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 demolition of the Babri Masjid
Wed 13 Nov 2019
How Hindu extremists demolished a mosque in India prompting months of communal violence
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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
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Memories of Wilfred Owen
Mon 11 Nov 2019
The British war poet's younger brother Harold Owen spoke to the BBC in the 1960s
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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'
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The Bhagalpur blindings
Thu 7 Nov 2019
How Indian police tortured petty criminals, blinding them permanently
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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
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A ground-breaking change to treating breast cancer
Tue 5 Nov 2019
How a Canadian oncologist proved the effectiveness of breast-conserving surgery
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Iran hostage crisis: the humanitarian delegation
Mon 4 Nov 2019
How Iranian students invited a group of Americans to Iran to meet the hostages
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Saving the Great Barrier Reef
Fri 1 Nov 2019
The 1960s campaigners who fought the government to save the world's biggest coral reef.
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'Jane' - the underground abortion service
Thu 31 Oct 2019
An underground feminist network performed illegal abortions in 1960s Chicago.
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The Algerians who fought with France
Wed 30 Oct 2019
When Algeria won independence in 1962 thousands of local French allies faced persecution
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The Paris hotel that hosted Holocaust survivors
Tue 29 Oct 2019
The Hotel Lutetia became a reception centre for French Holocaust survivors after WW2
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Margaret Thatcher's anti-Europe speech
Mon 28 Oct 2019
The British Prime Minister started expressing doubts about the European Union in 1988
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The fall of the Berlin Wall
Fri 25 Oct 2019
The border between communist East Germany and the West opened on November 9th 1989
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The Leipzig demonstrations
Thu 24 Oct 2019
The Berlin Wall fell just a month after mass protests in the East German city of Leipzig
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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.
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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
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The legalisation of Solidarity
Mon 21 Oct 2019
The Polish trade union organisation was banned by the communists until April 1989
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Wangari Maathai Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist
Fri 18 Oct 2019
Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai fought to save forests and protect human rights
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Britain's worst nuclear accident
Thu 17 Oct 2019
A reactor caught fire at the Windscale nuclear plant in the north of England in 1957
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The man who fed the world
Wed 16 Oct 2019
Dr Norman Borlaug’s pioneering work on disease-resistant grains saved millions.
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Mexico City slashes car use
Tue 15 Oct 2019
How Mexico City cut its dangerously high air pollution levels
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Proving climate change: The Keeling curve
Mon 14 Oct 2019
An American scientist began recording carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in 1958
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Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'
Fri 11 Oct 2019
The stigma of growing up as a mixed race child in post-war Britain
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The Bristol bus boycott
Thu 10 Oct 2019
How British black activists fought for employment rights in the 1960s
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The Notting Hill riots
Wed 9 Oct 2019
Inter-racial violence broke out in west London in the summer of 1958
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The first black woman MP in Britain
Tue 8 Oct 2019
In 1987 Diane Abbott became the first black woman to be elected to the British Parliament
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Learie Constantine - fighting racism in the UK
Mon 7 Oct 2019
The great West Indian cricketer who fought against racism in the UK
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China opens up to capitalism
Fri 4 Oct 2019
How China's Communist rulers established the country's first Special Economic Zones
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The 1967 Hong Kong riots
Thu 3 Oct 2019
How workers and students filled the colony's streets, pressing for an end to British rule
