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)

Avsnitt(2000)

Eight years trapped on the Suez Canal in Egypt

Eight years trapped on the Suez Canal in Egypt

After the Six Day War in June 1967, the Suez Canal in Egypt was closed.It meant 14 ships from eight different countries, including the United States, Bulgaria and France, were trapped in an area calle...

18 Okt 202410min

Dyke and Dryden: Cosmetic kings

Dyke and Dryden: Cosmetic kings

In 1969, a new sound began to dominate the airwaves in the UK, reggae.This was terrible news for two Jamaican men, Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden who were making their money selling 'slices of home' recor...

17 Okt 20249min

Fleeing Afghanistan alone as a child

Fleeing Afghanistan alone as a child

In 1999, Waheed Arian left his family in Afghanistan to seek refuge in the UK. He was just 15.He was escaping violence, poverty and the threat of being recruited as a child soldier. He tells Vicky Far...

16 Okt 20249min

The Rose Revolution in Georgia

The Rose Revolution in Georgia

In November 2003, the people of Georgia ousted veteran president Eduard Shevardnadze. Protestors stormed the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi, holding flowers in their hands.It would become ...

15 Okt 202410min

The Sunflower Movement

The Sunflower Movement

Between 18 March and 10 April 2014, more than 500,000 people in Taipei, Taiwan, protested against a new trade deal with China.It was one of the largest social movements in Taiwanese history.Rachel Nay...

14 Okt 20249min

'Robocops’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo

'Robocops’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo

After the death of her brother, engineer Thérèse Izay Kirongozi got to work handmaking huge robots to direct traffic and save lives. In 2013 they were installed on the streets of Kinshasa, in the Demo...

11 Okt 202410min

How the QR code was invented

How the QR code was invented

In 1994, bar codes were in widespread use in businesses around the world, but the Japanese car component company, Denso Wave, wanted something quicker.So they asked one of their engineers, Masahiro Ha...

10 Okt 202410min

The world's first general purpose electronic computer

The world's first general purpose electronic computer

In 1946, one of the world’s first electronic computers was unveiled in Philadelphia, in the USA. It was called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC, and was initially designed to...

9 Okt 20249min

Populärt inom Samhälle & Kultur

podme-dokumentar
p3-dokumentar
badfluence
en-mork-historia
mardromsgasten
gynning-berg
nemo-moter-en-van
aftonbladet-krim
creepypodden-med-jack-werner
skaringer-nessvold
killradet
p3-historia
hor-har
flashback-forever
p1-dokumentar
spar
svenska-fall
historiska-brott
vad-blir-det-for-mord
kod-katastrof