Witness: Archive 2011

In February 1965, the controversial black leader, Malcolm X, was assassinated in Harlem, New York.Witness speaks to a supporter of Malcolm X who saw the killing.

When democratic elections were held in Nicaragua in 1990, many observers expected the Sandinistas to win easily. But they were defeated by a right-wing coalition led by Violeta Chamorro. Her son talks to Witness about the difficulties her candidacy presented to the family.

Before 1956, Josef Stalin had always been portrayed as a hero of the Soviet Union.Then, in a secret speech to a Communist Party conference, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced him as a brutal and paranoid tryant.Witness hears from Russians who remember the speech and the shock it caused.

In 1986, thousands of peaceful demonstrators took to the streets of the Philippine capital, Manila.Just days later, President Ferdinand Marcos was forced from power.For Witness, the leading Philippine novelist, Jose Dalisay, recalls the demonstrations.

Rioting in Algeria in October 1988 killed around 500 people and started a period of political turmoil. A short-lived experiment in democracy ended in a violent civil war between Islamists and the Algerian army. A state of emergency remains in force until today. Witness speaks to a foreign journalist and an Algerian student who both experienced a turning point in the country's history.(Photo: Algiers citizens help to clean up the main avenue of the Belcourt area in Algiers 08 October 1988 after three days of rioting.) (Credit: STF/AFP/Getty Images)

When the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh disappeared it was assumed he had been kidnapped. Two months later on 12 May the child's badly decomposed body was found less than five miles (8 km) from the Lindbergh's home. An autopsy found that he had been killed by a blow to the head shortly after the kidnapping. It was one of the biggest stories in the US in the years before World War II.

The creation of a cloned sheep had massive implications for the worlds of science and medicine. Sir Ian Wilmut led the team which created Dolly and describes what she was like and why did she died after only seven years.

In February 1779 the great British explorer Captain Cook was beaten to death in Hawaii.For several weeks, he and his men had been staying quite peacefully on the island. So what happened to change his relationship with the local people?Simon Watts looks back on Captain Cook's last days.

The fall of Singapore was one of the most serious losses suffered by the Allies during World War II. One British survivor of that battle tells his story.

The former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, was driving through central Beirut when a remote-controlled bomb was detonated under his armour-plated car. 22 other people were killed in the attack.

Pushkin died after a duel with a Frenchman. Rumours about the other man's relationship with Pushkin's much younger wife had led to the stand-off. Elaine Feinstein is a Pushkin biographer.

On 9 February 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy began his hunt for communists in the US.Throughout the Cold War, people on the left of politics came under attack in the US. They were put on trial, lost their jobs, and some were jailed. An American communist talks to Witness.

For almost 18 months Irish republicans had refrained from bombing mainland Britain. But on this day 15 years ago, they returned to violence.

Among those fighting against Iraq in 1991 was a British airman John Nichol, who was shot down and captured by Iraqi forces. He tells Witness about his time in captivity.

After weeks of popular unrest, the dictator known as Baby Doc Duvalier, finally left Haiti on 7 February 1986. But Haitians did not find the peace and prosperity they had hoped for after the fall of the Duvalier dynasty.

On February 5 1994, an attack on a marketplace in the centre of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, shocked the world. It led to a change in the international attitude towards the war in the former Yugoslavia.In its aftermath, Nato began air strikes against Serbian forces.

The first week of February 1979 saw a revolution unfolding in Iran.After the Shah had left, and Ayatollah Khomeini had arrived back in the country, it was only a matter of time before the Islamic revolution in Iran was complete.Mohsen Sazegara was at the heart of those changes - he talks to Witness.

With his snarl and spikey hair, the Sex Pistols bassist, Sid Vicious, was the embodiment of punk rock.New York photographer, Eileen Polk, hung out with Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, when they moved to the city.For Witness, she recalls their final days and Sid Vicious's death in February 1979.Image: Nancy Spungen and Sid Vicious, pictured in 1978 (Credit: Press Association)

When a winter storm combined with high tides to breach sea defences in the Netherlands, over 1800 people drowned. A survivor remembers the once in a lifetime flood.

When Leningrad was cut off from the rest of Russia by German troops during World War Two, one third of its population died.Some were killed in the fighting, but most died of hunger.(Photo: Two women collect remains of a dead horse for food, during the siege of Leningrad) (Credit: World History Archive/TopFoto)