BBC World Service - Witness History

The First Outbreak of the Ebola Virus

Almost 300 people died before the outbreak in Zaire in 1976 was eventually contained

In March 1999, US doctor Jack Kevorkian was convicted for performing euthanasia

In March 1989, Soviet citizens were given a chance to vote for non-communists candidates

How Poi E became the first Maori language song to reach number one in New Zealand

In 1947 a passenger plane vanished without trace, only to reappear 53 years later

Hundreds of doomsday cult members were found murdered in Uganda in March 2000

AZT was approved within two years, the fastest approval in US history at the time

Princess Anne escaped a kidnap attempt by a lone gunman in London in March 1974

In the 1960s foreign workers were invited to power the country's economic regeneration

An oil tanker hit the rocks off the the south-west coast of England in March 1967