Witness: Witness Archive 2015

In 1965 the young working class playwright burst onto the British theatre scene. But within 2 years he was dead - killed by his lover. Hear from Joe Orton's sister Leonie Orton Barnett, and the actor Kenneth Cranham who knew him well. Photo: Joe Orton at home in Islington. Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images.

In April 1992, the main black street gangs in Los Angeles started a historic truce. Aqeela Sherrills took part in peace negotiations in the Watts district. PHOTO: A peace march in Watts (courtesy Aqeela Sherrills)

On April 15th 1905 a passenger train from London pulled into the world's first Garden City, Letchworth, putting it firmly on the map. The city was the idea of Ebenezer Howard, who founded the Garden City Movement in Britain. Photo: Letchworth Garden City - Copyright Garden City Collection

In April 1975 the four-year rule of the brutal Khmer Rouge began in Cambodia. Up to two million people are thought to have died - many summarily executed, or starved to death. Youk Chhang survived. He was just 14 years old at the time. (Photo: Youk Chhang, 2013)

On 10 April 1964, the famously eccentric concert pianist Glenn Gould retired from live performance at the age of 31. One of the most celebrated pianists of the 20th Century, Gould was a reclusive figure celebrated for his unusual interpretations - and also his habit of humming along with his own performances. John Roberts was one of his friends. (Photo: Canadian pianist-composer Glenn Gould rehearsing with an orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, London for a series of Beethoven concertos, using a piano stool only a few inches from the floor. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

The story of one of the most controversial British television films ever made. In April 1980, British television channel ITV screened ‘Death of a Princess’ - a docu-drama about the execution of a 19-year-old Saudi princess along with her lover. Witness speaks to the film’s writer and director, Antony Thomas. (Photo: Jeddah skyline. BBC copyright)

In 1975, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency to avoid a challenge to her political authority. Civil rights were suspended - and the abuses that followed ranged from slum clearances to mass sterilisation programmes. Delhi businessman Zaheer Pansari spoke to Witness about his memories of the time. (Photo: Billboards advertising sterilisation. BBC copyright)

In 1979 Tanzanian troops invaded Uganda and ousted its brutal dictator. His downfall marked the end of a six month conflict between the two countries, which had been triggered by Amin's ill-fated invasion of northern Tanzania.

On April 3 1948 US President Truman signed into law a plan to spend millions of dollars on rebuilding post-war Europe. The Marshall Plan was meant to save the continent from collapse and communist takeover. Photo: Officials at the Royal Victoria Dock in London welcome the first shipment of Caribbean sugar made under the Marshall Plan for Europe. (Photo by Edward Miller/Keystone/Getty Images)

In 1977 the worst air accident in history took place in Tenerife when two jumbo jets collided on a runway. Hear from Robert Bragg the co-pilot of the Pan-Am plane involved in the disaster. Photo Credit: Central Press/Getty Images.

In 1943, during the Second World War, famine struck Bengal in British-run India following the Japanese occupation of neighbouring Burma. No one knows how many people died in the famine but estimates range from 3 to 5 million. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Professor Rafiqul Islam who lived through the famine, one of the worst catastrophes ever to occur under British rule. (Photo; Queue for food in Calcutta. Credit: Corbis)

Discovered by chance by farmers digging a well, the secrets of the Qin Dynasty revealed after 2,000 years. We hear from the lead archaeologist responsible for one of the most important finds of the century, and what it tells us about the sophistication of society at the time in China. (This programme was first broadcast in 2013) (Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images.)

In March 2004 Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. Many publicans feared it would hit their business hard. (Photo: Con Dennehy in his Cork pub, courtesy of Mr. Dennehy)

In March 1963, the British government published the Beeching Report – a plan to radically cut the country’s railway network. Thousands of stations were closed. Witness spoke to Sandy Morrison, one of the civil servants involved in the cuts. (Photo: 1 May 1968, the Flying Scotsman steam locomotive leaves King's Cross station, London. Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

In March 1969 John Lennon of the Beatles and his new wife, Yoko Ono, staged a bed-in for peace in the Amsterdam Hilton, lying in bed for six days and inviting in the world's media as a protest agains the Vietnam war. Witness talks to the Dutch photographer Claude Vanheye who John and Yoko invited to come and have breakfast with them. (Photo: Photographer Claude Vanheye crouches beside the bed where John Lennon and Yoko Ono are staging their bed-in in March 1969. Credit: Nico Koster)

The story of the Black Box flight recorder and the man behind it, an inventive Australian fuels scientist, David Warren. (Photo: Scientist David Warren. Credit: DTSO, Australia )

In March 1962, France signed a ceasefire with Algerian nationalists ending one of the most bitter struggles against colonial rule of the 20th Century. Witness talks to Hamou Amirouche, who saw his father tortured by the French and at 19 joined the Algerian National Liberation army. (Photo: Two French soldiers search an Algerian civilian in the ancient Casbah in the capital, Algiers, 1962. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

How a young West German student helped East Berliners escape Communism at the height of the Cold War. Volker Heinz worked with a Syrian diplomat to smuggle people across the Berlin Wall in the boot of the diplomat's car. From March to September 1966 the pair managed to help more than 60 people to make the crossing. (Photo: East German border guards in 1966 scanning the Berlin Wall. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In March 1969, Golda Meir became Israel's first female prime minister. Witness speaks to her great-niece Alice Golembo. (Photo: Golda Meir. Credit: Gabriel Duval/AFP/Getty Images)

In 1990, thieves in police uniform bluffed their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston stealing 13 works of art worth an estimated $500 million. (Photo: The empty frame of one of the paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Credit: AP)