BBC 1963: July.



BBC News: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust celebrates 50 years
"The Jersey-based Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is celebrating its 50th anniversary of becoming a trust. Naturalist Gerald Durrell registered the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust on 6 July 1963 in the Royal Court. Renamed Durrell in memory of its founder, the wildlife park in Trinity has become world famous, thanks to its work saving endangered species."

BBC News: SA: Rivonia ANC raid remembered 50 years on
"On 11th July 1963 on a small farm near Johannesburg, a police raid took place which proved a pivotal moment for South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle. Nelson Mandela was already in prison, but police seized other top leaders of the ANC's military wing, and found evidence which led to Mandela's life sentence. Mike Wooldridge reports."

BBC News: The truck that smuggled ANC weapons into South Africa
"Liliesleaf Farm in the Rivonia suburb of Johannesburg was a site used by the African National Congress from which to launch its armed struggle against the apartheid state. On 11 July 1963, leading ANC members were arrested there by the police - and went on to face what became known as the Rivonia Trial. Nelson Mandela and his colleagues were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment."

BBC News: Mandela's hideaway farm revisited
"Liliesleaf Farm in the Rivonia suburb of Johannesburg was a site used by the African National Congress from which to launch an armed struggle against white minority rule in South Africa. On 11 July 1963, the heads of the ANC military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which means Spear of the Nation, were arrested there by the police. They went on to face what became known as the Rivonia Trial, at which Nelson Mandela and his colleagues were sentenced to life imprisonment."

Desert Island Discs: Lord Joffe
"In 1963, Joel Joffe was a young defence solicitor, so dismayed by the apartheid system of his native South Africa that he was on the brink of emigrating. Then he was asked to take over the defence of a group of ANC activists including Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Nelson Mandela. The trial gripped the world and was all the more extraordinary because, far from aiming to secure his clients' freedom, Joel Joffe was simply fighting for them not to receive the death penalty. He tells Kirsty how, even in his prison clothes, Nelson Mandela was a figure of calm authority, who guided them through the trial."

Peer Today: What were the implications of the 1963 Peerages Act?
"Fifty years ago this summer - 31 July 1963 to be precise - Labour politician Tony Benn finally won the right to renounce his hereditary peerage and return to the Commons. Mr Benn inherited the title of Viscount Stansgate when his father died, barring him from the Commons where he had been serving his Bristol South East constituents for 10 years. The MP regained his seat in the Commons after winning a by-election held weeks after the Peerages Act came into force. But the Act would also have significant implications for the Conservatives, as Susan Hulme explores."

Change Makers: 1963 Peerage Act and former Labour MP Tony Benn
"Tony Benn's Peerage Act of 1963 is probably not his biggest legacy but, without it, this "persistent commoner" as he likes to call himself, might never have got his career off the ground. Giles Dilnot spoke to the former MP on his battle to stay in the House of Commons and why he would "not be seen dead" in the House of Lords. This is part of a series of interviews, entitled Change Makers, in which the Daily Politics talks to people who have radically changed Britain."

Panorama: Cuba
"'Panorama' reports from Cuba on the celebrations held to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of when Castro first rose up against the Batista dictatorship. In the process, reporter James Mossman reviews the current way of life for the Cuban people in and around Havana and asks whether Castro remains as popular as when he first took up arms on 26 July 1953."

America, Empire of Liberty: Cuba - That Four Letter Word
"An American-backed invasion of Cuba fails but President Kennedy saves face when he stops the Soviet Union from placing missiles on the Caribbean island."

Panorama: Ambulances
"Through following those whose lives are involved in various ways, this programme provides a picture of the ambulance service 15 years after the creation of the NHS."

Good Morning Wales: Rhyl's Little Theatre for children marks 50th anniversary
"A gala is being held in Denbighshire to mark the 50th anniversary of Rhyl's Little Theatre, which was purpose-built theatre for children. It opened in its current building in 1963 and now original members now help run it. Theatre director Gwynne Williams joined the theatre as an eight-year-old, a year after it opened, and Imarlie Stewart, aged 14, sings in Saturday's gala. They spoke to Peter Johnson on BBC Radio Wales' Good Morning Wales."

The Beatles live in Rhyl, 1963
"A brief clip about the Ritz Ballroom and the Westminster Hotel in Rhyl, from the BBC Wales programme The Slate, February 1996."

BBC Proms 1963 season.
An archive guide.

BBC News: Clyde Tunnel marks 50th anniversary
"Glasgow's Clyde Tunnel has marked its 50th anniversary. The crossing beneath the River Clyde was officially opened by the Queen in 1963. The Princess Royal will attend a ceremony to mark its half century, and will meet some of the workers who dug the tunnel by hand."

No comments: