her mother and brother escaped to sweden. she made her mark as an olympian, winning five gold medals in the 1952 helsinki games, and at the 1956 melbourne games, which were won after she turned 30 and was competing against gymnasts half her age. when the soviet tanks crushed the hungarian revolution in 1956, she stayed first in australia and then moved to israel, only returning to hungary in 2015. the queen of gymnastics! and now, to mark her centenary, there's a new book about her life, and the energetic spirit of hungary's most successful gymnast remains intact. translation: am i 100 years old? let's blow the candles out! now it's time for a look

at the weather with chris fawkes. hello there. saturday was a cold day for most of the uk, but the weather will be milder for many of us over the next few days. overnight tonight, we've got clouds and rain moving into scotland, that will tend to sink a little bit further southwards with time so turning damp for northern ireland and northern england. further southwards, we've got some fog patches that will reform, re—thicken across parts of east anglia in southern england, visibility down to 100 metres in places. and with a widespread frost, there's a risk of some icy stretches as we start off sunday. now, sunday is going to be a milder day for all of the uk, really, the mist and fog clearing to give bright skies in the south. further north, we've got cloud and rain, particularly so across western scotland with rain particularly persistent here. milder for many of us, temperatures around six or seven degrees celsius, but still cold enough for snow showers in shetland. monday, another mild day for most of us, if anything, a bit milder, but we've got cloud and rain around as well. the exception to the mild theme, again for northern scotland, where it could be cold enough to see some further falls of snow. but for many of us, temperatures

around seven to nine degrees. hello this is bbc news, the headlines. the latest coronavirus figures show there's been 1,035 more deaths in the uk — taking the overall total to more than 80,000. a new campaign in the uk is urging people to abide by lockdown rules — scientists and senior public health officials are warning that despite the lockdown, even tougher restrictions may be necessary. the queen and the duke of edinburgh have received their first covid—19 vaccinations. the queen is 94 years old and prince philip is 99. an indonesian passengerjet has crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from jakarta. 62 people were on board. donald trump has been permanently banned from twitter — because of concerns his tweets could incite more violence.

democrats reveal the draft of a new impeachment resolution against donald trump — the president elect accuses him of inciting an insurrection and endangering the security of the us. at least four people have died as a result of a storm that has covered spain with its heaviest snowfall for 50 years. in this edition of witness history, we look back at some of our most memorable recent stories. we hear from the man who invented the polio vaccine and how hiroshima's trees became a symbol of survival. hello and welcome to witness history in nairobi, with more remarkable moments from the past as told by the people who were there. today, we present five of our most

memorable recent stories. coming up, how hiroshima's trees became a symbol of survival. plus, revealing the truth about a civil war atrocity in el salvador. the algerians who fought with france against independence. and the man who invented the revolutionary prosthetic leg. but first, with a remarkable global effort to create covid—19 vaccines, we look back at a previous world—changing vaccination breakthrough. in 1955, a group of us scientists led by doctorjonas salk announced the discovery of the first polio vaccine that saved millions from death and disability. his son, doctor peter salk, spoke to us about his father's extraordinary achievement. back in the 1950s, people were overjoyed at the fact that here is a vaccine that is going to protect us from this terrible, frightening scourge.

polio is a disease that is caused by a virus that gets into a person's mouth. the virus grows in the intestinal tract and then gets into the bloodstream from which it moves to the brain and the spinal—cord, kills the nerve cells that signal the muscles when to move, and because of that causes paralysis in the muscles. my father, when he was young, just knew that he wanted to do something to help humanity. the vision that he had at that point was that he would then go into medicine. he got a knock on the door from the national foundation for infantile paralysis, would you be willing to participate in a typing programme to determine how many different immunological types of polio virus there are? my father leapt at the opportunity.

this would be drudgery, in terms of the kind of work that was done, but it was an opportunity of creating a vaccine against polio. the worst year was 1952. there were 58,000 cases of polio. nobody would ever know when was the epidemic going to come? where was it going to strike? this disease caused a huge amount of fear. there was a lot of pressure. every year there were these devastating epidemics. first there were the studies that were done on animals in the labratory, that all pointed in the right direction. then my father undertook some preliminary tests in children who were at a home for crippled children outside of pittsburgh. these were kids who had already been affected by polio. the early studies had gotten far enough that he knew that this vaccine was going to work.

the day that he came home from his office bearing syringes and needles which he boiled on the stove in one of our kitchen pots to sterilise, loaded up the experimental polio vaccine that he was working on and then lined us kids up and administered the injections. i'm going to say to you, i have no words in which adequately to express the thanks of myself, all of the people i know, and all 164 million americans, to say nothing of all the other people in the world, who will profit from your discovery. i am very, very happy. there was absolute jubilation. church bells rang, factory whistles blew. it was such a relief.

the polio vaccine had a huge impact on society. we have moved into a situation where people are feeling what dangers vaccines might have in and of their own right. it's important to be aware of the problems that can take place with vaccines, but it is disadvantageous to be so hyper reactive to the whole notion of vaccination that the baby gets thrown out with the bath water. doctor peter salk on a vaccine that change the world. that changed the world. now, 75 years ago, in 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the japanese city of hiroshima. hundreds of thousands of people were killed and injured, yet, amid the devastation, remarkably, some trees in the city survived and they have since become a symbol of hope and recovery around the world.

translation: these are the real witnesses. these trees have seen everything. translation: at 8:15am on august the 6th 1945, enola gay the american bomber plane dropped an atomic bomb on hiroshima. it exploded 600 metres above the hospital. it didn't explode on the ground, but in the air. i've heard that the bomb was dropped from this height to kill as many people as possible. the radiation burnt all living things in hiroshima,

particularly in the two kilometre radius of the epicentre. people were burnt alive. this garden is about 1.5 kilometres from the epicentre of the bomb. i heard from many people that at the time there was no colour in hiroshima. there was only black, white or grey. some people said that no plants would grow here for the next 75 years. everybody believed that rumour. they thought this town was dead. at the time, the trees looked like charcoal. a stick of charcoal, like this. but on some of the trees, buds emerged. when people saw that the green buds had come out, they thought they could survive as well. it was comforting. i can just imagine the vividness of the tiny green bud

in that colourless world. it must have given people some comfort and hope. my friend and i established the green legacy hiroshima project as co—founders. green legacy hiroshima tries to plant the seedlings of these trees in places with nuclear power, places under the nuclear umbrella, and those places who have experienced various natural disasters. we hope the trees can deliver the message that we as people have the power to recover and survive.

trees have a magical power to tell each person what they need to hear. they speak to each human being as well as the whole of humankind across the world. that was the co—founder of green legacy hiroshima. what a remarkable story. and now a story about daring to speak the truth to power. in the 1980s, el salvador was in the grip of a civil war. rebels were fighting against a us—backed military regime. one night in 1989, sixjesuit priests were dragged from their beds and murdered, along with a housekeeper and her teenage daughter. the government blamed the rebels, but one woman risked her life to tell the world what really happened. the priests‘ funeral took place at the university where they were murdered. they were el salvador‘s leading

left—wing intellectuals. thousands came to mourn, not just for the dead men, but because they symbolise the hope that el salvador might become a country one day where power came from the ballot box and not from the barrel of a gun. translation: the priests were always on the side of the poor. that's how they were. it still hurts to remember them and to remember what happened. i will keep telling this story until my dying days. i can never forget it. the government troops are fighting the biggest guerrilla offensive since 1981. the rebels appear to have moved into the capital in force and have held positions for more than 12 hours.

translation: there were soldiers and rebels shooting all over the place. we couldn't go out and food and water were running low. i was very nervous. i worked as a cleaner at the jesuit university. i called one of the priests and asked if we could come and shelter on the campus with my husband and daughter. he said, yes, of course, come. it all happened just after midnight. we were awoken by the sound of gunfire near the entrance to the university. i got up and went to an open window to look out. i could see the shadows of men at the entrances of the rooms where the priests slept. they were soldiers. i heard one of the priests calling out that it was

an injustice, a disgrace. then i heard shouting and more shooting. after that, there was just silence. the killing that has caused the greatest outrage is the murder of the six catholic priests dragged from their beds and shot yesterday morning. translation: in the morning, we went to see what had happened. even from a distance, you could see the bodies of the priests laid out on the grass. in a small side room, there were two women lying dead in an embrace, full of bullets. they were the housekeeper and her daughter. the soldiers didn't want to leave any witnesses. the government said it was the guerrillas who killed them. but i said, no, it was the army, and that i had seen the soldiers. they didn't like me saying that.

after that, i was taken with my husband and daughter to the airport and put on a plane. the jesuits said that they couldn't protect me in el salvador. when i got to miami, i was interviewed for a week by the fbi. they wanted me to change my story. eventually, i told them, you can believe me or not. i really don't care. i guess that i was there for a reason that night. another person might have kept quiet and not spoken out. but as god says, you have to do something in this life. and i did something. what a remarkable woman. two soldiers were eventually

prosecuted for the murder, but were later released under an amnesty law. remember you can watch witness history every month on the bbc news channel or you can catch up on our online archive. just search for bbc witness history. next, a part of african history that is often overlooked. in the 1950s and 60s during algeria's bitter war of independence against france, thousands of algerians actually fought on the french side. for that, after the war, many would pay a high price. this person was one of them. translation: the harki localforces were on the side of the french army in algeria's independence war. we gave everything for france but what we didn't know was that france would abandon us.

as tension rises in french north africa, france arms her algerian supporters for defence against rebel raids. in this province, weapons are being handed out personally to muslim recruits, where hundreds are being enrolled daily. translation: i was about 17 and a half, 18 years old at the time. you had to choose between france and the rebels. my father had been in the french army and had fought in world war i. my brothers were also in the french army. so i chose france. translation: i was proud of what we did. proud of saving france. we were always sent out in front

of the french troops. if there was an attack, the harki would be the first to die. we had to get rid of the fighters who are terrorising the population. translation: we always knew that one day algeria would gain its independence. what general de gaulle should have done was take all the harki and theirfamilies to safety in france. but in 1962, the french disarmed the harki and left us defenceless. the other side took advantage of this and began to round us all up. they took me to a barracks where there were about 50 other harki prisoners.

there was blood everywhere. they stripped me naked and started torturing me with electric shocks. each time a new group of soldiers came on shift, they began again. the same thing every day. the fln even made us dig our own graves. some people were thrown in alive. some were thrown into the river. i was arrested onjuly the 8th, 1962. i escaped on september the 10th, 1962. it took me a long time to feel welcome here in france. i decided to change my name and to convert to catholicism.

i wanted to make a fresh start. i could say that i was born under a lucky star and that i am lucky. but not all the harki were so lucky and that is the fault of france. finally, a story about a remarkable invention built out of adversity. as a young man, this man lost his foot in an accident and designed a prosthetic leg to allow him to keep running. the invention revolutionised the world of parasports. when you lose body part, it's different from any other experience because it's gone. it'sjust gone.

that was the hardest part, knowing that it was irreversible. i had my accident in the spring of 1976 when i was 21. winter had just broke and it was now time for spring water skiing. i havejust taken a big cut to the left and the boat quit. then, all of a sudden, over my right shoulder, i turn around, and another boat came right at me. and the odds are, my ankle's that wide, and that's what it hit. the propeller. had i not had a wet suit on, i would've bled out. major arteries were cut. but my knee was bent, the wet suit was tight, itjust stopped blood flow. they put a cast on the stump. on the bottom was a pink, rubber foot. i was sitting there, looking at my pink foot and ijust felt like my life was gone. the artificial limb,

especially if it is a leg, is the most important thing in their lives. they ought to get, and it seems now that they will get, the best that technological modern skills can provide. the question is, when? i knew that there was a better way. several years prior they had just put a man on the moon. so my early attempts at creating something that would spring and push off was, you know those insoles on the side of your shoe? that was my first concept. let's build one of those. those early ones weren't too bad. i had a block of foam in the toe and heel. but then i got blessed. one of the world's leading aerospace graphite engineers helped me. that night, we drew up the drawing of what the leg was to look like and within two, maybe three weeks, i built a leg and i attached it to my sock.

i ran down his hallway, i mean, fast. that was freedom. that was a real inner freedom. i probably built 50, maybe 60, more legs. different types, different arrangements, broke them, fell down. we finally launched our first foot. the first carbon graphite, energy storing running prosthesis ever. so, if you look at the structure, it is millions of tiny little hair—like fibres. those fibres stretch just like our tendons do. so that energy can be stored in those fibres. that's how we came up with the c shape foot. my foundation's name is called second wind. i'm involved in developing a foot for landmine survivors.

they have to go to work. they are labourers, they're planting fields. they don't have the luxury of sitting down. for asia, a lot of people work with rice. you can't wear a standard foot in water, they rot. in afghanistan, iraq, they are on rocky hillsides going up and down mountains. we built a design that has increased function, decreased weight, and increased strength. the foot has to be able to endure all kinds of different climates. we are calling it the world foot. the world foot for all countries, all peoples, everywhere. when i think of all the amputees in the world, that i can actually share that, there was never a greater joy than that for me. that is all for this episode here in nairobi. we'll be back next time with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history.

but for now from me and the rest of the team, goodbye. hello there. we are seeing a real mixture of weather around today. across parts of east anglia, fog lingered all day, with temperatures for some staying below freezing, sa nton downham, for example. temperatures about —1.5 celsius at best. sunshine did come out elsewhere across the uk and in the sunnier moments temperatures reached around 3 or 4 degrees quite widely, but the mildest weather was in western scotland, where the hebrides saw temperatures as high as 8 celsius and that milder air will continue to push into western scotland as we go through the night. there will be some rain around, maybe a bit of wintriness for a time across parts of scotland, just enhancing the risk of icy stretches here and certainly

there will be some snow showers at times in shetland. and that fog reforming, re—thickening across parts of east anglia and across parts of southern england as well. now, tomorrow the mist and fog should clear. we will see the brighter skies work in as we go through the morning into the afternoon, looking fine across southern portions of the uk. further north we have got cloud and rain, damp weather at times for northern ireland, the north—west of england and wales, but the heaviest rain will be in western areas of scotland. temperatures milder, looking at highs across the uk of 5—7, although still cold air loitering in shetland with further snow showers here. on into monday, we are getting even milder air pushing in off the atlantic, but with that comes some stronger west— south—westerly winds and some rain. now, the rain is going to be at its heaviest in western scotland, where combined with snowmelt there is a risk of seeing some localised flooding building on here. so to the northern edge of the system we may well see some snow, certainly some snow showers again affecting shetland and perhaps orkney as well, whereas further south it is mild, temperatures 8 or 9 celsius,

so those temperatures are a lot higher than we have seen for a couple of weeks for most of us. now, as that rain works through, for tuesday we start to pull in northerly winds again, bringing a short, sharp blast of cool air. so there will be some frost around to start the day on tuesday, but sparkling visibility, good sunny spells for most of us, the risk of a few showers just coming down on the north sea coasts. now, temperature—wise it is going to be a colder day for many areas, 3—4c across open areas, but still relatively mild further south, 8, 9, maybe 10 degrees towards the south—west, but on into wednesday a band of rain pushes through, may well turn to snow just for a short time before the milder air works in from the west and that will be with us for much of the rest of the week.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a boeing 737 passenger plane has crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from jakarta, indonesia. 62 people were on board. the second impeachment process against donald trump could begin as early as monday — according to democrats who've circulated a draft of their resolution to remove him. the uk has now recorded more than three million cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. nearly 60,000 people tested positive for covid—19 on saturday — with more than 1,000 deaths. it comes as queen elizabeth and prince philip both receive coronavirus vaccinations at windsor castle. and donald trump is suspended from twitter permanently over concerns about the further risk of inciting violence.