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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

  •

    Latvia's Controversial Waffen-SS Fighters

    Fri 16 Mar 2018

    In 1998 Latvian Waffen-SS veterans marched to remember a battle against the Soviets.

  • Tancredo Neves - Doomed Hero of Brazilian Democracy

    Thu 15 Mar 2018

    How the politician who led Brazil to democracy died before taking office as president.

  • The Battle of the Airwaves in Latin America

    Wed 14 Mar 2018

    How the 蜜芽传媒 began Spanish and Portuguese broadcasts to fight the Nazis in the Americas

  • Surviving The My Lai Massacre

    Tue 13 Mar 2018

    One of the worse US military atrocities took place during the Vietnam war.

  • The Moscow Show Trials

    Mon 12 Mar 2018

    An eyewitness account of Stalin's purge of top Soviet leaders during the Great Terror.

  • Changing the Alphabet in Azerbaijan

    Fri 9 Mar 2018

    After independence Azerbaijan changed from Russian Cyrillic script to Latin letters.

  • Marie Stopes: Birth Control Pioneer

    Thu 8 Mar 2018

    The first birth control clinic in Britain was opened in London in 1921 by Dr Marie Stopes

  • The Life and Thought of Hannah Arendt

    Wed 7 Mar 2018

    The life and thought of the leading 20th-century political thinker, Hannah Arendt

  • Deaf Rights Protest

    Tue 6 Mar 2018

    Students at the world's first deaf-only University demand a deaf college President.

  • World War One: Russia at War

    Fri 2 Mar 2018

    How Russia's disastrous war on the Eastern Front became a catalyst for revolution

  • China's Barefoot Doctors

    Thu 1 Mar 2018

    How China's barefoot doctor scheme revolutionised rural healthcare.

  • M*A*S*H

    Wed 28 Feb 2018

    The last episode of the iconic TV series broadcasts to record audiences across the US.

  • The Killing of Olof Palme

    Tue 27 Feb 2018

    The Swedish Prime Minister was shot dead on a Stockholm street on February 28th 1986.

  • The Angel of the North

    Mon 26 Feb 2018

    The huge steel sculpture that has become an icon for the north-east of England.

  • The Last Smallpox Outbreak

    Fri 23 Feb 2018

    In India in 1974 thousands of people died in the world's last major smallpox epidemic

  • David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

    Thu 22 Feb 2018

    One of the biggest novels of the late twentieth century was published in February 1996.

  • The Boy in the Bubble

    Wed 21 Feb 2018

    David Vetter was born with a disease which meant he lived inside a plastic bubble

  • Jimmy Swaggart's Fall From Grace

    Tue 20 Feb 2018

    How one of America's most successful televangelists was caught with a prostitute

  • Ghana Must Go

    Mon 19 Feb 2018

    Over a million African migrants, most of them Ghanaian, had to leave Nigeria in 1983

  • Vietnam War: The Battle for Hue

    Fri 16 Feb 2018

    Communist forces overran the key city in 1968 triggering one of the war's biggest battles

  • The Furies Collective: Lesbian Separatists

    Thu 15 Feb 2018

    A group of US feminists set up a commune to live entirely without men in 1971.

  • Leonardo's Lost Notebooks

    Wed 14 Feb 2018

    In 1967 two long-lost notebooks of the artist Leonardo da Vinci were discovered in Spain

  • Women's Rights In Iran

    Tue 13 Feb 2018

    Iran's first ever Minister for Women's Affairs was appointed in 1975.

  • Hull's 'Headscarf Revolutionaries'

    Mon 12 Feb 2018

    The British fishermen's wives who fought for better safety standards in their industry

  • The Bombing Of Korean Flight 858

    Fri 9 Feb 2018

    In 1987, 115 people died in an attack ordered by North Korea to disrupt the Olympic Games

  • Spying On South Africa's Nuclear Bomb

    Thu 8 Feb 2018

    Renfrew Christie was jailed and tortured for passing details of the bomb to the ANC

  • The Munich Air Disaster

    Wed 7 Feb 2018

    The 1958 plane crash that killed eight of Manchester United's famous "Busby Babes" team.

  • Women in Britain get the right to vote

    Tue 6 Feb 2018

    On 6th February 1918, women in Britain were given the right to vote for the first time

  • Bringing Nazi Leader Klaus Barbie To Justice

    Mon 5 Feb 2018

    The extradition to France of the man known as 'the butcher of Lyon'

  • Banning The Belt

    Fri 2 Feb 2018

    How two Scottish mothers forced the UK government to end corporal punishment in schools

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