Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.
We hear about the Juliet Club in Verona, Italy. The club has been replying to mail addressed to Shakespeare’s tragic heroine, Juliet since the early 1990s.
Professor Lisa Bitel talks about the traditions of Valentine’s Day.
Plus, how the small Irish town of Gort became known as ‘Little Brazil’ because it's home to so many Brazilians. The World War Two escape line that fooled the Nazis and the stadium disaster that shocked Egypt.
And the story of the food supplement used by soldiers during the Nigerian civil war that became a drink enjoyed in more than 70 countries around the world.
Contributors: Giovanna Tamassia - daughter of Giulio Tamassia, one of the founders of the Juliet Club. Professor Lisa Bitel - Professor of History & Religion at the University of Southern California, USA. Lucimeire Trindade – resident of Gort, Ireland. Keith Janes – son of captured a British soldier. Christine Lepers – daughter of a French resistance fighter. Mahmoud Al-Khawaga – former footballer with Zamalek. Peter Rasmussen – creator of the drink Supermalt.
(Photo: Giovanna Tamassia from the Juliet Club. Credit: Leonello Bertolucci/Getty Images)
The mystery of the disappearing frogs
Storming the Stasi HQ
The Computers for Schools revolution
The book that warned of an end to civilisation
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Romanian revolution
The Cuban writer who defied Castro
The man who gave his voice to Stephen Hawking
I saw the soldiers who killed El Salvador's priests
Rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean
Britain's secret propaganda war
'Jane' - the underground abortion service
The fall of the Berlin Wall
An environmental history special
Black British history
The birth of the People's Republic of China
Fighting the Islamic State group online
The Cambridge spy network
Conflict timber in Liberia's civil war
The outbreak of World War Two
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