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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The Soviet occupation of Berlin
Thu 7 May 2020
After Germany's surrender to Allied forces in May 1945, Soviet soldiers occupied Berlin
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The battle for Berlin
Wed 6 May 2020
Eyewitness accounts of the final battle for the capital of Nazi Germany in 1945
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The Wehrmacht exhibition that shocked Germany
Mon 4 May 2020
An exhibition about the German army’s role in WW2 caused a scandal in 1995.
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Hiroshima's trees of hope
Fri 1 May 2020
Trees which survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima are still growing in the Japanese city
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The Galapagos sea cucumber dispute
Thu 30 Apr 2020
How fishermen and conservationists battled in the species-rich waters of the archipelago
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The assassination of the UN's first Middle East mediator
Wed 29 Apr 2020
The first Middle East mediator, Count Bernadotte, was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948
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The 1957 flu that killed a million people
Tue 28 Apr 2020
In 1957 a new strain of flu emerged in East Asia and quickly spread around the world
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Waria warriors - the fight for trans rights in Indonesia
Mon 27 Apr 2020
The transgender Indonesians who fought for their rights in the 1970s and 1980s
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Tennessee Williams on the BBC
Fri 24 Apr 2020
The great American playwright revealed a lot about himself in BBC interviews
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The Brompton Manley Ventilator
Thu 23 Apr 2020
The development of a ventilation system that was a precursor to modern ventilators.
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Edhi: Pakistan's 'Angel of Mercy'
Wed 22 Apr 2020
Abdul Sattar Edhi built one of the biggest welfare charities in the world
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The last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade
Tue 21 Apr 2020
A woman who died in the US in 1940 was captured and enslaved in West Africa as a child
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The Deepwater Horizon disaster
Mon 20 Apr 2020
A deadly explosion on a drilling rig led to an environmental disaster in the US
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A space crash
Fri 17 Apr 2020
Michael Foale was on board the Mir space station when a resupply vessel crashed into it.
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When Skylab fell to Earth
Thu 16 Apr 2020
The space station which was meant to break up and fall into the sea but instead hit land
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The last men on the Moon
Wed 15 Apr 2020
In 1972 the American space agency NASA carried out its final Moon mission
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Nasa's female aquanauts
Tue 14 Apr 2020
The women who led the way in America's space programme by spending two weeks underwater
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The unlikely pioneers of online shopping
Fri 10 Apr 2020
How a 72-year-old grandmother started online shopping before the internet
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The Trojan Room coffee pot
Tue 7 Apr 2020
The world's first webcam went online in 1993. Its camera was focused on a coffee pot.
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The Homebrew computer club
Mon 6 Apr 2020
A group of Californian computer enthusiasts first began meeting to share ideas in 1975.
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Being a Chinese Muslim
Fri 3 Apr 2020
It has never been easy to practice a religious faith in communist China
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The Swedish warship restored after 300 years
Thu 2 Apr 2020
A Swedish warship, Vasa, sank in the 17th century but was raised from the seabed in 1961
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Avenging the Amritsar Massacre
Wed 1 Apr 2020
A former British governor of Punjab was shot in 1940 as revenge for killings in Amritsar
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The trembling giant
Tue 31 Mar 2020
Could the biggest living organism on earth be a colony of quaking aspen trees?
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Britain's first woman judge
Mon 30 Mar 2020
Rose Heilbron was a trailblazer for women in the legal profession in Britain.
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The AIDS Memorial Quilt
Fri 27 Mar 2020
In 1985 activists made a giant quilt to commemorate those killed by AIDS in the USA.
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The Cheonan sinking
Thu 26 Mar 2020
On March 26th 2010 a South Korean naval ship sank after an explosion - 48 sailors died