The History Hour

A compilation of the latest Witness History programmes.

World Service,478 episodes

Episodes

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Skiing and two-headed dogs
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes
24 Feb 2024,52 mins
Letters to Juliet and Saint Valentine’s traditions
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes.
17 Feb 2024,51 mins
Inspirational black women
Inspirational black women throughout history
10 Feb 2024,51 mins
Internet cafes and Doomsday seeds
The opening of the first commercial internet cafe and storing seeds in an Artic vault
03 Feb 2024,52 mins
Traitors and treachery
Historical figures branded traitors
27 Jan 2024,52 mins
Lady Tarzan and Ibadan Zoo
Why Nigeria went went wild for Ibadan Zoo and the Indian campaigner nicknamed Lady Tarzan
20 Jan 2024,51 mins
The first lesbian couple to get married and World Laughter Day
A collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service
13 Jan 2024,51 mins
Hindenburg disaster and wingsuits
Herb Morrison's iconic broadcast about the airship crash and the invention of wingsuits
06 Jan 2024,52 mins
Pad Thai, kiwis and the chef Ken Hom
The disputed history of Thailand’s national dish and how Ken Hom promoted Chinese cookery
30 Dec 2023,52 mins
Tsunamis and Caster Semenya
The tsunami that devastated Samoa and when Caster Semenya faced questions over her gender
23 Dec 2023,51 mins
Mandela's funeral and Tsar's reburial
Nelson Mandela's daughter talks about her father's funeral and Russia buries its past
16 Dec 2023,51 mins
Doom and Danish brains
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes
09 Dec 2023,51 mins
Saving animals from extinction and Cabbage Patch Kids
The Peruvian bird saved from the brink of extinction and the Cabbage Patch Kids craze
02 Dec 2023,52 mins
Zambia celebrates independence and the invention of bubble tea
An African nation is born in 1964 and a new invention changes the tea drinking world
25 Nov 2023,51 mins
The Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in Iceland and EpiPen invention
Icelandic volcano eruption stops European air travel in 2010 and inventing the EpiPen
18 Nov 2023,52 mins
Pakistani popstars, and the hippo and the tortoise
An hour of historical reporting told by the people who were there.
11 Nov 2023,52 mins
Che Guevara's daughter and marrying Freddie Mercury
Aleida Guevara on being a doctor in Angola's civil war and Jane Seymour on Fashion Aid
04 Nov 2023,51 mins
Gezi Park protests and MAD hijack
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes.
28 Oct 2023,51 mins
Osmondmania! and the launch of Lagos Fashion Week
Donny Osmond shares his memories of teen hysteria, and the birth of Lagos Fashion Week
21 Oct 2023,50 mins
The creation of Ghana's flag and the oldest person at primary school
How Ghana's flag was designed, and the 84-year-old Kenyan man who fought to be educated
14 Oct 2023,51 mins
Marking 50 years since the 1973 global oil crisis
Why oil prices spiralled in 1973, plus Amoco Cadiz, one of the world’s largest oil spills
07 Oct 2023,52 mins
The Lampedusa disaster and cat cafes
The sinking of a migrant boat 10 years ago, and the world's first cat cafe in Taiwan.
30 Sep 2023,50 mins
Nazi eugenics and the year of the vuvuzela
Adolf Hitler’s order to sterilise people, and the ‘world’s most annoying instrument’
23 Sep 2023,51 mins
Israeli and Palestinian history
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.
16 Sep 2023,51 mins
The Chilean coup and Zanzibar’s most famous singer
The 1973 military coup in Chile and Zanzibar’s ‘golden grandmother of music’
09 Sep 2023,51 mins
Historic Korean summit and goat island
The first inter-Korean summit in 50 years and the Mexican island overrun by goats
02 Sep 2023,50 mins
Ireland's 'ghost estates' and the first Rose of Tralee
The Celtic Tiger, the first Rose of Tralee and activist swimmers in Dublin.
26 Aug 2023,50 mins
Judy Garland's legacy and the Benin Bronzes
The legacy of Judy Garland and the return of two looted Benin Bronzes stolen in 1897
19 Aug 2023,52 mins
Presidential diamonds and Tupperware parties
A duck that toppled a president, a British train robbery and the Tupperware party boom.
12 Aug 2023,50 mins
Dinosaur discoveries and a Berlin Wall treehouse
Prehistoric eggs, a dinosaur in court and the treehouse built beside the Berlin Wall.
05 Aug 2023,51 mins