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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.

Updated: daily
Episodes available: indefinitely

Episodes to download

  •

    Sucked out of a plane

    Wed 27 Feb 2019

    Nine people died when a cargo door opened mid-flight over the Pacific in February 1989

  • Swine flu shuts down Mexico City

    Tue 26 Feb 2019

    A highly infectious virus appeared in Mexico in 2009 and rapidly spread round the world

  • Venezuela's oil bonanza

    Mon 25 Feb 2019

    The boom and bust years of "Saudi" Venezuela in the 1970s

  • How science ended the search for Josef Mengele

    Fri 22 Feb 2019

    A panel of scientists went to Brazil to identify the remains of the infamous Nazi in 1985

  • The men who tried to warn us about smoking

    Thu 21 Feb 2019

    When doctors said cigarette smokers were dying prematurely the UK government did little.

  • The curse of Agent Orange

    Wed 20 Feb 2019

    One woman's battle against the toxic legacy of the Vietnam War

  • The Columbia space shuttle disaster

    Tue 19 Feb 2019

    The US space shuttle disintegrated on its way back to Earth on February 1, 2003.

  • The true story of Roma

    Mon 18 Feb 2019

    The student massacre in M茅xico portrayed in Alfonso Cuar贸n's award-winning movie.

  • Maastricht: The birth of the European Union

    Fri 15 Feb 2019

    In 1992 European ministers signed a treaty towards greater economic and political unity.

  • Confessions of a Soviet alcoholic

    Thu 14 Feb 2019

    How a homeless Russian drunk wrote a secret classic

  • British Cameroons' historic referendum

    Wed 13 Feb 2019

    The 1961 vote lies at the heart of the violent conflict in Cameroon's Anglophone region

  • Women Airline Pilots

    Tue 12 Feb 2019

    Two of the first female airline pilots in the US remember their struggle

  • Iceland Jails Its Bankers

    Mon 11 Feb 2019

    The man who jailed 40 top bankers in Iceland after the 2008 global credit crunch

  • The Bombardment of Baghdad

    Fri 8 Feb 2019

    The people of Baghdad faced death when the US and its allies began their invasion of Iraq

  • Disney Goes to Europe

    Thu 7 Feb 2019

    The first Disney theme park in Europe took years of negotiations to get off the ground.

  • The Soweto Uprising

    Wed 6 Feb 2019

    A former schoolgirl remembers the demonstration that sparked an uprising in South Africa.

  • The Capture of Che Guevara

    Tue 5 Feb 2019

    How the Marxist revolutionary was captured and killed in Bolivia.

  • The Death of Hitler

    Mon 4 Feb 2019

    A first-hand account of Hitler from one of his secretaries who was there at the very end

  • Women and the Iranian Revolution

    Fri 1 Feb 2019

    Many women supported Iran's 1979 Revolution but some later became disillusioned

  • Iran Hostage Rescue Mission

    Thu 31 Jan 2019

    The US sent special forces to try to rescue hostages from their Embassy in Tehran in 1980

  • Iran Hostage Crisis

    Wed 30 Jan 2019

    Barry Rosen was one of the Americans held hostage for 444 days in Tehran.

  • Ayatollah Khomeini Returns From Exile

    Tue 29 Jan 2019

    In February 1979 an Islamic revolution began when Iran's exiled religious leader returned

  • Musicians of the Iranian Revolution

    Mon 28 Jan 2019

    How Iran's state employed musicians started recording revolutionary songs.

  • The Publisher Who Tried to Change the World

    Fri 25 Jan 2019

    Virago Press opened as a feminist publisher in 1972 to promote women's writing

  • Vatican II: Reforming the Catholic Church

    Wed 23 Jan 2019

    Pope John XXIII wanted to modernise the Catholic Church, reforms took place in the 1960s.

  • The Carry On Films

    Tue 22 Jan 2019

    The British comic film franchise which found fans around the world

  • India's First Call Centre

    Mon 21 Jan 2019

    In the late 1990s a businessman started a new industry in India

  • The Case of Dr Crippen

    Fri 18 Jan 2019

    How one of the most notorious murderers in Edwardian London was captured

  • The Thames Whale

    Thu 17 Jan 2019

    In January 2006, millions of Londoners were entranced by the appearance of a whale.

  • Strikers In Saris

    Wed 16 Jan 2019

    South Asian women led a strike against poor working conditions in a British factory.

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