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
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The invention of the modern ventilator
Fri 14 Aug 2020
How a polio epidemic in Denmark in 1952 led to the invention of the modern ventilator
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Scoring a victory for women's rights in Turkey
Thu 13 Aug 2020
How Turkish campaigners forced a radical change in the law on crimes against women
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Beirut's Hotel War
Wed 12 Aug 2020
How the Lebanese Civil War came to Beirut's luxury hotel district in 1975.
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Bremen鈥檚 Elephant Statue
Tue 11 Aug 2020
How the German city addressed its colonial past by rededicating a famous monument
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Radar and World War Two
Mon 10 Aug 2020
How British women operated secret radar technology during World War Two
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The American who put women's rights in the Japanese constitution
Fri 7 Aug 2020
How Beate Sirota Gordon got wording on gender equality into Japan's post-war constitution
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The atomic bombs dropped on Japan
Thu 6 Aug 2020
Atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945
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The battle of Midway
Wed 5 Aug 2020
How a huge naval battle between aircraft carriers changed the war in the Pacific
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The internment of Japanese Americans
Tue 4 Aug 2020
During World War Two thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to prison camps
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The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Mon 3 Aug 2020
A first-hand account of the surprise strike on a US naval base in December 1941.
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The death of Heinrich Himmler
Fri 31 Jul 2020
The leading Nazi was caught by British troops shortly after WW2 had ended in Europe
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Benidorm and the birth of package tourism
Thu 30 Jul 2020
The story of the mayor who created one of the world's biggest holiday resorts.
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Adrift for 76 days
Wed 29 Jul 2020
A remarkable story of survival, alone in a life-raft adrift in the Atlantic ocean
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Australia's 'Black Saturday' bushfires
Tue 28 Jul 2020
How 400 separate bushfires burnt their way across Victoria, Australia in 2009.
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The writer who put Latinos centre stage
Mon 27 Jul 2020
Remembering the pioneering Cuban-American playwright and agony aunt, Dolores Prida
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The fastest vaccine ever developed
Fri 24 Jul 2020
How a five-year-old girl helped her father create a record-breaking vaccine
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The first safe house for Afghan women
Thu 23 Jul 2020
Mary Akrami set up the first refuge for women fleeing violence and abuse in Afghanistan
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The struggle to save Borneo's rainforests
Wed 22 Jul 2020
When logging threatened the rainforests of Sarawak, local communities fought back
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The Million Man March
Tue 21 Jul 2020
On 16th October 1995 hundreds of thousands of black American men marched on Washington DC
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The man who tried to kill Hitler
Mon 20 Jul 2020
On 20th July 1944 Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg put a bomb under Adolf Hitler's desk
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South Korea's 1980s prison camps
Fri 17 Jul 2020
A so-called Social Purification project led to thousands of citizens being imprisoned
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The scandal of Liverpool's missing Chinese sailors
Thu 16 Jul 2020
How the British city forced out Chinese seamen who'd served during World War Two.
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Returning Ethiopia's looted history
Wed 15 Jul 2020
The Stele of Axum, a 4th century Ethiopian treasure, was returned by Italy in 2005
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How Club Med changed holidays
Tue 14 Jul 2020
Holidaymakers arrived at the first Club Med resort in Majorca in summer 1950
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The fight for women's prayer rights in Israel
Mon 13 Jul 2020
A Jewish feminist group's campaign to pray freely at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
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The 1960s report that warned the USA was racist
Fri 10 Jul 2020
A US government report into the riots of 1967 blamed white racism for creating ghettos
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The death of Frida Kahlo
Thu 9 Jul 2020
In July 1954 the great Mexican artist died after years of illness. She was just 47.
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Montreal's 'Night of Terror'
Wed 8 Jul 2020
When the city's police force went on strike there was looting and rioting in the streets.
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The unlawful death of Christopher Alder
Tue 7 Jul 2020
The black former soldier choked to death on the floor of a British police station in 1998
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The doctor who discovered how cholera spread
Mon 6 Jul 2020
How Dr John Snow found out the cholera bug was spread through contaminated water in 1854.
