Witness History: Archive 2010

*** Contains descriptions that some listeners may find upsetting *** Enslaved Africans are forced to work in sugar cane fields - the hours are long and there are frequent, brutal punishments. They have endured these conditions for 200 years. By 1831 the anti-slavery movement is gathering pace and the slaves decide to take action - by going on strike. Samuel Sharpe became a Jamaican national hero as he led the island's slaves in a rebellion against the overseers and sugar plantation owners.The rebellion was brutally crushed, but over time, the rebellion had a significant impact - and two years later in 1833 the Slavery Abolition Act is passed. Picture: Making sugar in Jamaica, Credit: HultonArchive/Illustrated London News/Getty Images

The play Hamlet can tell us a great deal about the time in which it was written. At the turn of the 16th century England was faced with many of the problems which plague its hero.

The film, The Great Escape, has become an all-time favourite. It is about a mass breakout from a German prison camp during World War 2. Flight Lieutenant Ken Rees, who died in August 2014, took part in the real-life escape effort, and talked to us about the escape.

The nuclear physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov had spent seven years in internal exile in the Soviet city of Gorky.His return marked a change in attitude towards dissidents under the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev.

On December 21 1988 a US passenger plane blew up over Scotland.Pan Am flight 103 was heading for the USA when a bomb exploded on board, killing all the passengers and crew. The wreckage of the plane fell on the small town of Lockerbie in the Scottish borders.Witness hears from one man who lived through that night in Lockerbie.

It is seven years since one of the Washington snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo, was convicted of murder. He and John Allen Muhammad had terrorised the US capital for three weeks in autumn 2002, killing at random.Witness hears from one man who lost his brother during their rampage.

"The destruction of Grozny was apocalyptic... I saw a lot of deaths. I saw people who got wounded by shrapnel from mortar fire and they were dying very slow deaths. But it was very difficult to go and help them because the next target could be you." In December 1994, Russian forces invaded Chechnya and laid siege to the capital Grozny.Aslan Doukaev was a university teacher when the first Chechen war began. He survived months of conflict on the streets before leaving the city for the safety of the mountains.

After eight years of military rule, thousands of mainly young, left-wing, Argentinians had gone missing - 'the disappeared'. Miriam Lewin was one of the few who survived, she talks to Witness.

It is exactly 30 years since the former Beatle, John Lennon, was shot dead in New York.Two days before John Lennon was killed, he spent several hours talking to a young BBC music journalist, Andy Peebles. For Witness, Andy remembers the man he met - his mood, his conversation, his wit.Andy Peebles with John and Yoko

In December 1992, the US sent armed troops into Somalia to help protect aid convoys carrying food to the hungry. They called it Operation Restore Hope - but it was not universally welcomed.

The killing of 4 American churchwomen brought to light the extent of the violence in El Salvador, and the ruthless military tactics used against the liberation theology wing of the Catholic church.

Howard Carter was an English archaeologist who had searched the Valley of the Kings for years - hoping to find the burial place of Tutankhamun. He kept a detailed record of the discovery.