BBC World Service - Witness History

South Africa Wins the Rugby World Cup

When South Africa hosted - and won - the Rugby World Cup in 1995 it unified the country

In 1976 South African police opened fire on schoolchildren protesting in Soweto.

In 1961 the African National Congress decided to take up arms against Apartheid

Following the death of Nelson Mandela we remember the system he was fighting against

In 1964, Nelson Mandela was put on trial for treason with seven other ANC activists

For 14 years it was illegal to sell alcohol in the USA - prohibition only ended in 1933

How Charles Silverstein challenged the view that homosexuality was a mental illness

After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, over a million people fled the country by boat.

In December 1980 three US nuns and a layworker were killed in El Salvador

Portuguese soldiers raided the independent West African nation of Guinea in 1970