Witness

On September 9th 1976 the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong died. American Sidney Rittenberg first met him in the 1940s and he spent decades living in Communist China. He spoke to Rebecca Kesby about of one of the world's great revolutionaries.Photo: a poster of Chairman Mao in Beijing in the 1960s. Credit: AFP.

In September 1943, Partisan fighters in Italy began organising in large numbers to help the Allies defeat Nazi Germany and rid their country of the remnants of Benito Mussolini's fascist state. As World War Two drew to a close, there was vicious fighting in many villages between the Partisans and Italians still loyal to the dictator. Alice Gioia speaks to a brother and sister who both took part in the Partisan struggle.PHOTO: Italian Partisans celebrating victory, May 1945 (personal collection)

On September 3rd 1967 all Swedish drivers had to change the habits of decades, and swap to driving on the right-hand side of the road. It brought them into line with most of the rest of Europe (except of course for Britain and Ireland) but caused a day of chaos. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to Bjorn Sylven who remembers that day.Photo: The moment when the traffic changed from left-hand drive to right-hand, in Kings Street, Stockholm, at exactly 5am, on September 3rd 1967. Credit: AP

In September 1847 American soldiers marched triumphantly into Mexico City. It was the end of a bloody conflict between the two nations, but the start of the first American occupation of a foreign capital. Mike Lanchin presents written testimonies from the time. (Photo: General Scott's entrance into Mexico City. Hand coloured lithograph. Credit: Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot)

In the summer of 1978 a British woman, Janet Parker, became the last known victim of the deadly virus smallpox. Professor Alasdair Geddes describes diagnosing smallpox in Janet Parker in 1978 and the events that followed. This programme is a rebroadcast. Claire Bowes spoke to Professor Alasdair Geddes in 2014.Image: Smallpox virus, Credit: Science Photo Library

In 1920, the Communist Red Army bombed the old city of Bukhara and took over the Central Asian kingdom. This was the end of an important centre of Islamic culture. Dina Newman speaks to the son of one of the Bukharan reformers who had made a pact with the Communists.Photo: The Last Emir of Bukhara, 1911 (credit: Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii; Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Prokudin-Gorskii Collection)

This week more than seventy thousand people are gathering in the middle of the desert in Nevada for Burning Man - part festival, part counter-culture phenomenon. This year it's the event's thirtieth anniversary - and we've been speaking to founder and Chief Philosophical Officer Larry Harvey about how they first got started.Picture: Dancers at the 1998 'Burning Man' festival create patterns with fireworks in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada just prior to burning a five-story, neon-lit effigy of a man on the last night of the week-long festival (MIKE NELSON/AFP/Getty Images)

In August 1973, a Latin music supergroup called Fania All Stars played a historic concert at New York's Yankee Stadium. It helped spread the sound of salsa music from New York to the world. Simon Watts talks to Larry Harlow, pianist and producer with the All Stars, and Puerto Rican salsa DJ, Ray Collazo.PHOTO: Fania All Stars singer Hector Lavoe (Getty Images)

In August 2008 a massive military convoy set off across the desert in Helmand carrying a gigantic turbine for a hydro electric power station. Eight years later that turbine is finally being installed - and should help bring electricity to Southern Afghanistan. Monica Whitlock has been speaking to Joe Fossey, then a Major in the British Royal Engineers, who helped get the convoy through.Photo: Major Joe Fossey in Helmand Province. Courtesy of Major Fossey.

In 1986 the British government launched the world's first ever public health campaign on Hiv Aids. It was highly controversial and faced considerable opposition from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mike Lanchin speaks to former Health Minister, Norman Fowler, whose insistence made the campaign a reality.Photo: Norman Fowler of a poster reading "Aids Don"t Die Of Ignorance," Nov. 1986 (Crown Copyright)

In August 1969, Arthur Mitchell founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem - the first classical ballet company to focus on black dancers. Virginia Johnson, now the organisation's director, was a founder member.(Photo: The Dance Theatre of Harlem, circa 1970. Virginia Johnson pictured back row, third from left. Credit: Marbeth)

In August 1973 Kristin Enmark and three colleagues were taken hostage during a bank siege in Stockholm, Sweden. Kristin came to trust one of the kidnappers more than the police, the condition later named the 'Stockholm Syndrome'. Dina Newman spoke to Kristin about her story. (Photo: The hostages photographed as the police opened the bank vault door. Kristin Enmark is in the middle. (Credit: AFP/ EGAN-Polisen)

In August 1982 the notorious London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray were allowed out of prison for their mother's funeral. Though the Kray twins were serving life sentences for murder, their reign of terror and violent crime had seen them mix with London's social elite. Witness has been hearing from Maureen Flanagan, who was Mrs Kray's hairdresser and a close family friend.Photo: Ronnie and Reggie Kray, London 1964 (Photo by Terry Disney/Express/Getty Images)

In August 1916, the US Congress created the National Park Service to protect America's finest landscapes and encourage people to visit them. One of the inspirations for the Park Service was the work of the Scottish-born naturalist, John Muir, whose lyrical writings about the Yosemite Valley gained huge popularity. Simon Watts tells John Muir's story through readings from his work and contributions from Mary Colwell, author of "John Muir: The Scotsman who saves America's Wild Places".PHOTO: John Muir (Getty Images).NOTE: The wildlife audio in this programme is used courtesy of the National Park Service, the National Audubon Society and Kevin Colver.

On August 18 1976 an American platoon was sent into the DMZ between North and South Korea, to trim a tree that was obscuring the view of a manned checkpoint. Two US soldiers were killed as tensions escalated in the no man's land. Rachael Gillman has been speaking to US army veteran Eugene Bickley about his experiences that day.Photo credit: Getty Images

In August 1986 the first Studio Ghibli film hit the cinema screens. It would go on to bring Japanese animation to a world audience. Hirokatsu Kihara was a young animator who joined the studio to work on 'Castle in the Sky' its first feature length film. He has been speaking to Ashley Byrne of Made in Manchester about the early days of the great animation studio.Photo: Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki, one of the founders of Studio Ghibli. Credit: Getty Images.

In 1963 a third of schools in the US had to change their rules on Bible reading after a Supreme Court decision. It all began when a teenager refused to read the Bible in class. 16 year old Ellery Schempp took his school to court accusing them of violating the first amendment by forcing him to read the Bible at the start of every school day. It challenged the principle of a separation of church and state enshrined in the US Constitution. Claire Bowes has been speaking to him for Witness.Photo: Ellery Schempp aged 16 courtesy of Ellery SchemppAudio of Supreme Court provided courtesy of Oyez, a free law project hosted at the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University.

In August 1936, the great poet and dramatist, Federico Garcia Lorca, was murdered by a fascist death squad at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Simon Watts introduces archive recordings of friends of Lorca and speaks to the Hispanist, Ian Gibson. This programme was first broadcast in 2010.PHOTO: Federico Garcia Lorca around 1929 (Popperfoto/Getty Images)

At the end of WW2, hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens who had ended up outside the USSR, escaped forced repatriation by the Red Army. Dina Newman hears from one family, originally from Soviet Belorussia, who disguised their ethnic origin and fled to Australia. Photo: Tanya Iwanow with her daughter Tamara, in Sydney, Australia (family archive)

In 1998, al-Qaeda killed over 200 people in a co-ordinated attack on two US embassies in East Africa. It was one of the first major bombings carried out by the group. We hear from George Mimba who was working in the embassy in Kenya when the attack took place. Photo: Rescue workers at the scene of the Nairobi embassy bombing (AFP/Getty Images)