The History Hour

A compilation of the latest Witness History programmes.

World Service,488 episodes

Episodes

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The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race
One African-American woman’s act of defiance after a mass shooting in a black church.
19 Jun 2021,49 mins
When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor
The 1981 attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor, plus the fall of Madrid & Gaza elections
12 Jun 2021,49 mins
The war on drugs
US President Nixon declared illegal drugs 'public enemy number one' in June 1971
05 Jun 2021,53 mins
Amilcar Cabral: an African liberation legend
Overcoming Portuguese rule in Africa, the Tulsa race massacre and India's biggest strike.
29 May 2021,53 mins
When Egypt said Enough
The forerunner of the Arab Spring; fighting repression in South Korea; saving wetlands
22 May 2021,53 mins
Why a British MP was filmed taking mescaline
A history of psychedelic experiments, contraception in Ireland, an Iraqi escape story
15 May 2021,53 mins
The IRA hunger strikes
Hunger strikes in Northern Ireland, wine fraud, and feminist science fiction
08 May 2021,53 mins
The killing of Osama Bin Laden
The life and death of the al-Qaeda leader, the man behind the 9/11 attacks
01 May 2021,53 mins
How the NRA became a US political lobbying giant
A history of the gun lobby in the US, the Eichmann trial in 1961, the first space shuttle
24 Apr 2021,53 mins
The first woman in the US Supreme Court
Sandra Day O'Connor appointed to America's top court, plus the Bay of Pigs invasion
17 Apr 2021,53 mins
The women who reclaimed the night
Women's night-time protest, a Mexican female serial killer and the jet stream.
10 Apr 2021,53 mins
Black Jesus
The pastor who argued God was black; Mrs Thatcher wows Moscow; orchid-hunters kidnapped
03 Apr 2021,53 mins
The women of Egypt's Arab Spring
Egypt's Arab Spring, abortions in 1960s America, the champion of the Parthenon Marbles
13 Mar 2021,53 mins
The Iron Curtain
Churchill's Iron Curtain speech, South Africa's Sharpeville massacre and a deep dive.
06 Mar 2021,53 mins
The fall of Kwame Nkrumah
The overthrow of Ghana's famous leader, a heroic African WW2 airman, the ban on landmines
27 Feb 2021,53 mins
Black History: The Black Panthers
How radical was the US black rights group? Plus, Mary Wilson of the Supremes
20 Feb 2021,53 mins
US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air raid shelter
Hundreds of civilians killed in a Gulf War airstrike; the newspaper to help the homeless
13 Feb 2021,53 mins
The Burma protests of 1988
The fight for democracy in Burma, US troops on drugs in Vietnam, the Moscow state circus
06 Feb 2021,53 mins
The Arab Spring of 2011
Eyewitness accounts of the sweeping social unrest against repressive regimes
30 Jan 2021,53 mins
Hitler's beer hall putsch
Hitler's first attempt at seizing power, anti-Sikh riots in India, and the Turner Diaries
23 Jan 2021,53 mins
Attack at the US Capitol
Puerto Rican militants attack Congress, India's first woman lawyer, landing on Titan
16 Jan 2021,53 mins
Buddhist on Death Row
How US prisoners turned to Buddhism to face execution, and the truth of a space "strike"
09 Jan 2021,49 mins
75 years of Unesco
Why Unesco was set up 75 years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War.
02 Jan 2021,53 mins
Film special
Featuring It’s A Wonderful Life, Studio Ghibli and Charlie Chaplin
26 Dec 2020,53 mins
The birth of Bangladesh
How Bangladesh’s struggle for independence began with a landmark election in Pakistan.
19 Dec 2020,53 mins
The first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize
The anti-apartheid campaigner Albert Luthuli plus a Neanderthal discovery and beavers.
12 Dec 2020,53 mins
The fall of Addis Ababa
How rebels toppled Colonel Mengistu of Ethiopia; France's headscarf ban; WW2's V1 bombs
05 Dec 2020,53 mins
Disability History special
The fight for disability rights in the UK, India, plus Helen Keller and the Invacar
28 Nov 2020,53 mins