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 鈥� Argentina鈥檚 Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous 鈥榯ear down this wall鈥� speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler鈥檚 List; and Jacques Derrida, France鈥檚 鈥榬ock star鈥� 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鈥檚 oldest languages.
Episodes to download
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Saddam Hussein's big movie project
Fri 16 Oct 2020
Behind the scenes at the Iraqi-funded, Clash of Loyalties
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The US Voting Rights Act of 1965
Thu 15 Oct 2020
The landmark legislation was introduced to ensure the rights of African Americans to vote
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The last of the Kazakh herders
Wed 14 Oct 2020
Many of the nomadic herders in Kazakhstan left the USSR and moved to China in the 1920s
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The end of the Lebanese Civil War
Tue 13 Oct 2020
On October 13th 1990 the fifteen year long conflict in Lebanon finally came to an end
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The launch of CNN
Mon 12 Oct 2020
1980 saw the launch of the first TV station dedicated to 24 hour news.
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The Battle of Lewisham
Fri 9 Oct 2020
How anti-racists stopped a far-right march in South London in 1977.
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Desmond's - a sitcom that changed Britain
Thu 8 Oct 2020
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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Fighting racism on the dancefloor
Wed 7 Oct 2020
New laws were used to stop clubs from banning black and ethnic minority people in 1978
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Britain's first black woman headteacher
Tue 6 Oct 2020
Yvonne Conolly was made head of a London primary school in 1969.
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The voyage of the Empire Windrush
Mon 5 Oct 2020
A ship carrying hundreds of migrants from the Caribbean set sail for Britain in 1948
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The house by the lake
Fri 2 Oct 2020
The summer house by a lake which witnessed much of Germany's 20th century history
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Operation Breakthrough: Fighting to save three whales
Thu 1 Oct 2020
Three gray whales got caught in the ice off Alaska in October 1988
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The founding of Google
Wed 30 Sep 2020
In 1998 the world's most popular search engine was launched by two PHD students
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The Mafia trial of Italy鈥檚 former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti
Tue 29 Sep 2020
A trial which shone a light on links between Italian politicians and the Mafia
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The death of Gamal Abdel Nasser
Mon 28 Sep 2020
The charismatic Egyptian president dominated Arab politics for almost two decades
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Bush v Gore: The 'hanging chads' US election of 2000
Fri 25 Sep 2020
The US presidential election of 2000 was one of the closest and most contested in history
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Blackwater killed my son
Thu 24 Sep 2020
How US private security guards opened fire on civilians in Baghdad, killing 17 people
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When Nelson Mandela went to Detroit
Wed 23 Sep 2020
Shortly after his release from prison the South African freedom fighter toured the USA
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How Liberia wrote off its debts
Tue 22 Sep 2020
Hoe Liberia negotiated to write off billions of dollars of debt.
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The Galileo project
Mon 21 Sep 2020
A mission to study the planet Jupiter finally came to an end on 21st September 2003
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The mothers of Argentina's disappeared
Fri 18 Sep 2020
The women who began protesting after their children were taken away by soldiers
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Tank Man
Thu 17 Sep 2020
A photo of a man confronting a tank in China caught the world's imagination in 1989
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The Mau Mau struggle against British rule
Tue 15 Sep 2020
In the 1950s rebels took up arms to rid Kenya of colonial rule
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Resisting 'Europe's last dictator' in Belarus
Mon 14 Sep 2020
Exiled dissident Nikolai Khalezin on the origins of the protest movement in Belarus
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Why the US rejected universal healthcare
Fri 11 Sep 2020
After WW2 US President Harry Truman argued for healthcare for all but his plan failed.
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Banning alcohol in an Indian state
Thu 10 Sep 2020
Punyavathi Sunkara recalls how the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh banned alcohol in 1995.
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The birth of Reddit
Wed 9 Sep 2020
In 2005 two young graduates created one of the internet's most popular websites.
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Haiti's cholera outbreak
Tue 8 Sep 2020
Haiti was cholera-free until UN peacekeepers brought it to the Caribbean country in 2010
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The Dawson's Field hijacking
Mon 7 Sep 2020
Barbara Mensch recalls how she was hijacked and held in Jordan in 1970
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Care in the Community
Fri 4 Sep 2020
In the 1990s Britain closed down many of its long-stay hospitals and asylums
