Witness History
A podcast by BBC World Service
1490 Episodes
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The Pope’s controversial Nicaragua visit
Published: 26/07/2023 -
Brain: The first personal computer virus
Published: 25/07/2023 -
Escaping the Nazis in Greece
Published: 24/07/2023 -
The US singer who became the Soviet Union’s Red Elvis
Published: 21/07/2023 -
The birth of Barbie
Published: 20/07/2023 -
Japan surrenders in China
Published: 19/07/2023 -
The ‘Barricades’ of Latvia
Published: 18/07/2023 -
Tamoxifen: Breast cancer ‘wonder drug’
Published: 17/07/2023 -
Creating the first emoji
Published: 14/07/2023 -
When disposable nappies were invented
Published: 13/07/2023 -
Inventing Rubik’s Cube
Published: 11/07/2023 -
Invention of the ballpoint pen
Published: 10/07/2023 -
A right royal night out
Published: 07/07/2023 -
When tourism came to the Maldives
Published: 06/07/2023 -
The National Health Service begins
Published: 05/07/2023 -
Longest-serving democratically elected communist government
Published: 04/07/2023 -
The trial of John Demjanjuk
Published: 03/07/2023 -
I made Lady Gaga's meat dress
Published: 30/06/2023 -
The 'graveyard' for communist statues
Published: 29/06/2023 -
Sampoong department store disaster
Published: 28/06/2023
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.
