Women in Britain get the right to vote
On 6th February 1918, women in Britain were given the right to vote for the first time. The campaign for women's suffrage had begun decades earlier. But it wasn't until the final months of the First World War that the British parliament relented and said property-owning women over the age of 30 could vote in a general election. It would take another ten years before women got parity with men. Louise Hidalgo has been listening back to the voices of the women activists known as suffragettes, and talks to politician Shirley Williams, the daughter of an early feminist.Picture: suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested outside Buckingham Palace, 1914 (Credit: Jimmy Sime/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
6 Feb 20188min
Bringing Nazi Leader Klaus Barbie To Justice
In February 1983 the man known as 'the butcher of Lyon' was extradited to France to face charges of murder and torture during World War Two. The former head of the Gestapo in Lyon was traced to South America by two Nazi-hunters, married couple Serge and Beate Klarsfeld. They have been telling their amazing story to Mike Lanchin.Photo: Klaus Barbie on his way to court in Lyon, France (AFP)
5 Feb 20188min
Banning The Belt
In February 1982 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain should end corporal punishment in state schools. The landmark decision came after a lawsuit launched by two mothers in Scotland. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from Andrew Campbell, the son of one of the women behind the campaign. Photo: A school teacher holds a belt or Tawse, used for punishing pupils (Alamy)
2 Feb 20188min
The Roots of the Rohingya Crisis
In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims left their homes in Myanmar fleeing government persecution, in what the UN has called the world's fastest growing refugee crisis. Lucy Burns speaks to Rohingya historian and politician U Kyaw Min to explore the roots of the crisis - and a change in the Burmese citizenship laws in 1982 which left the Rohingyas essentially stateless.(Photo: Rohingya refugees walk near the no man's land area between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Palongkhali area next to Ukhia on October 19, 2017. Credit: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
1 Feb 20188min
Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive
In January 1968, North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong guerrillas launched a huge surprise attack on towns, cities and military bases across South Vietnam. The American embassy and the Presidential Palace in Saigon was among the targets that were hit. The events had a profound impact on American public opinion and marked a turning point in the war. BBC reporter Julian Pettifer covered the battles in the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon. Photo: Julian Pettifer reporting under fire near the Presidential Palace in Saigon, 31st January 1968 (BBC)
31 Jan 20189min
The Bloody Sunday Shootings
On 30 January 1972 British troops opened fire on a civil rights march in Northern Ireland. Thirteen people were killed that day, which became known as Bloody Sunday. Tony Doherty was nine years old at the time. In 2012 he spoke to Mike Lanchin about his father and the events that changed his life forever.(Photo: Armed British troop grabs hold of protester by the hair. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
30 Jan 20189min
The "Godfather of Gospel Music"
Thomas A Dorsey is credited with developing Gospel music into a global phenomenon. He started his own musical career in jazz clubs and blues bars, but personal tragedy led him back to church, and inspired hundreds of Gospel songs that transformed the genre. Rebecca Kesby has been listening to archive recordings of Thomas A Dorsey and his singing partner Willie Mae Ford Smith, and speaking to Professor Albert J Raboteau from Princeton University. (PHOTO: Thomas A. Dorsey - 1982. Courtesy of National Endowment For Arts/Humanities/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock. Credit REX)
29 Jan 20189min
The Invention of the Lego Brick
The Lego brick, one of the world's most popular toys, was invented in the small Danish town of Billund in 1958. Created by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the plastic bricks can be combined in countless combinations and have sold in the billions. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the inventor's son, was ten at the time. He used to play in the company workshop and helped test early Lego models. Olga Smirnova spoke to Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen for Witness.(Image: Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen with a Lego ship. Credit: Kristiansen family archive)
26 Jan 20189min
