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’ life and Omar Sharif’s 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’ 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
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Dorothy Butler Gilliam: American news pioneer
Mon 2 Aug 2021
The first African American woman to be hired as a reporter by the Washington Post
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The Tsunami and Fukushima
Fri 30 Jul 2021
How an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan and triggered a nuclear emergency in 2011
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Fighting for the pill in Japan
Thu 29 Jul 2021
Why did it take so long for the oral contraceptive pill to be legalised in Japan?
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The soldier who never surrendered
Wed 28 Jul 2021
A Japanese soldier hid in the jungle in Guam for nearly 30 years after World War Two
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The birth of Karaoke
Tue 27 Jul 2021
The man who invented the Karaoke machine speaks to Witness History
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Japan's Bullet Train
Mon 26 Jul 2021
Japanese railways launched the fastest train the world had ever seen in October 1964
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When war came to Darfur
Thu 22 Jul 2021
How a 13-year-old boy's life was changed by the war in Darfur in Sudan
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Surviving Norway's day of terror
Wed 21 Jul 2021
Lisa Husby recalls running for her life from far-right extremist Anders Breivik
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The Battle of Gondar
Tue 20 Jul 2021
In 1941, Italian colonial rule in Africa ended after a last stand by Mussolini's soldiers
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Domestic violence in Brazil
Mon 19 Jul 2021
In 2006 Brazil passed the ground-breaking 'Maria da Penha law' to tackle domestic abuse
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England's summer of riots
Fri 16 Jul 2021
How six weeks of race riots gripped towns in northern England in 2001
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When the Taliban took Kabul
Thu 15 Jul 2021
Taliban fighters first took control of Afghanistan's capital city Kabul in 1996
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Jane Goodall and chimpanzees
Wed 14 Jul 2021
Chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall has died aged 91. This is a programme from our archive
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Prisoner of the Cultural Revolution
Tue 13 Jul 2021
Kim Gordon and his parents were locked up for two years in a hotel in China in the 1960s
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The race for the jet engine
Mon 12 Jul 2021
Inspiration, rejection and war - a personal account of the invention of the jet engine
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The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior
Fri 9 Jul 2021
In July 1985 the Greenpeace boat was bombed in New Zealand by French secret agents
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The first World Romani Congress
Thu 8 Jul 2021
Roma people from all around Europe met up in England in 1971
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The famine in North Korea
Wed 7 Jul 2021
After the fall of the Soviet Union communist North Korea suffered a famine in the 1990s
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Britain's wartime gold
Tue 6 Jul 2021
When Britain went to war with Germany in 1939 it had to find somewhere to keep its wealth
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Cuba's blindness epidemic
Mon 5 Jul 2021
Up to 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss in the early 1990s
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China's trailblazing foreign students
Fri 2 Jul 2021
We hear from one of the first students to study overseas after the Cultural Revolution
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The Chinese Communist Party
Thu 1 Jul 2021
A small group of revolutionaries founded the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921
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The Syrian playwright who challenged the regime
Tue 29 Jun 2021
A play staged in Damascus undermined official propaganda after the 1967 Six Day War
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Zimbabwe's mass UFO sightings
Mon 28 Jun 2021
Around 60 children said they saw 'aliens' near their school playground in September 1994
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The repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell'
Fri 25 Jun 2021
For decades LGBT people in the US military had to keep their sexuality secret
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China's LGBT 'cooperative marriages'
Thu 24 Jun 2021
Thousands of gay men and lesbians in China hold fake marriages to avoid family pressure
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The secret diaries of 'Gentleman Jack'
Wed 23 Jun 2021
How the sexually explicit journals of a 19th-century English lesbian came to light
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Woubis, yossis and travestis: LGBT activism in Côte d’Ivoire
Tue 22 Jun 2021
In 1992, a group of LGBT Ivoirians stormed the office of a national newspaper
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The Stonewall Inn
Mon 21 Jun 2021
How a protest outside New York's Stonewall Inn inspired the modern gay rights movement.
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China's 'Economic Miracle'
Fri 18 Jun 2021
Massive economic growth has been possible because of migrant labour, but at what cost?