Main content

Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Patty Hearst: Rebel heiress

    In 1974, a kidnapped socialite joined forces with her captors

  2. The WW2 escape line that fooled the Nazis

    In 1940 a rescue operation helped Allied servicemen escape from Nazi-occupied France

  3. The Battle of Versailles: Catwalk clash of American and French fashion

    In 1973 a fashion show was held in France which the media dubbed the Battle of Versailles

  4. How Rosa Parks took a stand against racism

    Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat helped end segregation in the United States

  5. Lucha Reyes: Peruvian music star

    She overcame poverty, health problems and racism to become one of Peru’s greatest singers

  6. A young mother saved from death by stoning

    In 2003, human rights lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim defended Amina Lawal from death by stoning

  7. Queen of the 'fro

    In 1986, Charlotte Mensah went to work in the UK's first luxury Afro-Caribbean hair salon

  8. Inventing the Covid N95 mask

    In 1992, Peter Tsai invented the N95 mask filter

  9. First internet cafe

    Cyberia, billed as the World's first internet cafe opened in London in 1994

  10. The Arctic’s doomsday seed vault

    In 2008, seeds began arriving at a frozen vault designed to save the world’s food supply

  11. Brazil's Landless Workers Movement

    In 1980, poor rural workers occupied land owned by the rich and violent clashes followed

  12. Silenced by the Vatican

    How Brazilian priest Leonardo Boff was punished for his writing on liberation theology

  13. Jack Strong aka Ryszard Kukliński: Cold War traitor or hero?

    During the Cold War a high-ranking Polish colonel passed Soviet secrets to the CIA

  14. The Hungarian footballer executed for love

    Sándor Szűcs was hanged for trying to escape communist Hungary with his lover

  15. Wang Jingwei: China’s traitor or protector?

    The national hero was branded a traitor for collaborating with Japan during World War Two

  16. Axis Sally: World War II traitor who broadcast for the Nazis

    Mildred Gillars became the first woman in American history to be convicted of treason.

  17. Vidkun Quisling: Norway's traitor

    In 1939, Vidkun Quisling asked Hitler to invade Norway.

  18. Jamuna Tudu: The real life 'Lady Tarzan'

    In the early 2000s, a woman known as ‘Lady Tarzan’ fought India’s so called timber mafia

  19. Ibadan Zoo

    Bob Golding turned Ibadan Zoo into one of Nigeria's biggest attractions in the 1970s

  20. Tortured in Iran's Evin Prison

    Protests after Iran's 2009 election caused one man to be interrogated for 118 days

  21. The Green March: Moroccans take over the Sahara

    In 1975, unarmed Moroccans faced off against gun-carrying Spanish soldiers

  22. The hunger-striking Bolivian president

    In 1984, President Zuazo went on hunger strike, in an attempt to stabilise Bolivia

  23. Gürtel scandal: Spain's Watergate

    How one man's secret recordings revealed one of Spain's biggest corruption scandals

  24. The first World Laughter Day

    The first World Laughter Day took place in Mumbai, India in January 1998

  25. Russian ballerina defects to the west

    The Russian ballerina who defected to the west

  26. The mystery of France's lost king

    The fate of Louis-Charles, imprisoned in 1795, was for years shrouded in rumour

  27. The world’s first lesbian couple to get married

    In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise gay marriage

  28. What the 1989 solar storm did to Quebec

    In 1989, a huge solar flare ground life to a halt in Quebec

  29. The Hindenburg airship disaster

    In 1937, the Hindenburg burst into flames during mooring, killing 35 people on board.

  30. The invention of the wingsuit

    In 1999, skydiver Jari Kuosma developed the first commercial wingsuit

  2. 1
  3. …
  4. 20
  5. 21
  6. 22
  7. 23
  8. 24
  9. …
  10. 154