meidan-pitais-puhua
lahko
rss-nikotellen