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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 Arctic African

    Wed 1 May 2019

    Why a boy ran away from West Africa to live in the Arctic in the 1960s.

  • Rupert Brooke

    Tue 30 Apr 2019

    The English poet whose death at the start of World War One was mourned by millions

  • Ellen comes out

    Mon 29 Apr 2019

    Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian on primetime American television in April 1997.

  • The al-Yamamah arms deals

    Fri 26 Apr 2019

    A record series of arms sales by the UK to Saudi Arabia began in the 1980s

  • Sri Lanka: A journalist's editorial from the grave

    Thu 25 Apr 2019

    The assassination of newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickramatunga, in 2009 shocked the world

  • South Africa's first free elections

    Wed 24 Apr 2019

    After Apartheid all South Africans regardless of race finally won the right to vote.

  • Britain's first vegans

    Tue 23 Apr 2019

    The Vegan Society was established in 1944 by British 'non-dairy vegetarians'

  • Nato bombs Serbian TV

    Mon 22 Apr 2019

    A survivor from the April 1999 bombing in Belgrade that killed 16 people.

  • The Columbine massacre

    Fri 19 Apr 2019

    13 people were killed and more than 20 injured in the school shooting on April 20th 1999

  • How organic farming started

    Thu 18 Apr 2019

    Worries about the industrialisation of farming post-WW2 led some farmers to go organic.

  • Auto-destructive art

    Wed 17 Apr 2019

    Gustav Metzger and the birth of the radical new art form in the 1960s

  • The first play on Broadway written by a black woman

    Tue 16 Apr 2019

    'A Raisin in the Sun' by Lorraine Hansberry had an almost exclusively black cast too.

  • Dennis Tito - the first space tourist

    Mon 15 Apr 2019

    In April 2001 an American multi-millionaire paid Russia to send him into space

  • Chinese restaurant syndrome

    Fri 12 Apr 2019

    In the 1960's American diners began to worry that Chinese food was making them ill.

  • The rise of Hindu nationalism

    Thu 11 Apr 2019

    The consolidation of the BJP as one of the major powers in Indian politics.

  • The man who invented wingsuits

    Wed 10 Apr 2019

    The wingsuit is the ultimate in extreme sports clothing, for BASE jumpers and skydivers

  • The Amritsar Massacre of 1919

    Tue 9 Apr 2019

    In April 1919 British Indian troops opened fire on protestors in the city of Amritsar

  • The man who made Marilyn Monroe dance

    Mon 8 Apr 2019

    Choreographer Jack Cole had a huge influence on musical theatre and Hollywood films

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

    Fri 5 Apr 2019

    Maya Angelou's iconic memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was published in 1969

  • Abolishing the army

    Thu 4 Apr 2019

    Costa Rica dissolved its Armed Forces after a brief civil war in 1948

  • The warship lost for more than 300 years

    Wed 3 Apr 2019

    The discovery of a 17th century Swedish warship, the Vasa, in near perfect condition

  • EMDR: the eye-movement therapy

    Tue 2 Apr 2019

    A therapy which seems to work for post-traumatic stress was developed in the late 1980s

  • Patty Hearst the rebel heiress

    Mon 1 Apr 2019

    In April 1974 the heiress announced she supported her kidnappers' beliefs

  • Mindfulness for the masses

    Fri 29 Mar 2019

    Scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn pioneered a meditative approach to treat pain and depression.

  • The secret Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim

    Thu 28 Mar 2019

    How former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim's secret Nazi past was exposed

  • Around the world in 20 days

    Wed 27 Mar 2019

    The record-breaking balloon flight

  • Drama in the British parliament

    Tue 26 Mar 2019

    Prime Minister Jim Callaghan's desperate attempts to survive a no-confidence vote in 1979

  • The first home pregnancy test

    Mon 25 Mar 2019

    A female designer working for a pharmaceutical company came up with the idea in the 1960s

  • The rise of Viktor Orban

    Fri 22 Mar 2019

    Viktor Orban, now the populist Hungarian Prime Minister led a democratic movement in 1988

  • Autism and the MMR vaccine

    Thu 21 Mar 2019

    How a British doctor misled the world by linking the MMR vaccine with autism.

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