Witness History Podcast
History told by the people who were there. For nine minutes every weekday, Witness History takes you back to moments which have shaped our world.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal ; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
Episodes to download
-
Albert Pierrepoint: Britain's executioner
Thu 26 Jan 2023
Using archive recordings, Alex Last tells the story of Britain's most famous hangman
-
Smolensk air disaster
Wed 25 Jan 2023
In 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president, crashed and killed everyone on board
-
Japanese death row guard
Tue 24 Jan 2023
Yoshikuni Noguchi was a prison guard in Japan and witnessed the hanging of a prisoner
-
When Britain tried to censor the Troubles in Northern Ireland
Mon 23 Jan 2023
Paul McLoone recalls the time he was the voice of Martin McGuinness
-
Swine flu vaccine and narcolepsy
Fri 20 Jan 2023
In 2009 a vaccine designed to stop swine flu appeared to trigger a sleep disorder
-
France's nuclear tests in Algeria
Thu 19 Jan 2023
Between 1960 and 1966, France carried out 17 nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara
-
Kosovo’s house schools
Wed 18 Jan 2023
In the 1990s a generation of Albanians got their education crammed into private homes
-
Europe's horse meat scandal
Tue 17 Jan 2023
In 2013, horse meat was discovered in beef products across Europe
-
Miracle on the Hudson
Mon 16 Jan 2023
On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in New York
-
World’s first tidal power station
Fri 13 Jan 2023
French President Charles De Gaulle opened the power station in 1966.
-
Galápagos Islands’ sea cucumber dispute
Thu 12 Jan 2023
A demand for sea cucumbers set off a confrontation between fishermen and conservationists
-
Paul Robeson and the transatlantic phone line
Wed 11 Jan 2023
In 1957, Paul Robeson used a new undersea phone line to perform a transatlantic concert.
-
Dutch North Sea flood
Tue 10 Jan 2023
In 1953, a storm combined with high tides breached sea defences in the Netherlands
-
Plastics in oceans
Mon 9 Jan 2023
In 1971 Edward Carpenter discovered plastic floating about in the Atlantic Ocean
-
Pussy Riot’s cathedral protest
Fri 6 Jan 2023
In 2012, a punk protest took place in one of Moscow's main cathedrals
-
The man Pinochet wanted dead
Thu 5 Jan 2023
In 1973, Miguel Enriquez led resistance against the dictatorship in Chile
-
When America banned silicone breast implants
Wed 4 Jan 2023
In 1992, the US Government suspended all procedures involving silicone breast implants
-
Arctic African
Tue 3 Jan 2023
Tété-Michel Kpomassie, ran away from his village in Togo and went to live in Greenland.
-
One team in Tallinn
Mon 2 Jan 2023
In 1996, Scotland played in a football match where the opposition hadn't turned up
-
The birth of the Slow Food Movement
Fri 30 Dec 2022
In 1986, protests against McDonalds in Rome led to an anti-fast food revolution.
-
Inventing instant noodles
Thu 29 Dec 2022
In 1958 Japanese entrepreneur, Momofuku Ando, invented instant noodles
-
Malta's bread strike
Wed 28 Dec 2022
In February 1977 the bakers of Malta went on an unprecedented strike
-
-
Creating ciabatta bread
Boxing Day 2022
In 1982, rally driver Arnaldo Cavallari created ciabatta bread in Adria, in Italy
-
Chile mine rescue
Fri 23 Dec 2022
In 2010, 33 miners were trapped underground for 69 days in the San José mine in Chile
-
Grozny siege
Thu 22 Dec 2022
In December 1994, Russian forces began the siege of Chechnya’s capital Grozny
-
Colombia's 'false positives' killings
Wed 21 Dec 2022
When Colombia's military murdered thousands of innocent civilians
-
The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ broadcasting through the Iron Curtain
Tue 20 Dec 2022
Transmitting independent broadcasts through the Iron Curtain between 1947 and 1991
-
Una Marson and the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Caribbean Service
Mon 19 Dec 2022
The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s first black producer, Una Marson, and the beginnings of the Caribbean Service
-
Felix Baumgartner's huge leap
Fri 16 Dec 2022
In 2012, Felix Baumgartner skydived from the edge of space