Main content

Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Rebels Rout The Army In El Salvador

    The storming of the El Paraiso base by Marxist rebels in December 1983.

  2. When Animals Go To War

    In December 1943, a British charity created gallantry medals for animals serving in war.

  3. Trautonium: A Revolution in Electronic Music

    Meet the trautonium, the early electronic instrument promoted by the Nazis.

  4. The Soviet Afghan War Begins

    The world held its breath in December 1979 as Soviet troops poured into Afghanistan

  5. UFO Sightings: The Rendlesham Forest Incident

    At Christmas 1980 strange objects and lights were seen over a military base in England.

  6. Scotland's Stone of Destiny

    On Christmas Eve 1950 four students took the 'Stone of Destiny' from Westminster Abbey

  7. Stopping The 'Shoe Bomber'

    How a passenger helped subdue shoe-bomber Richard Reid on an American Airlines flight.

  8. The Woman Who Wrote Mary Poppins

    Writer PL Travers created a children's classic when she invented a magical nanny.

  9. Hacking The First Computer Password

    Scientists at MIT in the 1960s had to share computer time - but some people wanted more.

  10. Theatre in the Sahara

    Theatre director Peter Brook led a troupe of actors across the Sahara desert in 1972

  11. The US Apologises for Wartime Internment

    Japanese Americans win an apology and compensation for World War II internment.

  12. China and Japan at War

    Japanese troops reached the Chinese city of Nanjing in December 1937.

  13. Englandspiel: The Deadly WW2 Spy Game

    How Britain sent dozens of Dutch agents to their deaths in Nazi-occupied Netherlands

  14. Apollo 8

    How the first mission to orbit the Moon captured the world's imagination in December 1968

  15. When China Joined the WTO

    China had to open up its strict communist system to join the World Trade Organisation

  16. Cicely Saunders And The Modern Hospice Movement

    The British woman who revolutionised the treatment of dying patients around the world.

  17. Angela Merkel's Rise to Power

    Angela Merkel rose to power in German politics after the fall of her mentor, Helmut Kohl.

  18. Adopted By The Man Who Killed My Family

    Ramiro Osorio Cristales was five when his family was massacred by the Guatemalan army.

  19. The Armenian Earthquake

    A catastrophic earthquake hit northern Armenia on December 7th 1988, hear from a survivor

  20. The Coronation of Jean-Bédel Bokassa

    On 4 December 1977 Jean-Bédel Bokassa was crowned Emperor of the Central African Republic

  21. Berlin's Rubble Women

    At the end of WW2 much of Germany's capital had been destroyed. Women helped clear it up.

  22. Norway's EU referendum

    In November 1994, Norwegians voted in a referendum not to join the European Union

  23. The Discovery of Dinosaur Eggs

    The fossil find in 1923 in Mongolia helped to prove that dinosaurs hatched their young.

  24. The man who inspired Britain's first Aids charity

    In 1982, Terrence Higgins became the first known British victim of HIV/AIDS.

  25. The Antarctic Whale Hunters

    Memories of the bloody Antarctic industry which left whales on the brink of extinction.

  26. The Destruction Of Iraq's Marshlands

    When Iraq's marshes became a hiding place for rebels, Saddam Hussein destroyed them.

  27. The USSR Opens Up to the West

    Four years after Stalin's death, Moscow threw a festival for 30,000 foreign students.

  28. The Last Days of Yasser Arafat

    The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in November 2004

  29. The Story Behind The Man Who Shot JFK

    What did Lee Harvey Oswald do for two years in the Soviet city of Minsk?

  30. The 'Braceros', America's Mexican Guest Workers

    How hundreds of thousands of Mexicans were hired to work legally in US farms.

  2. 1
  3. …
  4. 66
  5. 67
  6. 68
  7. 69
  8. 70
  9. …
  10. 155