The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.
Our guest is Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony, a historian of spaceflight at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, USA.
We start with the founding of Malaysia's space agency in 2002, and a competition to find the country's first astronaut.
Then, we hear how, in the US, lethal injection was used as a form of execution for the first time in 1982.
We find out how, in 2002, Bangladesh became the first country to ban single-use plastic bags.
Next we head to Denmark in 1962, for a ground-breaking archaeological excavation of five Viking ships.
Then in Sporting Witness, how Wales surprised the world in 2016 by making it to the semi-finals of the European Championships in France.
Finally, we meet the 'guardian angel' of one of the world's most famous highways, Route 66.
Contributors:
Professor Mazlan Othman, founding director of the Malaysian National Space Agency.
Bill LaRowe - former director of the Texas Center for Correctional Services.
Dr. Shahriar Hossain - pioneer in the global campaign to ban single-use plastic bags.
Girth Lerche - student member of the archaeological team for the Skuldelev Viking ships.
Hal Robson-Kanu - former Wales striker.
Angel Delgadillo - 'guardian angel' of Route 66.
(Photo: Malaysia's first astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, 10 October 2007. Credit: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.
We learn about how the James Bond film Spectre inspired Mexico City’s first Day of the Dead parade in 2016.
Our guest, Professor Erica Borgstrom, takes us around the world to learn how death is celebrated in different cultures.
Plus, how one woman survived Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013; a former altar boy’s memories of Pope Leo XIV’s time in Peru and Brazil’s Mariana dam disaster of 2015.
In Sporting Witness, the story of the Island Games.
And finally, we meet the father of stencil graffiti in France.
Contributors:
Alejandra González Anaya – organiser of Mexico City’s first Day of the Dead parade
Erica Borgstrom - professor of Medical Anthropology at the Open University
Joanna Sustento – survivor of Super Typhoon Haiyan
Héctor Camacho – friend of Pope Leo XIV
Paula Geralda Alves – survivor of the Mariana dam disaster
Pal Joensen – Island Games competitor
Xavier Prou – father of stencil graffiti
(Photo: The James Bond inspired Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City in 2016. Credit: Maria Calls/AFP via Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.
We hear a survivor's incredible archive account of living through the Siege of Paris in 1870. Sydney Snell was in her 80s when she recorded her memories with the BBC in 1946.
Our guest Professor Beatrice Heuser, from the General Staff College of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg, Germany, explains how sieges in other military campaigns have influenced history.
There’s more on why newly reunified Germany held a vote in 1991 to decide which city would become its capital: Bonn or Berlin.
Plus, the world’s first public earthquake warning system launches in Mexico. And the story behind singer George Michael's cheeky video response to his arrest in a public toilet in Beverly Hills.
Also, the creation of CAMRA, one of Europe's most successful consumer movements. And in Sporting Witness, German football embraces its first shirt sponsor in 1973.
Contributors:
Sydney Snell – survivor of the Siege of Paris.
Professor Beatrice Heuser – historian, General Staff College of the Bundeswehr, Hamburg
Jürgen Nimptsch – former mayor of Bonn.
Wolfgang Schäuble – former German interior minister.
Juan Manuel Espinosa Aranda – Seismic Instrumentation and Record Centre director.
Bernd Gersdorff – retired footballer.
Graham Lees – CAMRA co-founder.
Vaughan Arnell – video director.
(Image: Army cannons at Le Raincy, the siege of Paris, 1870. Credit: API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.
American artist Keith Haring's bold 1986 mural on the Berlin Wall and British naturalist Gerald Durrell's 1950s mission to save species from extinction.
We discuss other examples of art which aim to bring peace and unity around the world with Dr Lucy Weir, head of art history at the University of Edinburgh.
Plus Malta's divorce referendum in 2011, Hungary's 1956 uprising, the first Refugee Olympic Team of 2016 and how Ten Canoes made cinema history in Australia in 2006.
Contributors:
Alexandra Hildebrandt - the chairwoman of the Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.
Dr Lucy Weir - the head of the history of art at the University of Edinburgh.
Gerald Durrell - British naturalist.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando - Maltese MP.
Péter Pallai - survivor of the Hungarian uprising.
Frances Djulibing - actor in Ten Canoes.
Rose Lokonyen - 800m runner for the Refugee Olympic Team.
(Photo: Keith Haring painting his mural on the Berlin Wall in 1986. Credit: Patrick Piel/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.
We hear about the tests on baby rhesus monkeys which would become some of the most controversial in modern science. Also, the chimpanzee who apparently learned American sign language.
Our guest zoologist Megan McCubbin discusses how ethics around using animals in experiments have changed over the years. And we hear about the two monkeys that were sent into space in the late 1950s.
Also the campaign to get chimps listed as endangered, and the murder of the mountain gorilla scientist Dian Fossey. Finally in this week's Sporting Witness, we learn why Manchester City fans started taking inflatable bananas to games in the late 80s.
Contributors:
Harry Harlow - psychologist.
Roger Fouts - worked with Washoe the chimpanzee.
Megan McCubbin - zoologist and author.
Dr Ron Nowak - led the team which declared chimpanzees endangered.
Lieutenant Joe Guion - commander of the USS Kiowa.
Kelly Stewart - Dian Fossey’s colleague.
Dr Gary James - football historian.
Imre Varadi - former Man City striker.
(Photo: Monkeys Able and Baker at a press conference to mark their return from space. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)