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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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?
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The Trabant
Thu 17 Jun 2021
The iconic East German car that dominated the roads of communist Central Europe
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The police rape interview that shocked Britain
Wed 16 Jun 2021
The documentary that changed the way British police treated women reporting rape.
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Mindfulness for the masses
Tue 15 Jun 2021
Scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn pioneered a meditative approach to treat pain and depression.
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The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race
Mon 14 Jun 2021
Why an activist removed the Confederate flag from South Carolina's state house grounds
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The Fall of Madrid
Fri 11 Jun 2021
How the Spanish capital fell to General Franco's forces in 1939, ending a civil war
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The elections that Hamas won
Thu 10 Jun 2021
Palestinians voted to elect a new government in 2006. The outcome surprised everyone.
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Benjamin Britten's War Requiem
Wed 9 Jun 2021
The emotional first performance at the newly-built Coventry Cathedral in 1962
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When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor
Mon 7 Jun 2021
Israeli warplanes launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981
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How Switzerland defeated its heroin epidemic
Fri 4 Jun 2021
In the 1990s, the Swiss tried radical new policy ideas, including heroin on prescription
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Afghanistan's poppy problem
Thu 3 Jun 2021
Laila Haidari set up Kabul's first independent drug rehab centre in 2010
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When Peru mistook missionaries for drug traffickers
Wed 2 Jun 2021
The Peruvian Air Force shot down a light plane carrying American missionaries in 2001