Witness History: Archive 2012

The anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, died in a police cell in 1977. The South African police claimed he'd gone on hunger strike and had starved himself to death, but he had only been in prison a matter of days. Helen Zille was the journalist who helped uncover the truth of his death - that he had in fact died of a brain hemorrhage due to head injuries. The report she published in the Rand Daily Mail showed that the govenment had lied. (Image: Members of the Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) hold a candle light memorial ceremony to mark the death anniversary of the anti-apartheid activist and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement Steve Bantu Biko. Credit: RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP/GettyImages)

In May 1992 the people of South Central Los Angeles took to the streets in fury at police brutality.They were angry that Los Angeles police department officers accused of beating a motorist called Rodney King, had been acquitted.Hear Rodney King's take on the beating, and the unrest and violence that followed it.

During World War II, African soldiers were a vital part of the Allied forces. Many of them were sent to Burma as reinforcements for the British troops there. Hear just some of their memories - recorded by the BBC in the 1990s.Find out more about African troops in Burma in Another Man's War: The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain's Forgotten Army, a book by former BBC correspondent Barnaby Phillips, published June 2015. (Photo: East African soldiers in Burma fighting for Britain in WW2, unknown date. Credit: Topham Picturepoint)

In December 1999 a young Dutch man won the first ever Big Brother reality TV show.It was to be the start of a global television phenomenon. But for 22-year-old Bart Spring in't Veld, his victory proved to be a mixed blessing. Photo: Big Brother winner Bart Spring in't Veld (Endemol)

40 years ago the Americans launched their heaviest aerial bombardment of the Vietnam War. It was to become known as the Christmas bombing campaign. 20 thousand tonnes of explosives were dropped on or around the Northern city of Hanoi.Photo: A B52 flying over Vietnam. Credit: VT Freeze Frame.

In 1964 the British popstar Dusty Springfield went on tour in apartheid South Africa. She said she would only play to racially mixed audiences but the authorities didn't approve. She was forced to leave the country before she had finished her tour.Photo: Dusty in 1964 - BBC.

In December 2003 Colonel Gaddafi announced Libya was giving up trying to make weapons of mass destruction. United Nations weapons inspectors were immediately sent to Tripoli to check. One of them has been speaking to Witness.Photo: AFP/Getty Images

In 1912, Britain's top paleontologists were tricked by one of the biggest hoaxes in scientific history - a skull thought to be the "missing link" in human evolution.The remains were discovered in a gravel pit in rural Sussex and became known as Piltdown Man.Witness tells the story of the hoax using contemporary accounts of what happened.The programme also hears from Dr Miles Russell of Bournemouth University, author of 'Piltdown Man: Case Closed'.Presented and produced by Simon Watts. First broadcast on BBC World Service December 2012.

Twenty years ago a former economist from France, Franck Goddio, began underwater excavations which unearthed a 2000 year old palace belonging to Cleopatra.PHOTO: A diver eye-to-eye with a sphinx. ©Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation. Photographer:Jérôme Delafosse

In 1992, a Paraguayan human rights activist called Martin Almada discovered a huge cache of documents in a run-down police station.The files showed the true extent of repression during the long military rule in Paraguay of General Alfredo Stroessner.And what became known as the "Archive of Terror" also proved that military dictators across South America had swapped prisoners and intelligence in an Operation codenamed Condor.Witness speaks to Martin Almada and the Paraguay expert, Andrew Nickson.PHOTO: AFP/Getty Images

Twenty-five years ago, during the Cold War, a German teenager Mathias Rust, managed to evade Soviet air defences to land his single-engine plane in Moscow's Red Square. Photo Associated Press: Rust's plane in Red Square in 1987.

In 1952, the worst smog in living memory descended over London, reducing visibility so badly that people could barely see a metre in front of them.Public transport came to a standstill, cinemas and theatres closed, and the weekend's football matches were cancelled.The pollution also caused the early deaths of around 5,000 Londoners and finally forced the government to tackle pollution.Witness speaks to Rosemary Merritt, whose father died in the smog.PHOTO: Getty Images.

In December 1984 thousands of people in the Indian city of Bhopal were killed by leak from a chemical plant. The city was enveloped by a cloud of poisonous gas. Two survivors of the disaster have spoken to Witness.Photo:Waiting for treatment outside the hospital. Copyright: Bedi/AFP/Getty Images