The History Hour
Episodes
Chinese history
23 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.To mark 50 years since the discovery of the Ter...
Finding early vertebrate’s footprints and the Deaflympic badminton champion
16 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
First, we go back to 1992, when off the coast of Ireland, a Swiss geology student accidentally discovered the longest set of footprints made by the fi...
Uruguay's smoking ban and the Carnation Revolution
09 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We first hear about Uruguay’s tale of David ...
Whisky wars and the Lord of Sipan
02 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We first hear about a bloodless war between De...
Skiing and two-headed dogs
24 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the famous ski resort, Whistler ...
Letters to Juliet and Saint Valentine’s traditions
17 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the Juliet Club in Verona, Italy...
Inspirational black women
10 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service telling stories about inspirational black women...
Internet cafes and Doomsday seeds
03 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about Cyberia - the first commercial in...
Traitors and treachery
27 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service all about figures branded as traitors.In 1939 Wan...
Lady Tarzan and Ibadan Zoo
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We’re going wild for animals this week. We fi...
The first lesbian couple to get married and World Laughter Day
13 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country...
Hindenburg disaster and wingsuits
06 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Barbara Waibel, author of a book on...
Pad Thai, kiwis and the chef Ken Hom
30 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.This week, we look at the disputed history of p...
Tsunamis and Caster Semenya
23 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.This week, we hear from Lumepa Hald who survive...
Mandela's funeral and Tsar's reburial
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Ongama Mtimka, lecturer in South...
Doom and Danish brains
09 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about two of the most influential compu...
Saving animals from extinction and Cabbage Patch Kids
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. This week, the bird that defied extinction. In...
Zambia celebrates independence and the invention of bubble tea
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.This week, we’re looking at the birth of a ne...
The Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in Iceland and EpiPen invention
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Jenni Barclay from the ...
Pakistani popstars, and the hippo and the tortoise
11 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear from Zoheb Hassen, one half of a sibli...
Che Guevara's daughter and marrying Freddie Mercury
04 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Tony Kapcia, Emeritus Professor at ...
Gezi Park protests and MAD hijack
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear from activist and actor Memet Ali Alabo...
Osmondmania! and the launch of Lagos Fashion Week
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about Osmondmania! The moment in 1973 w...
The creation of Ghana's flag and the oldest person at primary school
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear from Kwasi Okoh about how his mother Th...
Marking 50 years since the 1973 global oil crisis
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. To mark 50 years since the global oil crisis, ...
The Lampedusa disaster and cat cafes
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the sinking of a migrant boat of...
Nazi eugenics and the year of the vuvuzela
22 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the people with disabilities who ...
Israeli and Palestinian history
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. It's thirty years since the Oslo Accords were ...
The Chilean coup and Zanzibar’s most famous singer
09 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear from Chilean politician Hermógenes Pér...
Historic Korean summit and goat island
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Jean H. Lee, an American journalist...
Ireland's 'ghost estates' and the first Rose of Tralee
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of Witness History stories from the BBC World Service, this week we are focusing on Irish history. In 2006, Ireland’...
Judy Garland's legacy and the Benin Bronzes
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A compilation of this week's Witness History episodes. Gerald Clarke, the author of Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, speaks to Max Pearson about t...
Presidential diamonds and Tupperware parties
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories from the BBC World Service. Journalist Claude Angeli discovered French...
Dinosaur discoveries and a Berlin Wall treehouse
05 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about a prehistoric discovery in India...
West African food and computer viruses
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Ozoz Sokoh, Nigerian food writer an...
Wartime surrenders and the birth of Barbie
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories from this week’s Witness History episodes.In the autumn of 1945, World War II surrender ceremonies too...
Five great inventions that changed the world
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a selection of this week’s Witness History stories.In 1999, Aibo: the world's first robot dog, hit the shops in Japan and sold ...
Tourism arrives in the Maldives and a royal night out
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a selection of this week’s Witness History stories.In 1972, tourists arrived in the Maldives for the first time. We hear from o...
South Korea store collapse and Lady Gaga's meat dress
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories.In 1995, the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in the South Korean ...
Somalia's civil war and golf on the moon
24 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories.Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, a fighter pilot in the Somali air force defied orders...
Amazing photographs and the people who took them
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories. We focus on some of the world’s best known photographs - and the photogr...
Inuit children taken from families and Le Mans crash
09 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History and Sporting Witness stories.We hear about the Inuit children taken away from their...
Scaling Everest, the highest mountain in the world
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes focusing on Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.It's 70 years...
Bosnian concentration camp photo and hero clown
27 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear how a shocking photo from a Bosnian conce...
Singapore executes Filipina maid and German child evacuees of World War Two
19 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the German children who were ev...
World War Two African victory and 'Kai Tak heart attack'
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the Allies' campaign in North Afric...
The 'Stone of Destiny' and a self-proclaimed Emperor
05 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the Scottish students who removed ...
Artist Althea McNish and history of the Met Gala
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about Althea McNish, the Trinidadian art...
The history of dogs
21 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the invention of the labradoodle, t...
Unearthing World War II mass graves and the Boston bombing
15 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the unearthing...
Escaping Eritrea and inventing Zumba
08 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the lengths one woman goes to to es...
The godfather of manicures and India's Silicon Valley
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about Vietnam's manicure godfather, how B...
Film and cinema around the world
25 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories about the history of film and cinema from around the world, including the longest running film in Indian...
The Invasion of Iraq
18 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A compilation of stories marking the 20th anniversary of the American led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Caroline Hawley, who was the Baghdad corresp...
International Women's Day
11 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories celebrating women who made history including a ground-breaking, African American science fiction writer ...
Pink triangles and political assassinations
04 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Uta Rautenberg from the Universi...
Riots in Mauritius and the Queen 'jumping out of a helicopter'
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Philippe Sands, Professor of the Pu...
'Hot Autumn' and Tutankhamun
18 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Ilaria Favretto, Affiliate Professo...
Popes
11 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It has been 10 years since Pope Benedict XVI announced his shock resignation. It was the first time in almost 600 years that a pope had stepped down.I...
Pirate radio and the Velvet Divorce
04 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The launch of the first black music station in Europe - the Dread Broadcasting Corporation in London in 1981 - and why Czechoslovakia split into the C...
The death penalty and broadcasting bans
28 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Chiara Sangiorgio, Death Penalty Ad...
Horsemeat scandal and the Miracle on the Hudson
21 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.These include memories of the horsemeat scanda...
Plastics in oceans and sea cucumbers
14 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.You'll hear the story of how a marine biologis...
Pussy Riot and other Russian rebels
07 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.You'll hear the story of how a protest led by ...
Food
31 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stories about the history of food, including the creation of ciabatta bread by a rally driver in Italy in 1982 and the Maltese bakers' strike in 1977....
90 years of the BBC World Service
24 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.Sir Trevor McDonald reflects on the BBC's firs...
District Six and daredevils
17 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The forced removal of families who weren't white from District Six, in Cape Town, by the South African apartheid regime and the man who jumped from sp...
Referendums and Teletubbies
10 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.We go to Quebec in 1995 when voters went to th...
Contested islands and Miss World protests
03 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.We hear from a man who was aged six when he wa...
Anwar Ibrahim and road safety inventions
26 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Malaysia's Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, recoun...
Arabian Peninsula
19 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes, which focus on the Arabian Peninsula to mark the start...
Racist raids, protests and a political assassination
12 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A collection of Witness History episodes, presented by Max Pearson. We look at how racism led to raids in the 1970s and protests in the 1980s in New Z...
The best Championship Manager player ever
05 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A collection of Witness History episodes, looking at how young men in Africa have been exploited through football and and sex-selective abortion in In...
Women taking a stand
29 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A collection of Witness History episodes, this week focusing on global events where women have taken a stand for equality from Sudan to Iran and Austr...
Cuban boxing and the brink of nuclear war
22 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A collection of the latest Witness History programmes which are all about Cuba. Presented by Max Pearson, who speaks to boxing journalist Steve Bunce ...
Global strikes and industrial action
15 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A collection of the latest Witness History programmes, presented by Max Pearson. We look at moments from around the world when workers took industrial...
Caribbean carnivals and a racially inclusive nightclub
08 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A collection of this week's Witness History programmes, presented by Max Pearson. The guest is Dr Emily Zobel Marshall. She explains the rise of festi...
Dassler brothers' rift
01 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A collection of this week's Witness History programmes, presented by Max Pearson. The guest is Nicholas Smith, author of "Kicks: The Great American St...
Queen Elizabeth II and broadcasting
24 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We look at some of the broadcasts delivered by Queen Elizabeth II including her first radio address to the children of the Commonwealth on 13 October ...
Queen Elizabeth II
18 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We hear personal accounts of historical moments during the seventy year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Memories from the Queen's maids of honour from he...
Brazil
11 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stories from Brazil, ahead of the presidential election in October, including the murder of Tim Lopes, the hero of Brazilian democracy and the Candela...
Gorbachev's legacy
03 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The former President of the Soviet Union's reforms in 1987, known as Perestroika, and the release of the dissident poet Irina Ratushinskaya in 1986.Pl...
Inflation and the cost of living
27 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A compilation of witness accounts from when inflation and the cost of living were seriously affecting people's lives, among other topics.In 1971, infl...
Seventy-five years since India's Partition
20 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories marking 75 years since India's Partition. We'll hear the stories of people from both sides of the divide...
The nightclub that changed Ibiza
13 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the nightclub that changed Ibiza, some of the worst forest fires in history, the resignation of Richard ...
Fifty years since Asians were kicked out of Uganda
06 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Compilation of stories marking 50 years since Idi Amin expelled thousands of Asians from Uganda in 1972. We hear about why they migrated there, their ...
The Revolution on Granite
30 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A student protest in Ukraine, the Surkov leaks, the world’s deadliest ever earthquake, a leaflet bomber in South Africa and the invention of the nic...
Stories from iconic TV shows from around the world
23 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The history of television from around the world and its enduring impact, including a look at Nigeria's sitcom Papa Ajasco and an interview with actor ...
Stories from the abortion fight frontline
16 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stories from around the world on women's reproductive rights. Women fighting both sides of the abortion debate as well as the first Muslim country to ...
America’s first gay election candidate
09 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1961 the first openly gay person ran for public office in the United States. He was a drag queen called Jose Sarria, well-known for his performance...
Hong Kong: 25 years since the handover from British to Chinese rule
02 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stories from Hong Kong, 25 years on since the handover from British to Chinese rule. We hear from the last governor of Hong Kong, a pro democracy camp...
Egypt's first democratic Presidential election
25 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In June 2012, Egypt held its first ever free democratic Presidential election. Mohamed Morsi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, emerged victorious....
Cambodian genocide trials
18 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2009, Rob Hamill testified in the trial of Comrade Duc, who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng prison during the Cambodian genocide. Josephine McDermott ...
How Sri Lanka's president survived a suicide bombing
11 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the 2006 suicide bombing attack on Sri Lanka's president, the 75th anniversary of Anne Frank's diary and...
The Syrian civil war
04 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the 2013 chemical weapons attack in Syria and the opening of a refugee camp for Syrians fleeing the civi...
Artists who made history
28 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson introduces the memories of people who knew Picasso, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe; plus, how a collector in the Soviet Union managed to...
The Marcos regime in the Philippines
21 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the rule of Ferdinand Marcos Senior in the 1970s and 80s; plus, Shanghai during World War Two, and the o...
The war in Transnistria
14 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With speculation mounting that President Putin might mount an attack on Moldova, Max Pearson hears a first-hand account of the war in the 1990s betwee...
Fighting for Uyghur rights in China
07 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Max Pearson gets a first-hand account of how the minority Uyghur community in China staged some of the first protests against the all-powerful Communi...
Algeria's War of Independence
30 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sixty years after Algeria's independence from France, first-hand accounts of a traumatic 'birth of a nation': a female Algerian bomber who was part of...