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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

  •

    Devil's Island

    Tue 11 Aug 2015

    A convict's experience of the notorious French penal colony in South America.

  • The World's Most Valuable T-Rex

    Mon 10 Aug 2015

    Peter Larson tells us how his team discovered the most complete T-Rex fossil in the world

  • The Great Iraqi Defection

    Fri 7 Aug 2015

    In 1995 two of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's son-in-laws defected to Jordan.

  • Singapore Independence

    Thu 6 Aug 2015

    Singapore leaves the Federation of Malaysia and becomes an independent sovereign state

  • The Bombing of Hiroshima

    Wed 5 Aug 2015

    A Japanese schoolgirl tells her story of surviving the US nuclear attack on Hiroshima

  • The Plot to Kill Iranian Writers

    Tue 4 Aug 2015

    In August 1996 in Iran, there was a plot to kill 21 writers on a bus jouney to Armenia

  • First Cochlear Implant

    Mon 3 Aug 2015

    In August 1978 an Australian doctor successfully fitted a multi-channel cochlear implant.

  • Afghanistan's First Coup

    Fri 31 Jul 2015

    In July 1973 military officers staged a coup which toppled the monarchy in Afghanistan

  • Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

    Thu 30 Jul 2015

    In August 1960 the controversial Oscar-nominated psychological thriller was released

  • First Inter-racial Kiss on TV

    Wed 29 Jul 2015

    In July 1964, a white actor and a black actress, kissed, live, on a British TV show

  • Scouts in the Warsaw Uprising

    Tue 28 Jul 2015

    On 1 August 1944, the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation of Poland began

  • Chilean Students Set on Fire

    Mon 27 Jul 2015

    Chilean soldiers attacked and burnt two students during protests in July 1986.

  • Britain's Landslide 1945 Election

    Fri 24 Jul 2015

    In July 1945 Labour won a surprise victory, defeating war-time leader Winston Churchill

  • The Tulia Drug Bust

    Thu 23 Jul 2015

    A drug sting in a small Texas town in 1999 went badly wrong and caused a national scandal

  • Tehran's Red Light District

    Wed 22 Jul 2015

    In July 1979 Iran's new Islamic government closed down Tehran's red-light district.

  • CIA Mind Control Experiments

    Mon 20 Jul 2015

    In the 1950s the CIA began attempts to brainwash psychiatric patients.

  • Ghiggia: Uruguay鈥檚 World Cup Hero

    Fri 17 Jul 2015

    Alcides Ghiggia scored a famous goal for Uruguay in a match at Brazil鈥檚 Maracana stadium

  • The Manhattan Project

    Thu 16 Jul 2015

    The first ever nuclear weapon was detonated by scientists in the USA on 16 July 1945

  • Poison Gas in WW1

    Wed 15 Jul 2015

    Soldiers who witnessed gas attacks recount their experiences in archive recordings

  • Marie Curie

    Tue 14 Jul 2015

    Winner of two Nobel prizes for her pioneering research into radioactivity

  • The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

    Mon 13 Jul 2015

    In July 1945, the American warship was torpedoed in the shark-infested Pacific Ocean.

  • The Death of MKO Abiola

    Fri 10 Jul 2015

    Nigerian opposition leader died suddenly days before his expected release from prison

  • One Hundred Years of Solitude

    Thu 9 Jul 2015

    In 1967 the best-selling Latin American novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez was published.

  • Tamil Doctors and the Sri Lankan War

    Wed 8 Jul 2015

    In July 2009 doctors were forced to re-assess the number of casualties in the war.

  • The Death of General Sani Abacha

    Tue 7 Jul 2015

    The Doctor who tried to save Nigeria's Military Ruler.

  • Escape from the KGB

    Mon 6 Jul 2015

    In July 1985, Oleg Gordievsky, a high-ranking Soviet spy defected to the UK

  • German Re-Armament

    Fri 3 Jul 2015

    In the 1930s Hitler began to rebuild Germany's air force.

  • Red Cross Visits Nazi Concentration Camp

    Thu 2 Jul 2015

    In 1944 the International Red Cross was allowed into Theresienstadt concentration camp

  • The Berlin Love Parade

    Wed 1 Jul 2015

    On 1 July 1989, 150 dancers set off on a demonstration for 'peace, love and pancakes'

  • Helen Keller

    Tue 30 Jun 2015

    A childhood illness left Helen Keller deaf and blind - but she still learned to speak

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