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The History Hour
Uruguay's smoking ban and the Carnation Revolution
The History Hour
Mar 9, 2024

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We first hear about Uruguay’s tale of David v Goliath - when a tobacco giant took South America's second-smallest country to court over its anti-smoking laws.

Uruguay’s former public health minister María Julia Muñoz describes the significance of the ban and its fallout.

And we shed some light on the wider history of the use of tobacco, its long and controversial history, with Dr Sarah Inskip, a bio-archaeologist at the University of Leicester in the UK.

Plus, the largest search operation in aviation history - ten years on, little is known of the fate of MH370 and the 239 people on board.

Also, Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe on how her sewing school in northern Uganda served as a place of rehabilitation for child soldiers escaping Joseph Kony’s Lord's Resistance Army.

Then, the Carnation Revolution - how Europe’s longest-surviving authoritarian regime was toppled in a day, with barely a drop of blood spilled.

Finally, in August and September 1939, tens of thousands of children began to be evacuated from Paris. Colette Martel, who was nine at the time, describes how a pair of clogs made her feel welcome.

Contributors: María Julia Muñoz - Uruguay’s former public health minister. Dr Sarah Inskip - A bio-archaeologist at the University of Leicester in the UK. Ghyslain Wattrelos - Whose wife and two children were on flight MH370. Adelino Gomes - Witness of the 1974 Carnation Revolution. Colette Martel - Child evacuee in World War Two.

(Photo: An anti-tobacco installation in Montevideo. Credit: Reuters/ Pablo La Rosa)

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Aug 15, 2026
The Mau Mau uprising and man-eating lions

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya.

We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms.

Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the conflict between Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army, the British and Kenyan loyalists.

Next, when Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park.

In 1997, scientists travelled to Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898.

Plus, we hear how Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed an unprecedented power-sharing deal to end a wave of violence that left more than 1,200 people dead.

And the heartwarming story of the friendship between a baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise.

Finally for our Sporting Witness story, we head to the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1983.

Contributors: Caroline Elkins - Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Muthoni Kirima - Field Marshall in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. Frank Gillard - BBC correspondent. Thomas Gnoske - Scientist. Alan Patterson - British Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson's grandson. Maina Kiai - Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in 2008. Maini Schildt - Swedish Ultimate Frisbee player.

(Photo: Mau Mau suspects are rounded up by police outside the camp in Manyani, Kenya, 1955. Credit: Getty Images/Authenticated News)


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Uruguay's smoking ban and the Carnation Revolution

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