BBC World Service - Witness History

Ron Kovic - Ex US Marine and peace activist

How ex-US Marine Ron Kovic became a peace activist after being paralysed in Vietnam

In 1975 he became the first African-American man to win the tennis tournament.

How a gypsy singer called Camaron de la Isla revolutionised the world of flamenco

In the 1960s, British mercenaries joined the fighting in Yemen's civil war

The six-year-old boy caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between Miami and Havana

President Kennedy's emotional visit to Ireland shortly before his assassination in 1963

In June 1997 the Soufriere Hills volcano erupted on the Caribbean island of Montserrat

Andrew Wiles on solving the problem which had intrigued mathematicians for centuries

An eyewitness account of the launch of Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union

The story of the coming of the first West Indian migrants to Britain, back in 1948