Hello and welcome this is the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson the past brought to life by those who were there

This week the strange story of an exploding whale

We were hearing,

Pup, pump, pump, pump, pump,

things hitting the ground.

And Doug and I both kind of looked at each other,

realizing that stuff was coming down around us.

Plus, the discovery of diamonds in Botswana.

In the morning when I woke up, I thought, well, this was just going to be another day.

In the evening, I realized that this was probably the most exciting day in my

whole life. And how Britain learned to love Indian curry. A lot of people will have chips and curry.

Rice was difficult to sell.

Oh, how things have changed.

That's all coming up later.

But first, one of the lingering effects of the Lebanese Civil War. It's estimated that more than 120,000 people

died in the 15 years of fighting between rival religious and ethnic militias from 1975 to

1990. On top of that, tens of thousands were displaced

inside the country and around a million Lebanese are thought to have fled abroad. Those figures

are shocking enough, but they don't take into account one further group, the

thousands who disappeared, abducted by militias and soldiers from one side or another in the complex

and brutal fighting. But in November 1982 a group of women marched

through Central Beirut demanding the return of their missing relatives.

...