logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2019
50m 13s

The assassination of Medgar Evers

Bbc World Service
About this episode

An African-American civil rights hero, a Chinese online star, the tragic icon of Iran's reform movement and archive recordings of the psychoanalyst CG Jung. Plus the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin's love of yoga.

Photo:Roy Wilkins and Medgar Evers Being Arrested on 1st June 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi. Credit: Getty Images

Up next
Nov 22
Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain and ending the Bosnian war
<p>Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mercedes Peñalba- Sotorrío, a senior lecturer in modern European history at Manchester Metropolitan University, England.</p><p>We start with the death of General ... Show More
1 h
Nov 15
Speed of Sound and prosecuting Nazis
<p>Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor.</p><p>We start with an archive interview of American Chuck Yeager who became the first pilot to fly faster than the speed ... Show More
1h 1m
Nov 8
The largest dinosaur and creating Miffy
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Darja Dankina, who's a palaeontologist from the Natures Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. We start with the discovery of the largest dinosaur ever, uncovered by ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2023
4 Royal Assassinations
Assassination – the murder of a prominent person, often for political motives. These calamities shock the world and can change the course of history. But as we will learn from the following shocking accounts, violence can only beget more violence. And the aspirations of assassins ... Show More
23m 18s
Mar 2021
The dirtiest chess match in history
In 1978, the World Chess Championship between the Soviet champion and convinced communist, Anatoly Karpov, and the dissident and defector, Viktor Korchnoi, turned into one of the most infamous clashes in the history of the game. At a time of peak Cold War tension, the two players ... Show More
9m 2s
Jun 2022
The killing of Vincent Chin
In June 1982 a young Chinese-American engineer was murdered with a baseball bat by two white men in the US city of Detroit. The lenient sentences the perpetrators received sparked an Asian-American civil rights movement with protests across the US. At the time, America was going ... Show More
12m 25s
Mar 2021
Assassinations: from the ancient world to JFK
Historian John Withington, author of Assassins’ Deeds: A History of Assassination from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day, explores some of history’s most notorious political killings. From the first known assassination to the plots to kill Franz Ferdinand and JFK, he reveals how t ... Show More
49m 14s
Mar 2021
The Sharpeville massacre
In March 1960, the South African police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators in the township of Sharpeville, killing 69 people and injuring nearly 200 more. The massacre outraged black South Africans, leading to a radicalisation of anti-apartheid organisations such as the ANC ... Show More
9m 3s
Aug 2023
Iran: How the prime minister was overthrown in 1953
The coup of 1953 changed the course of Iranian history. The USA - with British help - overthrew a nationalist prime minister and installed the Shah in power. In 2010, Alan Johnston heard archive recordings of the CIA officer who played a part and spoke to Hedayat Matine-Daftary, ... Show More
9 m
May 2023
Tokugawa Iemitsu
<p>Through the life of this 17th century Japanese shogun, we explore the role of same-sex relationships in Japanese court culture of the time, the radically different meanings of age and gender in different times and places, and a gay teen romance that ends, alas, with being stab ... Show More
56m 3s
Oct 2013
The Death of Steve Biko
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 ... Show More
8m 59s
Jun 2023
5 Assassinations That Changed History
Assassins have been plotting, murdering, and executing for thousands of years—from the famed Ides of March to forgotten British Prime Ministers. Their reach across history is inconceivable. But what motivates an assassin, and have their murderous ways ever helped them achieve the ... Show More
41m 49s