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History told by the people who were there. For nine minutes every weekday, Witness History takes you back to moments which have shaped our world.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.

We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines鈥� life and Omar Sharif鈥檚 legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.

You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives鈥� ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.

Updated: daily
Episodes available: indefinitely

Episodes to download

  • Lord of the Flies

    Tue 16 Sep 2014

    It is 60 years since William Golding's acclaimed novel was first published

  • Rabin and Arafat Shake Hands

    Mon 15 Sep 2014

    In 1993, the Israeli prime minister and the PLO leader shook hands and made history

  • Voting Against the War on Terror

    Fri 12 Sep 2014

    Three days after 9/11 Congresswoman Barbara Lee became the most hated woman in America

  • Flower of Scotland

    Thu 11 Sep 2014

    How a 1968 song by the folk band, The Corries, became Scotland鈥檚 unofficial anthem

  • Sri Lanka Massacre

    Wed 10 Sep 2014

    The massacre of 184 Tamils by the Sri Lankan army in 1990 during the country's civil war

  • DNA Fingerprinting

    Tue 9 Sep 2014

    It is 30 years since a British scientist found out how to identify people by their DNA

  • Madame Mao

    Mon 8 Sep 2014

    Mao Zedong died on 9 September 1976. His widow Jiang Qing wanted power after his death.

  • The Persecution of Pakistan's Ahmadiyya Sect

    Fri 5 Sep 2014

    Pakistan declared that members of the Ahmadiyya sect were not Muslims in September 1974

  • Myanmar Currency Chaos

    Thu 4 Sep 2014

    The crisis following the withdrawl of most circulating banknotes in Myanmar in 1987

  • Surviving Auschwitz

    Wed 3 Sep 2014

    Kitty Hart-Moxon's story of how she survived two years in the notorious Nazi death camp

  • The Story of Dr Zhivago

    Tue 2 Sep 2014

    How Boris Pasternak's great novel Dr Zhivago came to be published in the West .

  • Biba

    Mon 1 Sep 2014

    A ground-breaking new boutique opened in Swinging London in September, 1964

  • World War One in Africa

    Fri 29 Aug 2014

    Rare recordings of African veterans of WW1 in East Africa

  • The Last Outbreak of Smallpox

    Thu 28 Aug 2014

    In the summer of 1978 a British woman became the last known victim of smallpox.

  • LSD Road Trip

    Wed 27 Aug 2014

    Writer Ken Kesey and friends drove across America experimenting with LSD in summer 1964

  • The Death of Getulio Vargas

    Mon 25 Aug 2014

    In 1954 the president of Brazil chose to die rather than submit to the military

  • Freckleton Air Disaster

    Fri 22 Aug 2014

    A US Air Force plane crashed into an English village, killing 61 people in August 1944

  • The Betrayal of the Kurds

    Thu 21 Aug 2014

    In 1975, Iran and America abandon the Iraqi Kurds in their fight against Saddam Hussein

  • Partition

    Wed 20 Aug 2014

    British India was divided into two new countries - India and Pakistan - in August 1947

  • The Liberation of Paris

    Tue 19 Aug 2014

    French and US forces freed Paris from German occupation in August 1944

  • Zimbabwe's Rebel Writer

    Mon 18 Aug 2014

    Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera died of an AIDS-related illness on 18 August 1987

  • Carlos the Jackal

    Fri 15 Aug 2014

    The terrorist 'Carlos the Jackal' was arrested in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in 1994

  • The Plot to Kill Franco

    Thu 14 Aug 2014

    The Scottish anarchist and the plot to kill General Franco

  • The Wizard of Oz

    Wed 13 Aug 2014

    The cast and crew remember one of the most popular Hollywood musicals of all time

  • The Supremes

    Tue 12 Aug 2014

    The Supremes had their first hit 'Baby Love' in August 1964, 50 years ago

  • Marooned in Stalin's Russia

    Mon 11 Aug 2014

    How thousands of Polish citizens tried to flee the USSR after being freed in August 1941

  • Internment in Northern Ireland

    Fri 8 Aug 2014

    In 1971 the British Army detained hundreds of suspects without trial in Northern Ireland.

  • The Resignation of President Nixon

    Thu 7 Aug 2014

    On 8 August 1974 Richard Nixon became the first US president in history to resign.

  • Lindow Man

    Wed 6 Aug 2014

    In 1984, the 2000 year old remains of a man were found preserved in a peat bog in England

  • Japanese Prisoner Breakout

    Tue 5 Aug 2014

    On 5 Aug 1944, hundreds of Japanese prisoners attempted the largest breakout of WW2.

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