Witness History
Channel Details
Witness History
Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there....
Recent Episodes
2122 episodes
The immigrant workers who refused to pay rent in 1970s France
In the 1970s, thousands of immigrant workers living in "foyers" or workers' hostels across France stopped paying rent.
They were protesting aga...
The making of Oasis’ Wonderwall
In 1995, the British band Oasis released one of their biggest hits as a single from their number one album: (What’s the Story) Morning Glory.
...
Jackie Kennedy renovates the White House
In 1962, cameras were allowed into the White House for the first televised tour of the American president’s renovated residence. And acting as the gui...
Restoring the Statue of Liberty
Between 1984 and 1986, to celebrate 100 years since it was dedicated, the Statue of Liberty underwent a multi-million-dollar restoration project.
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, Rosa Parks made civil rights history in the US when she refused to give up her seat on the bus.
Segregation laws in Montgomery, Alabama...
The final journey of Chief Long Wolf
In September 1997, the remains of a Native American chief were returned to the United States, more than a century after his death in England.
Ch...
Hawaii becomes the 50th American state
On 18 March 1959, Hawaii was brought into the United States of America as the 50th state with the passing of the Hawaiian Admission act.
Five mo...
Rata de dos patas: Mexico’s famous insult song
For more than 25 years, Rata de dos patas has been one of Mexico’s most recognisable - and unusual - songs. A relentless string of insults, it was mad...
WW1: The Battle of the Somme
In July 1916, Britain led an Allied offensive against German positions on the Western Front near the Somme river in France. The British army suffered...
Sid the Seagull and the Slip Slop Slap campaign
In 1981, Australia launched a fight against skin cancer with help from a yellow cartoon seagull and a catchy jingle.
The Slip Slop Slap campaig...
Brexit: Ireland watches the vote unfold
In June 2016, voters in the UK were asked whether they wanted to remain in the European Union or leave. It was a decision that would divide the countr...
China detains Hong Kong booksellers
It's 10 years since a Hong Kong bookseller who was detained for selling material critical of China’s leaders, was released and went public.
In 2...
The discovery of Lyme disease
In 1975, a mysterious outbreak of illness struck children in the United States, triggering a medical breakthrough.
Prof Allen Steere un...
The discovery of Mungo Man
On 26 February 1974, geologist Dr Jim Bowler discovered a 42,000-year-old skeleton in New South Wales, Australia.
The remains were nicknamed Mun...
Women Walk Home: Cyprus' forgotten peace march
In June 1987, hundreds of women walked towards a ceasefire line that had divided Cyprus since 1974.
The island was split after a coup backed by...
50 years since the Soweto Uprising
Half a century ago, an event took place that shook the apartheid regime in South Africa to its foundations - the Soweto Uprising.
It began with...
Hussein of Jordan: The survivor king
In 1970, King Hussein of Jordan survived after gunmen opened fire on his motorcade close to his summer palace. The king remained unharmed, but his dri...
The inspiration for Chekhov's Three Sisters
In 1897, Paul Shishkoff was 10 years old and living with his family in rural Russia.
It was there he met the great Russian playwright, Anton Che...
Picasso and the Surrealist summer
In the summer of 1937, some of the 20th Century's most famous artists, writers and photographers were holidaying in the south of France.
They i...
Mstislav Rostropovich: Virtuoso cellist
In 1978, Mstislav Rostropovich, one of the greatest cellists in history, was stripped of his Soviet citizenship for engaging in 'unpatriotic activity'...
The creation of Inspector Montalbano
On 10 March 1994, Italian author Andrea Camilleri's The Shape of Water was published.
It features Inspector Montalbano in the fictional Sicilian...
The protests that sparked the Tiananmen Square massacre
One month before the bloodshed in Beijing, a 10km line of protestors snaked through the city.
For over a decade China had been opening up to gl...
Australia's first Big Thing
In 1963, a giant Scotsman sculpture appeared outside the Scotty Motel in Adelaide, in South Australia. A banana, a koala, and even a potato soon follo...
The first Irish language television channel
In 1996, Ireland launched its first television channel broadcasting exclusively in the Irish language.
Teilifís na Gaeilge, later renamed TG4,...
Recording the Eichmann interviews
In the 1950s, Dutch journalist Willem Sassen recorded hours of interview with the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann about his involvement in the Holoca...
Filming Titanic in Mexico
In 1997, Titanic, one of the most successful films in movie history, and one of the most expensive, was made in Mexico.
The director James Cam...
I escaped Mexico's deadly gas explosion
Just before dawn, on 19 November 1984, an explosion at a gas plant in San Juanico, Mexico killed hundreds of people, injured thousands and destroyed b...
I fought for Mexico’s indigenous women to get political equality
In October 2014, indigenous women in Mexico won a landmark victory in their struggle for political rights.
It came after years of campaigning b...
Mexico: The election that ended one‑party rule
In July 2000 an historic election in Mexico saw a change of government for the first time in 71 years.
Vicente Fox of the National Action Party...
The Mexican song that captivated lovers during World War II
In 1944, as World War II was drawing to a close, the Mexican love song Besame Mucho crossed the Atlantic and became one of the most recognisable melod...
Canada's worst E.coli outbreak
In 2000, contaminated drinking water in the small Canadian town of Walkerton triggered one of the country’s worst public health disasters.
Heavy...
Montenegro votes for independence
Montenegro achieving independence from Serbia in 2006 was the final part of the break-up of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
When Krishna Menon met Stalin
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that...
Exposing King Albert II's secret child
In 1999, a teenager's debut book unintentionally caused a royal scandal in Belgium that wouldn't be resolved for more than 20 years.
Each evenin...
Poland’s underground newspaper
In 1981, Poland's communist regime imposed martial law and the dissident Solidarity movement was suppressed.
In response, Helena Luczywo helped...
The Sami protest song that made Eurovision history
In 1980, Norway’s entry to the Eurovision Song Contest included a traditional Sami joik song from the country’s indigenous community.
It was th...
When Sweden invented the reality game show
In 1997, Sweden changed television history. That year saw the launch of Expedition Robinson, widely regarded as the world’s first reality-based compet...
Uncovering a lost burial ground in Rio
In 1996, the bricklayer renovating Merced dos Anjos’ home in Rio de Janeiro told her something strange had happened. Bones appeared as he was breaking...
The fossil that revealed the first dinosaur feathers
In 1996, a fossil unearthed in China became the first confirmed record of a dinosaur covered in feathers.
Before this discovery, some palaeontol...
Sir David Attenborough's first Zoo Quest
In 1954, the BBC broadcast a new television programme in the United Kingdom.
It was called Zoo Quest and it launched the career of a man who ha...