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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

  •

    The Great Dictator

    Mon 21 Dec 2020

    Charlie Chaplin's classic satirical film about Adolf Hitler was released in 1940

  • The GDR's Namibian children

    Fri 18 Dec 2020

    At Christmas 1979 hundreds of Namibian children were taken to East Germany

  • The blockade of Gibraltar

    Thu 17 Dec 2020

    How a Spanish blockade of the disputed British territory ended in December 1982.

  • British reality TV is born

    Wed 16 Dec 2020

    The first British fly-on-the-wall documentary series aired on the 麻豆社 in 1974.

  • The birth of Bangladesh

    Tue 15 Dec 2020

    Pakistan's first democratic elections led to the creation of a new country, Bangladesh

  • White Christmas

    Mon 14 Dec 2020

    American entertainer Bing Crosby made 'White Christmas' one of the defining songs of WW2

  • The return of the beaver

    Fri 11 Dec 2020

    Why beavers were officially reintroduced to the UK 400 years after they were wiped out

  • Neanderthal cave mystery

    Thu 10 Dec 2020

    A remarkable discovery in a cave at Bruniquel in southern France in 1990

  • Chief Albert Luthuli wins the Nobel Prize for Peace

    Wed 9 Dec 2020

    Albert Luthuli was the first African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

  • The pioneer of 'Mountain Filming'

    Tue 8 Dec 2020

    How a German filmmaker, Arnold Fanck, shot films high in the mountains in the 1920s

  • The life and work of Chester Himes

    Mon 7 Dec 2020

    The African-American crime writer Chester Himes first found widespread success in France

  • The V1 flying bomb

    Fri 4 Dec 2020

    How the first of the Nazi's new "revenge weapons" terrorised Londoners in WW2

  • The slaves who defeated Napoleon

    Thu 3 Dec 2020

    The first successful slave uprising in modern times, it prompted the abolition of slavery

  • France's Muslim headscarf ban

    Wed 2 Dec 2020

    A law banning religious clothing from French state schools came into effect in 2004

  • Iraq's pioneering feminist

    Tue 1 Dec 2020

    Dr Naziha Al-Dulaimi was the first woman to hold a ministerial office in the Arab world

  • How Ethiopian rebels took power in 1991

    Mon 30 Nov 2020

    In 1991 a Tigrayan-led rebel movement took power in Addis Ababa ending years of war

  • The fight for disabled rights in the UK

    Fri 27 Nov 2020

    The wheelchair warriors who brought London to a standstill to make their point

  • Rwanda at the Paralympics

    Thu 26 Nov 2020

    In 2012, Rwanda's sitting volleyball team became their country's first Paralympians

  • India's campaign for disability rights

    Wed 25 Nov 2020

    How activists forced through the first law to help tens of millions of disabled Indians

  • Britain's little blue disability car

    Tue 24 Nov 2020

    For decades disabled people in the UK were offered tiny, three-wheeled cars for transport

  • Helen Keller

    Mon 23 Nov 2020

    The deaf and blind American writer who became famous around the world

  • When the Egyptian president went to Israel

    Fri 20 Nov 2020

    Why Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian president to visit Israel in November 1977

  • Our Bodies, Ourselves

    Thu 19 Nov 2020

    The story of a radical book about women鈥檚 health and sexuality.

  • America's WW2 refugee camp

    Wed 18 Nov 2020

    How nearly a thousand Jewish refugees were housed in an old fort near New York during WW2

  • The world's first woman premier

    Tue 17 Nov 2020

    In 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the world's first woman Prime Minister

  • Captured by Somali pirates

    Mon 16 Nov 2020

    Captain Colin Darch and his crew were held hostage by pirates for 47 days in 2008

  • The 'good enough' mother

    Fri 13 Nov 2020

    Donald Winnicott helped mothers understand babies through psychoanalysis in the 1940s.

  • When Pluto lost its planet status

    Thu 12 Nov 2020

    An international committee of astronomers agreed Pluto wasn't really a planet in 2006

  • World War One in Africa

    Wed 11 Nov 2020

    Rare recordings of African veterans of WW1 in East Africa

  • Makaton - the signing system that changes lives

    Tue 10 Nov 2020

    The creation of a communication system for people with learning difficulties in the 1970s

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