Witness History10 Sep 2024

Emperor Haile Selassie in Bath

In 1936, Haile Selassie came to Bath in the west of England to escape Mussolini and the fascists who had invaded Ethiopia.

He bought a property – Fairfield House - and moved his entire family and staff there. He quickly became the talk of the town.

The local paper ran daily updates on the Emperor’s schedule and dispelled rumours such as the Emperor’s beard "having turned white with anguish" or that he was keeping lions in the basement.

Haile Selassie also made a point of indulging in local amusements and even took a trip to the Tropicana outdoor swimming pool in the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare.

Selassie returned to Ethiopia in 1940 after the British helped remove Mussolini. He never forgot his time in Bath and renamed one of his palaces Fairfield in tribute to the British city.

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: Haile Selassie during his coronation. Credit: Getty Images)

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(2000)

Peace People: The Northern Ireland campaign group born from tragedy

It is 50 years since a peace movement began in Northern Ireland spawned by the killing of three children. There had been seven years of sectarian violence. On 10 August 1976, Anne Maguire was walking ...

26 Aug 10min

Auschwitz: An SS officer’s photo album

In 2007, an abandoned photo album revealed the chilling normality of life at the Nazis’ most notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz.The 116 black-and-white images had been sent to the United States H...

25 Aug 10min

Uruguay's water referendum

On 31st October 2004, Uruguayans voted to enshrine water as a human right in their constitution, the first country in the world to do so. The so-called water referendum was organised by an alliance of...

24 Aug 10min

Defeating the screwworm

In the 1950s, scientist Edward Knipling began what would become one of the most successful eradication campaigns in history: the fight against the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite that cau...

21 Aug 10min

'I created the duck cake from Bluey'

First published in 1980, the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book brought novelty cakes to the masses. From the swimming pool filled with jelly, to the ghost and the 'choo choo trai...

20 Aug 10min

Canada's controversial resettlement programme

In 1954, a massive government-run resettlement programme began in Canada.This saw the relocation of nearly 30,000 people from isolated ‘outport’ fishing communities in Newfoundland and Labrador to des...

19 Aug 9min

The battle of Mandalay in WW2

In March 1945, the British Fourteenth Army were advancing on the city of Mandalay in central Burma, now known as Myanmar, which was held by the Japanese Army. The army was made up of soldiers from acr...

18 Aug 10min

Asha Bhosle: The world's most recorded artist

In 2011 Asha Bhosle, India’s queen of melody, was officially named the most recorded artist in music history. The Guinness World Record recognised the astonishing scale of her career, having performed...

17 Aug 10min