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
-
Handing back Uluru
Thu 28 Nov 2019
In 1985 Australia's famous natural landmark Uluru was returned to aboriginal ownership
-
From cakes to computers
Wed 27 Nov 2019
How the Lyons catering company pioneered LEO, the first electronic office system
-
India's economic revolution
Tue 26 Nov 2019
In the 1990s India began to open up its state-controlled economy
-
The man who gave his voice to Stephen Hawking
Mon 25 Nov 2019
American scientist Dennis Klatt pioneered synthesised speech using his own voice.
-
Exploring Arabia's Empty Quarter
Fri 22 Nov 2019
How Wilfred Thesiger travelled in one of the world's harshest environments in the 1940s.
-
The man who got Delhi on track
Thu 21 Nov 2019
India's capital city built a Metro to tackle its traffic and air pollution problems
-
I saw the soldiers who killed El Salvador's priests
Wed 20 Nov 2019
Lucia Cerna was the only witness to a murder that shocked El Salvador in November 1989
-
The 'Woman in Gold'
Tue 19 Nov 2019
How one of Klimt's most famous paintings was returned to the family who'd owned it
-
The first Tasers
Mon 18 Nov 2019
Why Los Angeles police began using a new weapon in the early 1980s.
-
The first Indian to win Miss World
Fri 15 Nov 2019
Reita Faria was the first Indian to win the Miss World beauty competition in 1966
-
The Love Canal disaster
Thu 14 Nov 2019
How the Love Canal neigbourhood in the US came to symbolise the dangers of toxic waste
-
The demolition of the Babri Masjid
Wed 13 Nov 2019
How Hindu extremists demolished a mosque in India prompting months of communal violence
-
Cap Anamur: A rescue that led to jail
Tue 12 Nov 2019
Why a captain was arrested after saving shipwrecked Africans in the Mediterranean in 2004
-
Memories of Wilfred Owen
Mon 11 Nov 2019
The British war poet's younger brother Harold Owen spoke to the Âé¶¹Éç in the 1960s
-
The concert that rocked the Berlin Wall
Fri 8 Nov 2019
The 1987 rock concert that led to the first shouts in East Berlin of 'the wall must go'
-
The Bhagalpur blindings
Thu 7 Nov 2019
How Indian police tortured petty criminals, blinding them permanently
-
Britain's secret propaganda war
Wed 6 Nov 2019
How sex, jazz and 'fake news' were used to undermine the Nazis in World War Two
-
A ground-breaking change to treating breast cancer
Tue 5 Nov 2019
How a Canadian oncologist proved the effectiveness of breast-conserving surgery
-
Iran hostage crisis: the humanitarian delegation
Mon 4 Nov 2019
How Iranian students invited a group of Americans to Iran to meet the hostages
-
Saving the Great Barrier Reef
Fri 1 Nov 2019
The 1960s campaigners who fought the government to save the world's biggest coral reef.
-
'Jane' - the underground abortion service
Thu 31 Oct 2019
An underground feminist network performed illegal abortions in 1960s Chicago.
-
The Algerians who fought with France
Wed 30 Oct 2019
When Algeria won independence in 1962 thousands of local French allies faced persecution
-
The Paris hotel that hosted Holocaust survivors
Tue 29 Oct 2019
The Hotel Lutetia became a reception centre for French Holocaust survivors after WW2
-
Margaret Thatcher's anti-Europe speech
Mon 28 Oct 2019
The British Prime Minister started expressing doubts about the European Union in 1988
-
The fall of the Berlin Wall
Fri 25 Oct 2019
The border between communist East Germany and the West opened on November 9th 1989
-
The Leipzig demonstrations
Thu 24 Oct 2019
The Berlin Wall fell just a month after mass protests in the East German city of Leipzig
-
East German refugees in the Prague embassy
Wed 23 Oct 2019
Thousands of East Germans sought refuge in the West German embassy in Prague in 1989.
-
The reburial of a Hungarian hero
Tue 22 Oct 2019
The body of Imre Nagy who had led the Hungarian Uprising was reburied in 1989
-
The legalisation of Solidarity
Mon 21 Oct 2019
The Polish trade union organisation was banned by the communists until April 1989
-
Wangari Maathai Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist
Fri 18 Oct 2019
Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai fought to save forests and protect human rights