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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The warnings before 9/11
Wed 14 Aug 2019
Throughout 2001 the US authorities were given warnings that a terror attack was imminent
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The daily disposable contact lens
Tue 13 Aug 2019
How the contact lens became cheap enough to throw away after a day
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The division of Kashmir
Mon 12 Aug 2019
The October 1947 crisis which led to the partition of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
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The Yangtze Incident
Fri 9 Aug 2019
How a British warship escaped from Chinese Communists on the Yangtze river in 1949
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British troops take to the streets of Northern Ireland
Thu 8 Aug 2019
In August 1969 the British Army was deployed on the streets of Londonderry
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Criminals in the community
Wed 7 Aug 2019
How Britain pioneered Community Service as an alternative to prison in the 1970s
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Under the North Pole
Tue 6 Aug 2019
In 1958 the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travelled under the North Pole.
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The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'
Mon 5 Aug 2019
How thousands of French families fled from Algeria as it won independence
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The invasion of Kuwait
Fri 2 Aug 2019
Thousands of Iraqi troops and tanks began pouring into Kuwait on 2 August 1990
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The Warsaw uprising
Thu 1 Aug 2019
On August 1st 1944, Polish resistance fighters rose up against German occupying forces
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The anti-nuclear protesters who won
Wed 31 Jul 2019
The eight year protest campaign which stopped a nuclear plant at Wackersdorf in Germany.
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The treasures of Sutton Hoo
Tue 30 Jul 2019
A huge hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold was discovered in southern England in 1939.
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The death of David Kelly
Mon 29 Jul 2019
The weapons inspector's death deepened the row over the UK's part in the invasion of Iraq
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Humanity's earliest ancestor
Fri 26 Jul 2019
A fossilised skull found in Chad is thought to be the earliest-known ancestor of humans
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When Tunisia led on women's rights
Thu 25 Jul 2019
When Tunisia introduced divorce, abortion and votes for women ahead of much of the world.
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The Chappaquiddick Incident
Wed 24 Jul 2019
The car accident involving US Senator Edward Kennedy which left a young woman dead
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LGBT 'cooperative' marriages in China
Tue 23 Jul 2019
How LGBT people in China started arranging fake marriages to hide their sexuality
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Apollo 13
Thu 18 Jul 2019
The Moon mission that almost ended in tragedy after an explosion on board the spaceship.
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The Moon Landing
Wed 17 Jul 2019
In July 1969, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the Moon.
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Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut
Tue 16 Jul 2019
The Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to be sent into space
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Laika, the first dog in space
Mon 15 Jul 2019
The Russian stray was the first dog to be sent into orbit around the earth
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Kenya's ivory inferno
Fri 12 Jul 2019
How a dramatic bonfire in Nairobi National Park highlighted the threat from poaching
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Cuba executes top military officers
Thu 11 Jul 2019
Four army officers were sentenced to death for drug trafficking by the Castro government
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The Common Cold Unit
Wed 10 Jul 2019
The remarkable UK research centre where thousands went on holiday to catch a cold
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China puts tampons on sale
Tue 9 Jul 2019
Women in China got access to tampons for the first time in 1985
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The secret diaries of 'Gentleman Jack'
Mon 8 Jul 2019
The secret diaries of 19th-century Englishwoman Anne Lister, the 'first modern lesbian'
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The indigenous fight to stop nuclear waste disposal
Fri 5 Jul 2019
How a group of senior, indigenous Australian women fought to save their land.
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