In 1532 a few hundred Spanish conquistadors took on tens of thousands of Inca warriors. As the two sides met, the Spanish governor Pisaro put out an invitation to emperor Atahualpa who was promised he would be received as a friend and a brother. But the Inca emperor was taken captive and thousands of his followers were killed.

Freddie Mercury's personal assistant remembers the last days of the musician's battle with Aids.

The story of how acclaimed Japanese writer Yukio Mishima ended his life in a violent and bloody way.

We hear a graphic account of the killing of hundreds of captured Taliban after they rose up inside a prison in Mazar-e-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan during the first dramatic weeks of the West's invasion of the country

It is over 60 years since men at the Roswell air base in New Mexico first reported strange lights above the desert. Then they found strange debris in the sand. But were they the remains of a UFO?

The week that Prince William chose to announce his engagement coincides with the anniversary of an interview that the late Princess Diana gave to the BBC TV programme Panorama.

With Somali pirates on trial in the United States, we go back to the era of America's Civil War and a piracy trial that gripped the country.

Tank on Athens street. Getty Images The leader of a student protest in Greece nearly 40 years ago tells us of the moment when the country's military junta sent in the tanks, and how she only just managed to escape with her life.

What was Benazir Bhutto like as a young woman and why did she follow her father into politics? Victoria Schofield met her at Oxford university in the 1970s where they became friends for life.

In November 1940 sustained German bombing raids left the ancient English city of Coventry in ruins. Its medieval cathedral burned down and hundreds of its citizens were killed. Alan Johnston looks back for Witness.

Ruby Bridges was just six years old when she became the focus of the American civil rights movement in November 1960. She was one of the first black children to go to a white elementary school. Her presence caused riots on the streets of New Orleans. There is language used in this programme which some listeners may find offensive.

World War I produced a generation of British poets like no other. Witness hears from the son of Robert Graves, about his father's wartime experience and the poetry that grew out of it.

When Barack Obama was about six years old his mother remarried and the family moved to the Indonesian capital Jakarta. There, he learnt the local language and went to an ordinary Indonesian school.

Some listeners may find parts of this programme disturbing. With enough sex, violence, and swearing to outrage even London audiences, the play Blasted caused a scandal when it was first performed. But did it change British theatre in more fundamental ways?

When the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez canal in 1956, he took control of one of the main oil routes from the Middle East. France and Britain tried to seize it back. Witness speaks to Tony Bunce, who was a young British soldier involved in the invasion of Port Said in 1956. (Photo: The wreckage of a ship sunk by Egyptians to block the Suez Canal appears at the surface of water, 11 November 1956 in Port Said.) (Credit: STAFF/AFP/Getty Images)

It's twenty years since Burma last held a general election. We hear from someone who was there about the atmosphere, the excitement and the risks of living through that time.

On 4 November 1995 the Israeli rock star Aviv Geffen sang at a peace rally in Tel Aviv alongside Israel's leader Yitzhak Rabin. Moments later the Prime Minister was shot. Aviv Geffen talks to Witness about that night, and its effect on his life.