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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:

First all-women peacekeeping unit Mar 08, 2023

Show notes

In 2007, the UN deployed its first all-female contingent of peacekeepers in Liberia in West Africa.

The country was still recovering from its long civil war when the Indian policewomen arrived.

In this programme first broadcast in 2019, Jill McGivering hears from Seema Dhundia of India’s Central Reserve Police Force who led the unit.

(Photo: Seema Dhundia. Credit: Getty Images)

Mexico's first female presidential hopeful Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

In 1982, human rights campaigner Rosario Ibarra became the first woman and first political outsider to stand for president in Mexico.

Her presidential bid was a direct challenge to the country’s long-established male-dominated political system. Ibarra’s motivation to stand was both political and highly personal. She wanted to draw attention to the country’s “disappeared” political prisoners, among them her own son.

Mike Lanchin has been hearing about Rosario Ibarra from her eldest daughter, Rosario Piedra.

This is a CTVC production for BBC World Service.

(Picture: Rosario Ibarra campaigning. Credit: The Rosario family)

Octavia E. Butler: Visionary black sci-fi writer Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

In 1995, Octavia E Butler became the first author to receive a MacArthur “genius” award for science fiction writing.

From a young age she dreamed of writing books, but faced many challenges, including poverty, sexism and racism in the publishing industry.

She died aged 58 in 2006. Alex Collins speaks to her friend and fellow author Nisi Shawl.

(Photo: Octavia E. Butler. Credit: Getty Images)

Zoran Djindjic: The murder of Serbia's prime minister Mar 03, 2023

Show notes

Zoran Djindjic, the prime minister of Serbia, was assassinated on 12 March 2003. He was murdered by an associate of former president, Slobodan Milosevic.

Gordana Matkovic served in Djindjic's cabinet.

Two decades on from the murder, she shares her memories of that time with Matt Pintus.

(Photo: Zoran Djindjic poster held up during remembrance gathering. Credit: Getty Images)

The museum at the end of the world Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

In 1992, the late zoologist Nigel Bonner opened one of the world's most remote museums, the South Georgia Whaling Museum, on South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic.

Despite its isolated location, 1,400km east of the Falkland Islands, it remains open today and gets around 15,000 visitors a year.

Rachel Naylor speaks to Jan Cheek, a friend of the founder and former trustee of the museum.

(Photo: South Georgia Museum. Credit: Richard Hall for SGHT)

Grenada's underwater sculpture park Mar 01, 2023

Show notes

In 2004 Jason deCaires Taylor started building the world's first underwater gallery.

He wanted to attract divers away from fragile coral reefs, so he submerged life-sized, human cement models in the Caribbean Sea.

Within a few days the art was covered in purple and blue sponges, orange fire coral and green algae... and was even home to a few octopuses.

Nineteen years later, Jason tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty about his memories of building the park.

Archive Credit: Grenada Broadcasting Network.

(Photo: ‘Viscissitudes’ - A sculpture installed in Grenada. Credit: Jason deCaires Taylor)

Pink Triangles: Gay men in Nazi concentration camps Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

In 2009, Rudolf Brazda, one of the last known survivors of the Pink Triangles, returned to the former site of Buchenwald concentration camp where he’d been imprisoned during World War Two, for being gay in Nazi Germany.

In never previously broadcast recordings, taped by Jean-Luc Schwab, who wrote Rudolf’s biography, we hear Rudolf’s reaction to returning as a 95-year-old man.

Jean-Luc Schwab who became friends with Rudolf in the last few years of his life, speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma.

This programme contains distressing details.

(Photo: Rudolf Brazda. Credit: Frederick Florin/ Getty Images)

Wounded Knee siege Feb 27, 2023

Show notes

Fifty years ago, indigenous American activists staged a historic protest against the US authorities.

A siege began which lasted for two months and resulted in the violent deaths of two tribal members and the injuring of a US marshal.

In 2011 Russell Means, the former national director of the ‘American Indian Movement', spoke to the programme.

(Photo: Russell Means in 1973. Credit: Getty Images)

When the Queen 'jumped out of a helicopter' Feb 24, 2023

Show notes

How did an estimated 900 million people come to witness Her Majesty the Queen apparently parachuting from a helicopter with James Bond?

Frank Cottrell-Boyce who wrote the scene for the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games explains how it came about.

Josephine McDermott hears how corgis, a clothes line and the Queen’s dresser all played important parts.

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 football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: The moment the Queen and James Bond appeared to jump out of a helicopter above the Olympic Stadium in London. Credit: Getty Images)

Families interned in WW2 China Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

Despite facing malnutrition, starvation and disease, Christopher John Huckstep's father set up a school in the Japanese internment camp where his family was sent in 1943.

Herbert Huckstep ensured the 350 children of Lunghwa Civilian Assembly Centre were taught a wide range of subjects using brown paper bags to write on. The school was called Lunghwa Academy and it had its own badge, motto and certificates. A syllabus was followed, exams were taken and there were even evening classes for adults.

The Japanese set up more than 20 internment camps in China and Hong Kong holding an estimated 14,000 people, but it is not believed that such a sophisticated schooling system was established elsewhere.

In spite of the many hardships, educational standards were kept so high that qualifications taken in the camp were later recognised by the Cambridge exam board when the exam scripts were taken to England after the war.

Christopher John Huckstep shares his memories with Josephine McDermott.

(Photo: Christopher John Huckstep and other children at Lunghwa Civilian Assembly Centre, Shanghai, in 1945. Credit: Oscar Seepol. Image courtesy of Susannah Stapleton and Special Collections, University of Bristol Library)

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