Witness History
A podcast by BBC World Service
1472 Episodes
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Tetris: The birth of an all-time favourite
Published: 04/06/2024 -
‘Panda diplomacy’: China gifts pandas to Taiwan
Published: 03/06/2024 -
The commercial that changed advertising: 1984
Published: 31/05/2024 -
The Flint water crisis
Published: 30/05/2024 -
The first Aboriginal MP
Published: 29/05/2024 -
The first ever quintuplets
Published: 28/05/2024 -
Carlos Lamarca: From army captain to Brazil's 'most wanted'
Published: 27/05/2024 -
How Air Jordans were created
Published: 24/05/2024 -
Imelda Marcos's famous shoe collection
Published: 23/05/2024 -
Adi Dassler's sports shoe obsession
Published: 22/05/2024 -
How a Brazilian flip-flop took over the world
Published: 21/05/2024 -
Bata: Pioneering shoemakers
Published: 20/05/2024 -
When Cuban spy Ana Montes was caught
Published: 17/05/2024 -
Baghdad heavy metal
Published: 16/05/2024 -
How nuclear testing changed politics in French Polynesia
Published: 15/05/2024 -
The creation of the state of Israel
Published: 14/05/2024 -
The ‘Catastrophe’ for Palestinians
Published: 13/05/2024 -
Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal
Published: 10/05/2024 -
How a billion Indians got a digital ID
Published: 09/05/2024 -
The pioneering eye surgery that led to Lasik
Published: 08/05/2024
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 – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ 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’s oldest languages.