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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

  •

    A Bitter Divorce: When Guinea said "No" to France

    Thu 28 Sep 2017

    How Guinea became the first French West African colony to declare independence in 1958.

  • Walking the Great Wall of China

    Wed 27 Sep 2017

    It took 508 days to complete the first expedition along the entire length of the wall.

  • Britain's Land Girls

    Tue 26 Sep 2017

    Thousands of women and girls worked on farms throughout WW2 to produce much needed food.

  • Steve Biko: Black Consciousness Leader

    Mon 25 Sep 2017

    The activist had died in South African police custody. He was buried on September 25 1977

  • The Cross Border Horse Race

    Fri 22 Sep 2017

    A showdown on the American/Mexican border on September 14th 1958.

  • Roselle - The 9/11 Guide Dog

    Thu 21 Sep 2017

    The inspiring story of how a Labrador led her blind master out of the World Trade Center.

  • Australia's Rabbit Plague

    Wed 20 Sep 2017

    Rabbits infested huge swathes of the Australian countryside in the 1940s and 1950s.

  • Shark Attack Survivor

    Tue 19 Sep 2017

    When Rodney Fox survived the jaws of a Great White Shark it inspired him to study them.

  • The Transatlantic Locust Plague

    Mon 18 Sep 2017

    Millions of African locusts invaded the Caribbean having flown 5,000 kilometres non-stop.

  • Sabra and Shatila - A Massacre in Lebanon

    Fri 15 Sep 2017

    A doctor working in Sabra and Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon recalls the massacre there

  • The German Schoolboy Arrested for Writing a Letter

    Thu 14 Sep 2017

    Karl-Heinz Borchardt was arrested at the age of 18 by East German secret police.

  • The Hippydilly Squat

    Wed 13 Sep 2017

    A group of hippies occupied a sixty-room mansion in central London in September 1969.

  • The Collapse of Northern Rock

    Tue 12 Sep 2017

    Panicked run on bank signals the start of the financial crisis in the UK

  • Nok Terracottas: Nigeria's Ancient Treasure

    Mon 11 Sep 2017

    When West African tin miners unearthed evidence of a lost civilization

  • France's Last Guillotine

    Fri 8 Sep 2017

    The last man to be executed by guillotine in France was a Tunisian, Hamida Djandoubi.

  • 蜜芽传媒 Proms: Audience Member Rescues Concert

    Thu 7 Sep 2017

    When the principal singer collapsed, a member of the audience took over his role.

  • Biosphere 2: Building A New World

    Wed 6 Sep 2017

    Eight scientists sealed themselves inside a giant greenhouse for an ambitious experiment.

  • The Fairy Photos

    Tue 5 Sep 2017

    How two girls' photos convinced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that fairies exist.

  • Jamaica's Worst Train Accident

    Mon 4 Sep 2017

    A survivor recalls the Kendal train crash in September 1957 when more than 200 died.

  • The Funeral of Princess Diana

    Fri 1 Sep 2017

    Diana's brother Earl Spencer remembers the emotional speech he made at her funeral.

  • The Birth of eBay

    Wed 30 Aug 2017

    The online auction site first went live in 1995.

  • George Orwell and Animal Farm

    Tue 29 Aug 2017

    Animal Farm was an allegory about the dangers of Soviet communism and of Joseph Stalin.

  • The Revolutionary Head Scan

    Mon 28 Aug 2017

    The summer of 1983 saw a major breakthrough in the treatment of facial deformities.

  • Notting Hill Race Riot

    Fri 25 Aug 2017

    The racial disturbances in west London which shocked Britain in 1958.

  • The Rostock-Lichtenhagen Riots

    Thu 24 Aug 2017

    A home for asylum seekers was set on fire in the German city of Rostock in August 1992

  • Medicine In World War One

    Wed 23 Aug 2017

    Veterans tell the story of how medical care dealt with the horrors of WW1

  • The Discovery of Botox

    Tue 22 Aug 2017

    How an ophthalmologist and a dermatologist discovered that a toxin could stop wrinkles

  • The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials

    Mon 21 Aug 2017

    A German court put Nazi war criminals on trial 20 years after the end of World War Two

  • Rabindranath Tagore

    Fri 18 Aug 2017

    The "Bard of Bengal" died on August the 7th 1941.

  • The Division of Cyprus

    Thu 17 Aug 2017

    In August 1974, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus for a second time cutting the island in two

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