Witness History

On New Year's Eve 1999 the Russian President went on TV and announced he was leaving office. Tired and emotional, he apologised to the people for the state of the country. Boris Yeltsin's departure paved the way for his chosen successor, Vladimir Putin. Dina Newman spoke to the former Russian president's widow, Naina Yeltsina, about that day.PHOTO: Boris Yeltsin in 1999 (Getty Images)

When Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister in August 1999, he was a political unknown. He quickly made his name by ordering Russian Federation forces to re-take control of the breakaway republic of Chechnya, which just years earlier had fought and won autonomy from Moscow. It would herald the start of a brutal conflict known as the Second Chechen war. We hear an eyewitness account of the war and its brutal aftermath. Photo: A Russian soldier walks through the streets of the destroyed Chechen capital Grozny, February 25, 2000. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)

President Vladimir Putin came onto the Russian political scene in 1999 after a decade of chaos following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This included a disastrous experiment with free market reforms in 1992, which led to an increase in poverty for ordinary Russians and the emergence of an elite of super-wealthy Oligarchs. In 2018, Dina Newman spoke to one of the architects of this “shock therapy” - Andrei Nechaev, who was then the Minister for Economic Development.(Photo: Old women selling cigarettes on the streets of Moscow in 1992. Credit: BBC)

In 2014, Russia annexed the strategic Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. Although Crimea was also home to a large Russian naval base, the annexation was seen by Kyiv and the world as illegal. The crisis it caused was so acute, the world seemed on the brink of a new cold war. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to one Crimean woman who lived through it.PHOTO: A soldier without identifying insignia outside the Crimean parliament in 2014 (Getty Images)

In February 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a member of a Neighbourhood Watch group who claimed he was acting suspiciously. The unarmed black teenager was returning to a gated community in Florida after buying some snacks from a nearby convenience store His death sparked national outrage in the US over racial profiling and the first use of the slogan "Black Lives Matter". Rachel Naylor talks to Trayvon Martin's high school friend, Ashley Burch. PHOTO: A protest demanding justice for Trayvon Martin in 2013 (Getty Images)

In World War 2, US Marines fighting in the Pacific needed to be able to communicate securely on the battlefield. Early in the war, the Japanese had been able to decode some of their encrypted messages. So the Marines turned to members of the Navajo tribe. An unbreakable code based on the Navajo language was quickly developed. And the Navajo Code Talkers went on to participate in all the major Marine operations in the Pacific, helping the Allies to victory. Rob Walker has been listening back to the story of one of the Code Talkers, Samuel Tso, and also speaking to Laura Tohe who is the daughter of a Code Talker and who has written a book about them, ‘Code Talker Stories’. The interview with Samuel Tso was reproduced with the kind permission of George Colburn. Details of his documentary about the Code Talkers can be found here: https://www.thenavajocodetalkers.com/ The full interview with Samuel Tso is available on C-SPAN, along with interviews with other Code Talkers: https://www.c-span.org/video/?459728-1/navajo-code-talker-samuel-tso-oral-history-interview Photo: 'Code Talker' U.S. Marines George H. Kirk (left) of Ganado, Arizona and John V. Goodluck (right) of Lukachukai, Arizona, both of the Navajo Nation, are photographed before their shelter on a hillside following the American victory of the Battle of Guam, September 1944. (Photo by: Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

It is 50 years since US President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in February 1972. The visit - which included a meeting with Chairman Mao - normalised relations between the two countries for the first time in a quarter of a century. American diplomat Winston Lord was there when the two leaders came face-to-face. He spoke to Lucy Williamson for Witness History in 2009.PHOTO: President Nixon during his visit to China (Getty Images)

In 1975 hundreds of French sex workers took refuge in churches across France to protest against police harassment, in their first ever collective action. The strike began at Saint Nizier church in Lyon but spread to other cities, including Paris, where it was reported that all sex workers were on strike. In Lyon police had begun systematically issuing fines in a crackdown on the women who found customers on the streets. Those who couldn't pay were often imprisoned for days at a time and separated from their children. Claire Bowes has been speaking to Pere Christian Delorme who helped the women and stayed with them at Saint Nizier church till police forced the women to leave after ten days protest.Photo: June 1975, Lyon, a hundred women prostitutes occupy the church of Saint-Nizier (Alain Nogues/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

In 1989, Denmark became the first country to celebrate same-sex civil unions. In 2014, Farhana Haider spoke to Ivan Larsen and Ove Carlsen, who were one of the first couples to sign on the dotted line

The Bollywood film "Fire" was the first in Indian history to depict a lesbian relationship. Released in 1998, the movie sparked a row over censorship and then a wider debate about LGBT rights in a country where homosexuality was then illegal. In 2015, Lucy Burns met Bollywood superstar, Shabana Azmi, who played a lesbian in "Fire".PHOTO: Shabana Azmi (AFP)