Witness History

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.

World Service,3798 episodes

Episodes

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The Schengen Agreement
In 1985, five European politicians agreed to scrap border checks between their countries
13 Jun 2025,10 mins
Ronald Reagan’s ‘Tear down this wall’ speech
In 1987 the US President called on the Soviet Union leader to take down the Berlin Wall
12 Jun 2025,10 mins
Lonesome George: The celebrity tortoise
In 2012, Lonesome George, the last tortoise of his species died
11 Jun 2025,10 mins
The woman born in a prisoner of war camp
The Sino-Indian war in 1962, left a lasting legacy on Indian families of Chinese descent
10 Jun 2025,10 mins
World War Two’s Rome escape line
How an Irish priest saved thousands of allied prisoners of war and Jews in Rome in WW2
09 Jun 2025,10 mins
Usonia: Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘utopian’ town
1948 saw the start of a “utopian” town of houses designed by America’s greatest architect
06 Jun 2025,10 mins
The discovery of the first exoplanets
In 1992, astronomer Alex Wolszczan discovered the first planets outside our solar system
05 Jun 2025,10 mins
Favela life: The diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus
In 1960, the diary of a poor Brazilian mum became an international bestseller.
04 Jun 2025,9 mins
The world’s largest model train set
In 2000, twins Frederik and Gerrit started building Miniatur Wunderland
03 Jun 2025,10 mins
Dolly Rathebe: South Africa’s first international film star
Jim Comes to Jo’burg, also known as African Jim, launched Dolly Rathebe’s career in 1949
02 Jun 2025,10 mins
The Battle of the Beanfield
In 1985, police and hippies clashed at the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge, in England
30 May 2025,10 mins
The legacy of The Pirate Bay
In 2006 police raided the popular but controversial file-sharing website The Pirate Bay
29 May 2025,10 mins
Chinua Achebe’s revolutionary book Things Fall Apart
Achebe's English language novel from 1958 about life in Nigeria before colonialism
28 May 2025,9 mins
The Tragically Hip's final gig
In 2015 Canadian rockstar Gord Downie was given months to live, he went on one last tour
27 May 2025,9 mins
'I wrote the Champions League anthem'
The story of how one of the most iconic tunes in sport was created in 1992
26 May 2025,10 mins
Vivian Maier: Secret street photographer
The secret street photography of a US nanny in the 1950s and 1960s
23 May 2025,10 mins
The founding of Magnum Photos
On 22 April 1947, a group of famous war photographers founded the agency.
22 May 2025,10 mins
Martín Chambi: Peru's pioneering documentary photographer
Chambi's dramatic black and white photographs showed indigenous people in a new light.
21 May 2025,10 mins
Nigerian photographer’s iconic 'Hairstyles' series
J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, known as Nigeria’s top photographer gained international acclaim
20 May 2025,10 mins
Lunch atop a Skyscraper
In 1932, a photo was taken showing 11 ironworkers eating lunch at the top of a skyscraper
19 May 2025,10 mins
Sweden’s shocking sugar experiment
In the 1940s vulnerable hospital patients were fed sugar to see if their teeth decayed
16 May 2025,9 mins
Mexico’s soda tax: Confronting soft drink giants
In 2013 a new tax was approved in one of the world’s biggest consumers of fizzy drinks
15 May 2025,10 mins
The founding of the Warsaw Pact
On 14 May 1955, eight Soviet countries met to sign the Warsaw Pact.
14 May 2025,10 mins
Tesla and Edison: Electricity rivals
In 1915, two rival electricity pioneers were told they would share a Nobel Prize
13 May 2025,10 mins
Intervision Song Contest
In 1980, Finnish singer Marion Rung won Intervision, the USSR's answer to Eurovision
12 May 2025,10 mins
Rescuing Palmyra’s treasures from the Islamic State group
In 2015, Khalil Hariri risked his life to save centuries-old archaeology in Syria.
09 May 2025,10 mins
VE Day celebrations
The scenes of celebration in London on VE Day 1945
08 May 2025,9 mins
Sinking of the Lusitania
During World War One, the British ocean liner was sunk by a German submarine
07 May 2025,9 mins
The invention of the automatic electric rice cooker
In 1955, entrepreneur and engineer Yoshitada Minami, revolutionised rice cooking
06 May 2025,9 mins
Conclave: How a new pope is chosen
In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was elected to be the next head of the Catholic Church
05 May 2025,10 mins