Witness History Podcast
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.
Episodes to download
-
A Greek coup: The day the colonels took power
Wed 6 Dec 2023
In 1967, army officers seized power in Greece in a US-backed coup
-
Thousands of Danish brains in plastic buckets
Tue 5 Dec 2023
In 1945, a collection that would amass 9,479 brains was started
-
La Haine: The film that shocked France
Mon 4 Dec 2023
How Mathieu Kassovitz's critique of policing shocked French society
-
World's first solar-heated home
Fri 1 Dec 2023
In 1948, the Dover Sun House, in the US, was the first home to be heated by solar power
-
Tanzania adopts Swahili to unite the country
Thu 30 Nov 2023
Tanzania's leader, Julius Nyerere, made Swahili the official language in the early 1960s
-
Cameroon鈥檚 mysterious lake deaths
Wed 29 Nov 2023
In 1986, remote parts of Cameroon were turned into ghost villages overnight
-
The bird that defied extinction
Tue 28 Nov 2023
In 1977, the white-winged guan was rediscovered in Peru after a century
-
Cabbage Patch Kids
Mon 27 Nov 2023
Christmas 1983 saw frenzied shoppers buy three million Cabbage Patch Kids
-
The Mumbai attacks
Fri 24 Nov 2023
In 2008, 10 gunmen killed more than 100 people in Mumbai鈥檚 busiest hot spots
-
The Paris heatwave
Thu 23 Nov 2023
In 2003, Paris was overwhelmed by the hottest European heatwave for 500 years
-
Kennedy鈥檚 nail-biter election victory
Wed 22 Nov 2023
In 1960, John F Kennedy became the youngest person to be elected United States president.
-
The invention of bubble tea
Tue 21 Nov 2023
Chun Shui Tang tea house in Taiwan began selling bubble tea in 1987
-
-
Discovering the ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion
Fri 17 Nov 2023
In 2000 Franck Goddio made one of the greatest ever underwater discoveries
-
The Bolivian Water War
Thu 16 Nov 2023
How Bolivians in the city of Cochabamba fought against the 鈥渓easing of the rain鈥
-
Rosalind Franklin: DNA pioneer
Wed 15 Nov 2023
The scientist produced an X-ray photograph in 1952, that helped show the structure of DNA
-
Eyjafjallaj枚kull: The volcano that stopped a continent
Tue 14 Nov 2023
In 2010, a cloud of volcanic ash brought Europe鈥檚 planes back to earth
-
The invention of the EpiPen
Mon 13 Nov 2023
How engineer Sheldon Kaplan and his team made the EpiPen, the lifesaving allergy device
-
The hippo and the tortoise
Fri 10 Nov 2023
In 2004, a hippo and a tortoise became friends. Their story gained worldwide fame
-
Destruction of Mostar Bridge
Thu 9 Nov 2023
On 9 November 1993 the historic bridge was destroyed during the Bosnian War
-
The Pakistani teens who became disco superstars
Wed 8 Nov 2023
How Nazia and Zoheb Hassan changed South-East Asian pop with their album, Disco Deewane
-
Debbie McGee in Iran
Tue 7 Nov 2023
Showbiz star, Debbie McGee describes being caught up in the Iranian revolution in 1978
-
Ycu谩 Bola帽os supermarket fire
Mon 6 Nov 2023
More than 300 people died in Paraguay's capital in 2004
-
Freddie Mercury 'marries' Jane Seymour
Fri 3 Nov 2023
The actress Jane Seymour shares what it was like being rock star Freddie Mercury's bride
-
Che Guevara鈥檚 daughter: A Cuban doctor in Angola
Thu 2 Nov 2023
In 1986 Dr Aleida Guevara travelled from Cuba to treat children in communist Angola
-
Inventing the black box
Wed 1 Nov 2023
In 1962 a prototype of the cockpit flight recorder was tested in Australia
-
The discovery of the HIV virus
Tue 31 Oct 2023
In 1983, scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris first discovered the HIV virus
-
The billion dollar bid to stop oil drilling in the Amazon
Mon 30 Oct 2023
In 2010 a $3.6billion fund began to stop oil drilling in Ecuador鈥檚 Yasuni national park
-
Turkey: Gezi Park protests
Fri 27 Oct 2023
In 2013 protests in Istanbul鈥檚 Gezi Park led to civil unrest across Turkey
-
'The streets of Harare were littered with money'
Thu 26 Oct 2023
Professor Gift Mugano describes when Zimbabwe鈥檚 inflation hit 89.7 sextillion per cent