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Witness History
BBC
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.
Beschikbare afleveringen
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Wallander and the rise of Nordic Noir
Published in 1991, Faceless Killers was the first of Henning Mankell’s crime novels featuring police inspector Kurt Wallander. The series changed the world of crime writing, introducing gritty social realism. The Wallander novels helped... -
How BRICS got its name
In 2001, a few months after 9/11, economist Jim O’Neill was working at Goldman Sachs when he wrote a report about which countries might become big players in the world economy. That’s when he came up with the name BRIC - short for... -
Japan surrenders in Beijing
Eighty years ago, in the autumn of 1945, World War II surrender ceremonies took place across the Japanese Empire. The one in China was held at the Forbidden City in Beijing bringing an end to eight years of occupation. Thousands of... -
The remote island that was evacuated to 10,000km away
On 10 October 1961, a volcanic eruption threatened the population of Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, and all 264 islanders were evacuated to the UK. Two years later, the majority voted to return.... -
'I designed the Indian rupee symbol'
In 2009, the Indian government launched a national competition to find a design for the Indian rupee. With more than 3,000 entries and five finalists, the winning design was announced on 15 July 2010. The designer was by Udaya Kumar... -
The home video war
Before streaming and catch-up TV, owning a video recorder was one of the only ways to watch on-demand entertainment. In 1975 Sony launched Betamax with its half-inch-wide tape capable of recording 60 minutes of television. It was the... -
The acquittal of OJ Simpson
It’s 30 years since American football star OJ Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Ron Shipp was a close friend of OJ Simpson's and also a police officer, he decided to... -
'I took the famous photo of JFK and his son'
On 2 October 1963, American photographer Stanley Tretick took the best picture of his life – a photo of President John F Kennedy working at the Resolute Desk in the White House, with his two-year-old son ‘John-John’ peeking out a secret... -
The strike that shook up India's tea industry
In September 2015, thousands of women tea pickers went on strike at one of India’s biggest tea producers. They had picked more tea than ever that year but were furious that wages remained low and managers were proposing to cut their... -
The birth of the Excel spreadsheet
In September 1985, Microsoft introduced Excel, an electronic spreadsheet program that revolutionised the way we organise and analyse data. With its grid of rows and columns, it allows users to sort information, do calculations, and... -
The Cradock Four killings
On 27 June 1985, four anti-apartheid activists from the rural town of Cradock in South Africa’s Eastern Cape were abducted at a roadblock. Their bodies were later found mutilated and burnt. Known as the Cradock Four, their murders... -
Guinea stadium massacre
On 28 September 2009, around 50,000 people took part in a rally to protest reported plans by military leader Moussa Dadis Camara to stand in the presidential election. It started peacefully, until troops, under Camara’s rule entered...