Witness History

A podcast by BBC World Service

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1422 Episodes

  1. The death of Adolf Hitler

    Published: 4/25/2025
  2. Staging Othello in apartheid South Africa

    Published: 4/24/2025
  3. Coca-Cola’s ‘New Coke'

    Published: 4/23/2025
  4. The creation of YouTube

    Published: 4/22/2025
  5. Exercise Tiger: Disastrous D-Day rehearsal

    Published: 4/21/2025
  6. The origin of World Book Day

    Published: 4/18/2025
  7. Clearing landmines in Cambodia

    Published: 4/17/2025
  8. The Khmer Rouge take power in Cambodia

    Published: 4/16/2025
  9. The invention of the white LED lightbulb

    Published: 4/16/2025
  10. The Bali Nine drug smuggling case

    Published: 4/14/2025
  11. Germany’s ‘Green Belt’

    Published: 4/11/2025
  12. Oklahoma City bombing

    Published: 4/10/2025
  13. Liberia’s women in white who helped end civil war

    Published: 4/9/2025
  14. The Reichstag fire

    Published: 4/8/2025
  15. The UN retreat from Somalia

    Published: 4/7/2025
  16. Resusci Anne: the world’s first life-saving resuscitation dummy

    Published: 4/4/2025
  17. JFK’s 1963 Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech

    Published: 4/3/2025
  18. The wonder woman of DC Comics

    Published: 4/2/2025
  19. The invention of superglue

    Published: 4/1/2025
  20. The 'ghost town' of Namibia

    Published: 3/31/2025

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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.