Beirut's hotel war

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear how a comic book fan and his friends began the very first comic convention in New York in 1964. Our guest is comic book expert Dr Barbara Postema, from the University Gr ...  Show more

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.This week, we hear about the first solar-powered flight around the world, and discuss other moments in the history of solar power with Prof Laura Herz, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, in th ...  Show more

At the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, Beirut’s luxury hotel district was turned into a battlefield, with rival groups of gunmen holed up in some of the most expensive accommodation in the Middle East. In 2014, William Kremer spoke to two former employees of the Holiday ...  Show more

In May 1958, Lebanon erupted into crisis. Political and religious tensions had got too much, and people took to the streets to vent their frustration and anger. Desperate for help, President Chamoun turns to the US for help - marking the first of many American interventions in th ...  Show more

In March 1989 fighting intensified in the Lebanese capital Beirut. The Christian leader, General Michel Aoun, had demanded that Syria withdraw all its troops from the country. Hear about the fighting from the point of view of a schoolgirl in East Beirut.Photo:Women running away f ...  Show more

In 1942, Lebanon's National Museum opened in Beirut, celebrating the country's golden age and inside, it housed some of the region's most important artifacts. So when the Lebanese war started in 1975, the museum staff came up with a risky and elaborate scheme to save everything i ...  Show more