The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.For nearly 40 years, Siegfried and Roy wowed audiences in Las Vegas with death-defying tricks involving white lions and tigers. But in 2003, their magic show came to a dramatic end when a tiger attacked Roy live on stage.We find out what went wrong, and speak to magician and author Margaret Steele about the - sometimes dangerous - history of illusion and magic.Plus, we learn more about the so-called ‘Ken Burns effect’; the technique of making still photographs that appear to be moving. In 2002, the method came to the attention of one of the biggest names in the field of technology, Steve Jobs.Also, the New Zealand woman who was nicknamed ‘the Queen of the Skies’ for her record breaking flights of the 1930s. Jean Batten flew planes made of wood and canvas during the golden age of aviation.And we go back to 1996 for Brazil's early adoption of electronic voting, and discover more about the experiments behind the creation of Greenwich Mean Time.Contributors: Ken Burns - film maker Chris Lawrence - animal trainer Margaret Steele - magic historian, magician and author Carlos Velozo - lawyer Jean Batten – aviator Emily Akkermans - Curator of Time, Royal Museums Greenwich Keith Moore - the Royal Society of London(Photo: Siegfried and Roy with a white lion cub, Las Vegas, 1997. Credit: Barry King/WireImage)

First, on its 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, we hear from Luke Gygax, whose father created the fantasy role-play game. We also hear from Dr Melissa Rogerson, senior lecturer and board games researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia.Then, the first dinosaur remains discovered in Antarctica in 1986, by Argentinian geologist Eduardo Olivero.Next, Ethiopia’s internal relief efforts during the famine in 1984, led by Dawit Giorgis. Plus, the fight to stop skin lightening in India with Kavitha Emmanuel who launched a campaign in 2013. Finally, Angolan singer and former athlete Jose Adelino Barceló de Carvalho, known as Bonga Kwenda, speaks about his music being banned in 1972 and going into exile.Presenter: Max Pearson(Photo: Vintage game modules from the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons on display. Credit: E.Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Getty Images)

We hear about the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan in 2014. Brian Hioe, an activist who occupied Parliament in Taipei, recalls the events.We hear from Nino Zuriashvili, one of the protesters at the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003. And Prof Kasia Boddy, author of Blooming Flowers: A Seasonal History of Plants and People explains how flowers have been used as symbols in political history.Plus, the Afghan refugee who fled as a 15 year old. Waheed Arian, a doctor and former Afghan refugee describes his perilous journey.We look at the Yellow Fleet of ships, which were stranded in the Suez Canal for eight years. Phil Saul, who looked after the engineers and officers on board the MS Melampus and MS Agapenor in the Suez Canal, recounts his experiences.Finally, the story of the British afro hair care institution Dyke and Dryden. We hear from Rudi Page, the former marketing manager for Dyke and Dryden's afro hair products.Presenter: Max Pearson(Photo: An activist taking part in the Sunflower Movement in Taipei on 21 March 2014. Credit: Mandy Cheng/AFP)

We start with the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the ENIAC, built in 1946 by a team of female mathematicians including Kathleen Kay McNulty. We speak to Gini Mauchly Calcerano, daughter of Kathleen Kay McNulty, who developed ENIAC.Then we hear about the man who invented the original chatbot, called Eliza, but did not believe computers could achieve intelligence. We speak to Miriam Weizenbaum, daughter of Joseph Weizenbaum, who built Eliza chatbot.Following that, Dr Hiromichi Fujisawa describes how his team at Waseda University in Japan developed the first humanoid robot in 1973, called WABOT-1.Staying in Japan, the engineer Masahiro Hara explains how he was inspired to design the first QR code by his favourite board game.Finally, Thérèse Izay Kirongozi recounts how the death of her brother drove her to build robots that manage traffic in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. Our guest is Zoe Kleinman, the BBC's technology editor.(Photo: Robots manage traffic in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Credit: Federico Scoppa/AFP)

We start our programme in 1973, when two men claiming to be Colombian guerrillas hijacked a plane making it fly across Latin American for 60 hours. Edilma Perez was a former fight attendant for SAM airline.Our expert guest is Brendan Koerner author of The Skies Belong To Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking.Then we take a look at the 2009 UN-backed war crime tribunals in Cambodia that aimed to hold the genocidal Khmer Rouge commanders to account. Rob Hamill, brother of Toul Sleng prisoner Kerry Hamill.Following that we hear about the striking speech that inspired the Law of the Sea. We speak Christina Pardo Menez, Arvid Pardo's daughter and David Attard, Arvid Pardo's friend.Then we go back to 1989 and hear how South Africa became the first country to make and then dismantle nuclear weapons. André Buys, was plant manager and systems engineer at Kentron Circle.And finally we hear a first hand account of the 1938 Kristallnacht from Kurt Salomon Maier.Presenter: Max Pearson (Photo: SAM airlines 1973 Latin American flight. Credit: Jamie Escobar)

We start with the story of a couple who were arrested under South Africa's Immorality Act, which banned sexual relationships between white people and non-white people. Dr Zureena Desai was arrested under the Immorality Act in South Africa.Another law banned Inter-racial marriage in South Africa. In 1985, this was lifted. Suzanne La Clerc and Protas Madlala, the first inter-racial couple to get married under new rules in South Africa share their memories.Our guest is Dr Susanne Klausen, The Brill professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at The Pennsylvania State University in the USA. She talks about love, marriage and sex in apartheid South Africa and the two laws that were both repealed on the same day in 1985. We hear from Urban Lambertson, survivor of the Estonia ferry disaster in 1994, one of the deadliest shipping disasters since the Titanic. Film-maker Allen Hughes tells of the time when rap sensation, Tupac Shakur was fired from the crime movie Menace II Society.Finally, the ‘moon man of India’ Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, a scientist working on India’s Mars Orbiter Mission tells of the country’s momentous mission to Mars. (Photo: Dr Zureena Desai. Credit: Abrie Jantjies)

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.We start our programme looking at the discovery of New Zealand’s first dinosaur by Joan Wiffen.Our expert guest is Professor Eugenia Gold, a paleontologist at Suffolk University, in Boston, United States, and the author of children’s book She Found Fossils.Then, we hear how the CT scanner was invented.Following that, we go to India in 1994 and an outbreak of the pneumonic plague.Plus, the story of how a small group of mountaineers risked their lives to camouflage landmarks in Leningrad during World War Two.Finally, we hear from designer Ruth Kedar about how she came to create one of the most famous logos in history.Contributors:Chris Wiffen – son of late fossil-hunter Joan Wiffen.Professor Eugenia Gold – paleontologist at Suffolk University, Boston, United States.Robert Cormack – son of late CT scanner inventor, Allan Cormack.Doctor Vibha Marfatia – who escaped the pneumonic plague.Mikhail Bobrov – late mountaineer who helped save Leningrad’s landmarks.Ruth Kedar - designer of the Google logo.(Photo: Theropod dinosaur. Credit: Science Photo Library)

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes. We’re looking at key moments in Ethiopian history, as it’s 50 years since Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in a military coup. We start our programme looking at the moment a military junta called the Derg who ousted the monarchy in September 1974. Then, we hear how, before this, the Emperor lived in exile in Bath, in the west of England.Our expert guest is Hewan Semon Marye, who is junior professor at the University of Hamburg in Germany. Then, Abebech Gobena who founded an orphanage and was known as Africa’s Mother Teresa. Following that, the oldest skeleton of a human ancestor, discovered in 1994. Finally, the Axum Obelisk, returned to Ethiopia in 2005, after being looted by Italy’s fascist dictator. Contributors: Lij Mulugeta Asseratte Kassa – relative of Haile Selassie. Professor Shawn-Naphtali Sobers – University of the West of England, Bristol. Professor Hewan Semon Marye – Ethiopian Studies and Contemporary North-East African Studies at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Hannah Merkana – raised in Abebech Gobena’s orphanage.Professor Yohannes Haile Selassie – Paleoanthropologist.Michele Daniele – Architect.(Photo: Haile Selassie in his study. Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Myra Anubi presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. We hear about the Irish law that banned married women from working in state jobs until 1973 and Apollo 13's attempted trip to the Moon in 1970.Plus the Umbrella protest in Hong Kong, the ancient Egyptian mummy who flew to France for a makeover and the Argentine basketball player and wrestler nicknamed the Giant.Contributors: Bernie Flynn - one of the first married women to keep her job after the marriage bar was abolished in Ireland. Irene Mosca - economics lecturer at Maynooth University, in Ireland. Fred Haise - NASA astronaut who was on board Apollo 13. Nathan Law - leader of the Umbrella protest in Hong Kong. Anne-Marie Gouden - receptionist at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. Julio Lamas - Jorge Gonzalez's basketball coach. Bill Alfonso - wrestling referee and Jorge Gonzalez's personal assistant.(Photo: A couple on their wedding day. Credit: Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. Our guest is European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who completed the longest uninterrupted space flight of any European.First, we go to Australia in the 1990s when amateur radio enthusiast Maggie Iaquinto befriended Soviet cosmonauts on the Mir space station. She updated them on global news as the USSR crumbled back on Earth.Then, the inspiring story of Waris Dirie, who walked barefoot across the Somalian desert to escape child marriage and became an international supermodel.We hear a harrowing account of Guatemala's civil war that ended in 1996.Then, why the author of Mary Poppins, PL Travers, hated the Disney film. Finally, the Canadian town that welcomed aliens in 1967.Contributors: Samantha Cristoforetti - European Space Agency astronaut. Ben Iaquinto - son of Maggie Iaquinto who befriended Soviet cosmonauts. Waris Dirie - model from Somalia. Jeremias Tecu - survivor of Guatemala's civil war. Brian Sibley and Kitty Travers - friend and daughter of PL Travers. Paul Boisvert - worked on Canada's alien landing pad.(Photo: Mir Space Station in 1995. Credit: Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)