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)

Episoder(2000)

How America 'lost' China

How America 'lost' China

After the end of WW2 the US feared its wartime ally, China, would become communist. In 1946 after the end of Japanese occupation China returned to a civil war which had been fought on and off for year...

13 Jun 20199min

Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap the Reichstag

Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap the Reichstag

In June 1995 artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin in fabric. The former German parliament building sat on the border between East and West Berlin. It had been gutted by fi...

12 Jun 20199min

The first anti-psychotic drug

The first anti-psychotic drug

In the first half of the 20th century, most mentally ill patients were locked away in psychiatric hospitals and asylums. Those suffering from severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, were often sed...

11 Jun 201911min

The end of the war in Kosovo

The end of the war in Kosovo

Hundreds of thousands of Kosovan Albanians were forced to leave their homes when NATO started bombing Serb targets in the former Yugoslavia in 1999. By the time the bombing stopped, on June 10th 1999,...

10 Jun 20198min

The Gurkha soldiers fight for equality

The Gurkha soldiers fight for equality

For over 200 years soldiers from Nepal have fought in a special regiment in the British army called the Gurkhas. In 2009 all retired Gurkhas won the right to live in Britain, following a high profile...

7 Jun 201911min

Broadcasting D-Day

Broadcasting D-Day

Hear how the BBC reported the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France on June 6th 1944. The operation was a crucial step in the liberation of western Europe. Using original BBC reports from the time -...

6 Jun 20199min

The Little Prince

The Little Prince

In July 1944, a plane piloted by the author of the world famous children's story The Little Prince, disappeared over the south of France. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, an experienced aviator, was on a rec...

5 Jun 201910min

D-Day

D-Day

Eyewitness accounts of the Allied landings on the coast of Normandy during World War Two on 6 June 1944. The massive operation was a crucial step in the liberation of western Europe from years of Nazi...

4 Jun 201911min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
aftenpodden-usa
konspirasjonspodden
alt-fortalt
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
popradet
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
wolfgang-wee-uncut
grenselos
synnve-og-vanessa
frokostshowet-pa-p5
fladseth
min-barneoppdragelse
rss-dannet-uten-piano
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
rss-frekvens-med-anine-olsen
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
198-land-med-einar-trnquist