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
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The Tanker War
Fri 1 Oct 2021
Surviving a deadly attack on a merchant ship in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war
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Petra Kelly and the German Greens
Thu 30 Sep 2021
The radical German Greens reshaped the country’s political landscape in the early 1980s
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'Mad cow disease' and CJD
Wed 29 Sep 2021
In 1996 the UK government said there was a link between BSE in cattle and CJD in humans
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Photographing Brazil's Yanomami
Tue 28 Sep 2021
Claudia Andujar spent almost five decades taking unique photos of the remote Amazon tribe
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Kenya: Westgate Mall attack
Fri 24 Sep 2021
Gunmen attacked a Nairobi shopping centre, the siege lasted four days in September 2013
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James Bond on screen
Thu 23 Sep 2021
As the latest James Bond film hits cinema screens we look at the appeal of the franchise
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The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
Wed 22 Sep 2021
How one of Vladimir Putin's critics was killed in London with a radioactive substance
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Mexico's miracle water
Tue 21 Sep 2021
People flocked from all over the Americas to central Mexico in search of healing water
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Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis
Mon 20 Sep 2021
The journalist who revealed the affair between the Greek shipping magnate and JFK's widow
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Christiania: Copenhagen’s hippy commune
Thu 16 Sep 2021
Copenhagen’s Christiania commune was created as a radical social experiment.
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The earthquake that devastated Haiti
Wed 15 Sep 2021
In 2010 the Haitian capital was hit by a catastrophic earthquake
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The lost king of France
Tue 14 Sep 2021
When DNA solved a two hundred year old French royal mystery. Did the king die or escape?
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The Attica prison rebellion
Mon 13 Sep 2021
One prisoner's memories of a dramatic siege in a high security jail in the USA.
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9/11: The backlash against American Muslims
Fri 10 Sep 2021
In the aftermath of September 11th, American Muslims faced increased discrimination
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America attacks Afghanistan
Thu 9 Sep 2021
Just a month after 9/11, the US launched airstrikes against the Taliban and al-Qaeda
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With the president on 9/11
Wed 8 Sep 2021
How the White House chief-of-staff broke the news of 9/11 to President George W Bush.
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The killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud
Tue 7 Sep 2021
Two days before 9/11, al-Qaeda killed a key Afghan leader in a suicide bombing.
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The warnings before 9/11
Mon 6 Sep 2021
Throughout 2001 the US administration was being given warnings a terror attack was coming
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The businessman who defied the Mafia
Thu 2 Sep 2021
How an anti-Mafia businessman paid the ultimate price for standing up to organised crime
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The first modern electric car
Tue 31 Aug 2021
The first mass-produced modern electric car was launched by GM in 1996
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Nigeria's 'War Against Indiscipline'
Fri 27 Aug 2021
A campaign to make life in Nigeria more orderly in the 1980s
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Syria's rebel poet
Thu 26 Aug 2021
Nizar Qabbani is one of the Arab world’s most famous poets but his legacy is contested
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Campaigning for Mexico's women with disabilities
Wed 25 Aug 2021
Activist Maryangel Garcia-Ramos on the struggle faced by Mexico's disabled women
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My father survived the sinking of the Titanic
Tue 24 Aug 2021
How six Chinese sailors were rescued from the Titanic, but then faced racism in America.
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John Maynard Keynes
Mon 23 Aug 2021
The remarkable man who transformed 20th century economics and changed our world.
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When The Queen met Ceaușescu
Fri 20 Aug 2021
It was the first time a communist leader had been given a full state visit to the UK