The History Hour

A compilation of the latest Witness History programmes.

World Service,478 episodes

Episodes

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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
The world's first woman premier
Sri Lanka's woman PM plus the first Arab leader to visit Israel and the women's sex book.
21 Nov 2020,53 mins
The Guerrilla Girls
Fighting sexism and racism in the 1980s art world, plus Pluto is downgraded
14 Nov 2020,53 mins
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
The murder of the Israeli leader; Germany's "Occupation Babies"; nude theatre in London
07 Nov 2020,53 mins
US presidential history special
Inside JFK's election victory, plus Shirley Chisholm, Watergate, and the religious right
31 Oct 2020,53 mins
Why Portugal decriminalised all drugs
Why Portugal took a radical approach to drugs in 2001, plus theatre's Joan Littlewood
24 Oct 2020,53 mins
CNN and the 24-hour news revolution
The launch of CNN, the end of Lebanon's civil war and making a film in Saddam's Iraq.
17 Oct 2020,53 mins
British black history special
The voyage of the Empire Windrush, the battle of Lewisham and the creation of Desmond's
10 Oct 2020,53 mins
The Mafia and Italian politics
The trial which linked a senior Italian politician to the Mafia plus the birth of Google.
03 Oct 2020,53 mins
Blackwater killed my son
How US private security guards killed 14 Iraqi civilians; plus Florida's election chaos
26 Sep 2020,53 mins
Stories of resistance and protest from around the world
Different protest stories from China, Belarus, Kenya, USA and Argentina
19 Sep 2020,53 mins