Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We first hear about a bloodless war between Denmark and Canada, that involved whisky.
In 1984, the two nations were disputing the ownership of the tiny Hans Island, just off the coast of Greenland. It might be the friendliest territorial dispute ever.
We hear from Tom Hoyem and Alan Kessel, politicians on either side.
And we have historian Ditte Melitha Kristensen, from the National Museum and Archives of Greenland, to shed some light on the history of the country.
Plus, how Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva discovered the richest tomb ever found in the America’s: the final resting place of the ancient ruler, the Lord of Sipan.
Also, we go back to the 1960s when 1,500 Torah scrolls appeared at a synagogue in London.
And a Crimea double-bill. We go back to 2014 when Russia annexed the Ukranian peninsula, and then back to the 1980s, when it was used as a holiday camp for children across the Soviet Union.
Contributors: Tom Hoyem— Minister for Greenland in Denmark. Alan Kessel— Assistant Deputy Minister for Legal Affairs in Canada. Ditte Melitha Kristensen — Greenland historian. Walter Alva— Archaeologist. Phillippa Bernard — Founder member of Westminster Synagogue. Maria Kim Espeland — One of the thousands of children who visited the Artek holiday camp.
(Photo: Greenland. Credit: Thomas Traasdashi/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
Thirty years since the first free elections in South Africa
Ebola outbreak and the Friendship Train returns
The history of art heists
Swedish History
Seventy-five years of Nato and the Heimlich Manoeuvre
Chinese history
Finding early vertebrate’s footprints and the Deaflympic badminton champion
Uruguay's smoking ban and the Carnation Revolution
Skiing and two-headed dogs
Letters to Juliet and Saint Valentine’s traditions
Inspirational black women
Internet cafes and Doomsday seeds
Traitors and treachery
Lady Tarzan and Ibadan Zoo
The first lesbian couple to get married and World Laughter Day
Hindenburg disaster and wingsuits
Pad Thai, kiwis and the chef Ken Hom
Tsunamis and Caster Semenya
Mandela's funeral and Tsar's reburial
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