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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. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories.

When you subscribe to Witness History, you’ll be taken inside turning points in world affairs, from West Africa’s fight back against Boko Haram in 2015, to the behind-closed-doors talks that led to the US-Cuba “thaw” and the surprise announcement of restored relations.

You’ll discover what it was like to experience disasters and how people recovered from them, including the Tabasco floods in Mexico, Portugal’s worst train disaster, and the huge clean-up after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

You’ll explore culture and ideas too: Sweden’s Expedition Robinson, often credited as the first modern reality TV game show; the friendship between The Beatles’ George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar; and the night a tiger attack brought Las Vegas superstars Siegfried and Roy’s show to a sudden end.

And if you’re curious about inventions, we’ll tell you how air fryers, BlackBerry, YouTube, Alexa, GPS, superglue, the shopping cart (shopping trolley) and bubble tea were created.

If you’re new to Witness History, the appeal is simple: real voices, one strong true story, and a fresh way to understand today through events from history – all in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea or a walk around the block. Join millions of BBC World Service podcast listeners around the globe and enjoy the insight, context and detail Witness History will bring you.

Copyright: © (C) BBC 2024

Latest Episodes:

Ycuá Bolaños supermarket fire Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

In August 2004, more than 300 people died when a supermarket caught fire in Paraguay's capital, Asunción.

It is seen as the country's worst peacetime disaster.

Tatiana Gabaglio escaped the fire. She speaks to Ben Henderson.

(Photo: Mourners gathering after the Ycuá Bolaños fire. Credit: Norberto Duarte/AFP via Getty Images)

Freddie Mercury 'marries' Jane Seymour Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

On 5 November, 1985 some of the world's top designers and music stars joined together in a special event at London’s Royal Albert Hall to raise money for drought-hit Ethiopia.

The rock star Freddie Mercury and the actress Jane Seymour were chosen to model the bridal collection of David and Elizabeth Emanuel.

Jane Seymour tells Josephine McDermott what it was like to play the role of Freddie Mercury's bride for a fashion spectacular.

(Photo: Jane Seymour and Freddie Mercury at Fashion Aid. Credit: Getty Images)

Che Guevara’s daughter: A Cuban doctor in Angola Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

In 1986 Dr Aleida Guevara, the daughter of revolutionary icon Che Guevara, went to Angola to work as a paediatrician.

Dr Aleida was one of a number of medics Fidel Castro’s Cuban government sent to their fellow communist country in southern Africa as it emerged from Portuguese colonialism into civil war.

Marcia Veiga hears how Dr Aleida treated children with cholera in a hospital in the Angolan capital Luanda.

Dr Aleida also reveals how, during downtime from working as Cuba’s minister of industries, her tired father played with her by carrying her on his back as if he were a horse.

The music for this programme is from Dadifox and Receba.

(Photo: Dr Aleida Guevara with a patient at Luanda’s Josina Machel Hospital. Credit: Dr Aleida Guevara)

Inventing the black box Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

On 23 March 1962, a prototype of the first cockpit flight recorder, the black box, was tested in Australia.

In the early 1950s, fuel scientist David Warren, who worked in the Australian government’s aeronautical research laboratories, attended a talk about the reasons for a recent plane crash.

David thought that if only he could speak to a survivor, he’d have a much better idea of what caused the crash and could prevent future ones.

This led him to develop a recorder that would collect vital information of the last few hours before a plane goes down.

Today the modern equivalent of the black box is compulsory equipment on passenger planes all over the world.

In 2015, David’s children, Jenny and Peter Warren, and a former colleague, Bill Schofield, spoke with Catherine Davis about how his idea changed air travel forever.

(Photo: The flight data recorder known as a black box used in aircraft. Credit: Getty Images)

The discovery of the HIV virus Oct 31, 2023

Show notes

In 1983, scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris became the first to identify the HIV virus. It was a vital step in fighting one of the worst epidemics in modern history, AIDS.

The Pasteur had been asked to investigate after reports of a mystery disease that was spreading rapidly, particularly among the gay community.

Two weeks later, scientist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi detected the virus while working on a biopsy sample in the laboratory. She and the team leader, Luc Montagnier were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

But the discovery could easily have been missed, as she tells Jane Wilkinson.

(Photo: French virologists Jean-Claude Chermann, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier. Credit: Michel Philippot/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

The billion dollar bid to stop oil drilling in the Amazon Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

In 2010, a $3.6billion fund was launched to stop oil drilling in the most biodiverse place on the planet: the Yasuni national park in Ecuador.

The Yasuni covers 10,000 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest and is home to thousands of species of plants and animals but underneath the soil lies another important resource - 20% of Ecuador’s oil reserves.

It was feared that any drilling would cause pollution, deforestation and soil erosion so in a pioneering deal – known as the Yasuni ITT iniatitive - rich nations were asked to pay Ecuador not to remove the oil.

Chief negotiator Ivonne A-Baki was put in charge of raising funds from around the globe but securing money was not an easy task, as she tells Jane Wilkinson.

(Photo: A brown woolly monkey in the Yasuni National Park. Credit: Pablo Cozzaglio/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkey: Gezi Park protests Oct 27, 2023

Show notes

In 2013, environmental protests in Gezi Park, Istanbul led to civil unrest across Turkey.

For one protestor, a post he made on social media led to a dramatic outcome.

Memet Ali Alabora, was an activist and a famous actor in Turkey. He tells his story to Gill Kearsley.

(Photo: Protestors construct a barricade in Istanbul. Credit: Ayman Oghanna/Getty Images)

'The streets of Harare were littered with money' Oct 26, 2023

Show notes

In November 2008, Johns Hopkins University calculated Zimbabwe’s year-on-year inflation rate as 89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000% – one of the worst cases of hyperinflation in history.

Professor Gift Mugano was a government economist at the time.

He tells Vicky Farncombe what it was like to live through those times when wages were worthless and there was no food to buy in the shops.

“It was a very painful period. It is a year which one would not want to remember,” he said.

(Photo: Harare shoppers in an almost empty supermaket. Credit: Desmond Kwande/AFP via Getty Images)

The 1993 MAD hijack Oct 25, 2023

Show notes

On 25 October1993, a Nigerian Airways flight from Lagos to Abuja was hijacked by four teenagers calling themselves the Movement for the Advancement of Democracy (MAD).

They demanded the removal of the military-backed government, who had annulled the results of that year's election.

The plane was forced to land in Niger and later stormed after a protracted hostage crisis.

Obed Taseobi was a passenger on the flight. He tells his story to Jill Achineku.

A Whistledown production for BBC World Service.

(Picture: Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. Credit: Getty Images)

The 1980 Turkey coup Oct 24, 2023

Show notes

On 12 September 1980, the army took control in Turkey.

It was not the first time they had done so. It was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous having been in 1960 and 1971.

The coup followed growing street fighting between left and right-wing groups. Politicians were arrested and parliament, political parties and trade unions were dissolved.

Following the coup at least 50 people were executed and around half a million were detained. Many were tortured and hundreds died in custody.

In 2011 Jonathan Head spoke to Vice Admiral Isik Biren, who was an official in the defence ministry, and a former student activist, Murat Celikkan, about their different memories of that time.

(Photo: Portraits of people killed or tortured during the coup displayed in a courthouse in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Credit: Adem Atlan/ Getty Images)

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