BBC World Service - Witness History

Siege of Sidney Street

The bloody battle between British police and a group of revolutionaries in London in 1911

In January 1991 the government of Siad Barre in Somalia, collapsed

One of the worst maritime disasters in history - the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

Sir Winston Churchill, the British wartime leader, died on 24 January, 1965

On 21 January 1793 the French king, Louis XVI was executed in Paris

The story of how Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali came to power in Tunisia

How a B-52 bomber crashed on the Spanish coast while carrying four nuclear weapons.

In January 1997 Borge Ousland became the first person to cross the Antarctic alone

The story of a boy who escaped Nazi Germany on a kindertransport train heading for Britain

We take you back to 1961 when the cap on football wages was abolished in England