Witness History

Artek, on the shores of the Black Sea in Crimea, was a hugely popular Soviet holiday camp.Maria Kim Espeland was one of the thousands of children who visited every year.In 2014, she told Lucy Burns about life in the camp in the 1980s.(Photo: A group of children attending Artek. Credit: Irina Vlasova)

In 2014, Russia annexed the strategic Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, a move seen by Kyiv and many other countries as illegal.The crisis it caused was so acute the world seemed on the brink of a new cold war.In 2022, one Crimean woman told Louise Hidalgo what it was like to live through. (Photo: A soldier outside the Crimean parliament in 2014. Credit: Getty Images)

In 2003, Whistler Blackcomb won its bid to host the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. It was sixth time lucky for the Canadian ski resort which had been opened to the public in 1966. The mountain – which is named after the high-pitched whistle of the native marmot – has been through a lot of iterations and one man has been there to see nearly all of them.Hugh Smythe, known as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Whistler, has been sharing his memories of the mountain with Matt Pintus.(Photo: Whistler mountain. Credit: Getty Images)

In 1992, Columbus Lighthouse opened in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It was designed to house the ashes of explorer, Christopher Columbus. The huge memorial is built in the form of a horizontal cross and has 157 searchlight beams that when turned on project a gigantic cross into the sky. The light is so powerful it can be seen from over 300km away in Puerto Rico. Tour guide and historian, Samuel Bisono tells Gill Kearsley about the struggle to get the monument built.(Photo: Columbus Lighthouse. Credit: Gill Kearsley)

In June 2009, transgender sex worker and activist Vicky Hernandez was murdered in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula.The killers were never identified or punished, but in 2021 the Inter-American Human Rights Court found the Honduran state responsible for the crime. It ordered the government to enact new laws to prevent discrimination and violence against LGBT people.Mike Lanchin hears from Claudia Spelman, a trans activist and friend of Vicky, and the American human rights lawyer Angelita Baeyens.A CTVC production for the BBC World Service.(Photo: A protestor holds a sign saying “Late Justice is not Justice”. Credit: Wendell Escoto/AFP/Getty Images)

In October 1975, 90% of women in Iceland took part in a nationwide protest over inequality.Factories and banks were forced to close and men were left holding the children as 25,000 women took to the streets.In 2015, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, later Iceland's first female president, told Kirstie Brewer about the impact of that day.(Photo: Women take to the streets. Credit: The Icelandic Women's History Archives)

Dr. Vladimir Demikhov, a Soviet scientist, shocks the world with his two-headed dog experiments in the 1950s. He aims to prove the possibilities of transplant surgery. Consultant surgeon, Igor Konstantinov, reflects on the emotional impact of these controversial experiments.

In 1972, a food supplement used by soldiers during the Nigerian civil war was turned into a popular malt drink by a brewery in the Danish town of Faxe.It was called Supermalt and it became so popular that the Nigerian government decided to ban all imports of malt into the country. Peter Rasmussen created the drink and he has been sharing his memories with Matt Pintus.(Photo: Supermalt. Credit: Royal Unibrew Ltd)

Gort in the west of Ireland is known by the nickname ‘Little Brazil’ because it’s home to so many Brazilians.They first came to Ireland in the late 1990s to work in the town’s meat factory.Lucimeire Trindade was just 24-years-old when she and three friends arrived in the town, unable to speak a word of English or Irish.Nearly 25 years later, Lucimeire considers Gort her true home.She tells Vicky Farncombe how being in Ireland changed her outlook on life.“I learned that a woman can have their own life, especially going to the pub alone without their husbands!”(Photo: Traditional Brazilian carnival dancers strut their stuff in Gort. Credit: John Kelly, Clare Champion)

The Juliet Club is in Verona, Italy, a place known throughout the world as being the city of love. The club has been replying to mail addressed to Shakespeare’s tragic heroine, Juliet since the early 1990s. The story of the Juliet letters started in the 1930s when the guardian of what is known as Juliet’s tomb began gathering the first letters people left at the grave and answering them. The task was taken on by the Juliet Club which was founded by Giulio Tamassia in 1972. His daughter, Giovanna, tells Gill Kearsley that thousands of love letters from around the world are each given a personal response.(Photo: Letters to the Juliet Club. Credit: Leonello Bertolucci/Getty Images)