Washington DC and a film noir classic

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We learn why the Mount Pleasant riots erupted in Washington DC in 1991, and hear from our guest, Sarah Jane Shoenfeld, a public historian of the US capital.

Plus, more on John Lennon’s benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York, his final and only full-length solo shows after leaving The Beatles.

And the story behind how the world's first permanent international criminal court was created in 1998.

Also, when the internet security tool, Captcha, moved from an idea to a reality, and why a photo of Chile’s goalkeeper in 1989 exposed a cheating scandal.

Finally, a peak behind the scenes of the making of a noir film classic, The Third Man.

Contributors:

Victor ‘Lilo’ Gonzalez – Mount Pleasant resident. Sarah Jane Shoenfeld - public historian. Andrei Broder – computer scientist. Judge Phillipe Kirsch – chair of the Rome conference. Geraldo Rivera – TV journalist. Ricardo Alfieri – sports photographer. Angela Allen - production assistant.

(Photo: Capitol Building, Washington DC. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.
0:08.9	In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?
0:16.2	Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.
0:20.0	A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by
0:23.1	their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me,
0:28.6	Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to The History Hour from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson, the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:44.4	This week, John Lennon's last solo concerts in 1970s, New York.
0:49.6	It was palpable, the excitement, the buzz.
0:53.5	John was this fabled character.
0:55.9	He's about to walk out.
0:58.0	It is unbelievable.
0:59.8	Also, the birth of an internet security tool
1:02.1	aiming to keep us safe online.
1:04.8	This was a little bit of a joke.
1:07.6	Captcha somehow sounds like something
1:09.7	you are catching the spammers, so it was a nice
1:12.7	coinage. Plus, the making of the 1949 masterpiece of film noir, the third man, and how the
1:22.0	international criminal court was formed to fight crimes against humanity. The atmosphere in that room
1:27.1	was historic.
1:28.6	Delegates who normally are fairly controlled
1:30.9	were in the arms of one or another.
1:33.1	They were on tables, they were crying.
	...

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