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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

  •

    I Have a Dream

    Wed 28 Aug 2013

    Martin Luther King made his historic plea for racial equality at the March on Washington

  • The Sherri Finkbine Abortion Case

    Tue 27 Aug 2013

    How one Arizona couple's campaign for a termination split America in 1962

  • Krakatoa

    Mon 26 Aug 2013

    In 1883, the Indonesian volcano caused one of the world's biggest disasters

  • Brazil Protests: Caras Pintadas

    Fri 23 Aug 2013

    In 1992, a huge wave of protests forced President Collor of Brazil from office.

  • Legionnaires' Disease

    Thu 22 Aug 2013

    In August 1976 more than 200 people developed a mystery illness at a hotel in Philadelphia

  • The Assassination of Benigno Aquino

    Wed 21 Aug 2013

    On August 21 1983, the opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, was shot dead in the Philippines

  • Prague Spring

    Tue 20 Aug 2013

    The student who appealed for the world's help when Soviet tanks invaded Czechoslovakia

  • Saddam Hussein's 'Human Shields'

    Mon 19 Aug 2013

    The British family who were held as 'human shields' in Iraq before the First Gulf War

  • Stanley Kubrick

    Fri 16 Aug 2013

    Set designer Sir Ken Adam recalls working with the famously difficult director

  • The Omagh Bombing

    Thu 15 Aug 2013

    In August 1998, 29 people died in a massive car bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland.

  • The Battle of the Potato Beetle

    Wed 14 Aug 2013

    In 1950, East Germany claimed American planes were dropping beetles over their fields.

  • Scientists Flee Nazi Germany

    Tue 13 Aug 2013

    How the rise of Hitler forced great physicists such as Max Born out of 1930s Germany

  • Conflict in Congo

    Mon 12 Aug 2013

    The Congolese student who saw war come to his small hometown of Uvira

  • Bombing of Nagasaki

    Fri 9 Aug 2013

    Survivors remember the atomic explosion over the Japanese city in 1945

  • Burma's 1988 Protests

    Thu 8 Aug 2013

    In August 1988 protests demanding an end to military rule in Burma were met with violence

  • The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

    Wed 7 Aug 2013

    In 1997, a patch of plastic waste was discovered in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

  • Beverly Johnson - Vogue's First Black Covergirl

    Tue 6 Aug 2013

    It wasn't until 1974 that American Vogue put a black model on its cover for the first time

  • Malaysian Hostage Crisis

    Mon 5 Aug 2013

    In August 1975, Japanese Red Army militants took 53 people hostage in Kuala Lumpur

  • Gorkhaland

    Fri 2 Aug 2013

    The sisters whose lives were devastated during the campaign for Gorkhaland in India

  • Ramayan - India's TV Epic

    Thu 1 Aug 2013

    It is 25 years since the final episode of one of India's biggest ever TV programmes

  • The Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

    Wed 31 Jul 2013

    The controversial American union leader, Jimmy Hoffa, was last seen alive on July 30 1975

  • The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

    Tue 30 Jul 2013

    In July 1945 hundreds of US sailors were left adrift for days in shark infested waters

  • IRA Decommissioning

    Mon 29 Jul 2013

    In July 2005 the IRA in Northern Ireland promised to put its weapons out of use.

  • The End of the Korean War

    Fri 26 Jul 2013

    On July 27 1953 the Korean War came to an end and thousands of prisoners were released

  • Abducted by Joseph Kony

    Thu 25 Jul 2013

    The woman forced to bear the children of the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army

  • Alcoholics Anonymous

    Wed 24 Jul 2013

    In the summer of 1935 Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio

  • Black July

    Tue 23 Jul 2013

    In 1983 violence erupted between the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka

  • The Lillehammer Hit

    Mon 22 Jul 2013

    In July 1973 a Moroccan waiter was shot dead by an Israeli hit-squad in Norway

  • Escape from the KGB

    Fri 19 Jul 2013

    How Soviet double agent Oleg Gordievsky escaped from under the noses of the KGB in 1985

  • The Birth of Second Life

    Thu 18 Jul 2013

    It is ten years since the launch of Philip Rosedale's online virtual world Second Life

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