Witness History
Episodes
Una Marson and the BBC Caribbean Service
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To mark the 90th anniversary of the BBC World Service, we trace the development of the Caribbean Service.Its beginnings go back to the early 1940s whe...
Felix Baumgartner's huge leap
16 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2012, former Austrian paratrooper Felix Baumgartner was watched live by millions as he ascended into the stratosphere in a helium balloon. He then ...
Soviet fashionista
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Slava Zaitsev was the first designer to create high fashion collections in the Soviet Union.He tells Dina Newman about the challenges he faced working...
Returning to District Six
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When Zahra Nordien was forced out of District Six in Cape Town in 1977, she vowed to one day return. She was one of the 60,000 people who were forcibl...
The Nazi occupation of Jersey
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Shopkeeper Louisa Gould risked her life to hide a Russian prisoner who had escaped from the Nazis during the German occupation of Jersey in World War ...
Mongolian revolution
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1990, a peaceful revolution brought democracy to Mongolia after almost 70 years of Soviet backed rule. University lecturer Ganbold Davaadorj was on...
Creating Teletubbies
09 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 1994 and the BBC is looking for a brand-new children’s TV series. TV producer Anne Wood decides she’s going to make a show aimed at an audi...
'The Dismissal' of Gough Whitlam
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In November 1975, the Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, was controversially sacked by an unelected official in the country's biggest constitut...
The Killing of Jean Charles de Menezes
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 22 July 2005, an unarmed Brazilian man was shot dead by anti-terrorism police at Stockwell Tube station, in London.Jean Charles de Menezes was shot...
Demolishing the Babri Masjid
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hindu extremists demolished a 16th century mosque in the Indian city of Ayodhya in December 1992 prompting months of communal violence across India. P...
Quebec’s 1995 referendum
05 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In October 1995, the people of Quebec went to the polls to decide whether the province should declare independence from Canada. Kevin Caners hears the...
Miss World protest
02 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1970, feminists stormed the stage at the Miss World pageant in London. They were protesting against the objectification of women. Sally Alexander w...
The woman who smuggled HIV into Bulgaria in her handbag
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1985, at the height of the Cold War, Bulgaria was a strictly controlled communist dictatorship. It was also facing a wave of infection and death ca...
The islands Japan and Russia can’t agree on
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1947, thousands of Japanese families were expelled from their island homes by Soviet troops. They were taken from the Northern Territories, also kn...
CrossFit: The fitness phenomenon that changed the industry
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2000, an American personal trainer invented CrossFit. They now have gyms around the world and hold an annual international competition.Rachel Naylo...
Mombasa terror attacks
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2002, journalist Kelly Hartog was on a press trip in Mombasa, in Kenya, when suicide bombers drove a car packed with explosives into the hotel wher...
How cat's eyes were invented
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1934, the late Percy Shaw almost crashed while driving home from the pub on a foggy night in West Yorkshire, in England. He was saved when his head...
The corruption and sodomy trials of Anwar Ibrahim
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 20 September 1998, the former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, was arrested and charged on suspicion of committing fraud and sodom...
When Sweden’s roads went right
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In September 1967, all Swedish traffic had to change the habit of decades and swap to driving on the right-hand side of the road.It brought them into ...
First women’s minister in Iran
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Iran’s first ever minister for women’s affairs was appointed in 1975. Mahnaz Afkhami was the first person in the Muslim world to hold that positio...
The invention of the seat belt
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1958, the late Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point safety belt for cars.It's estimated to have saved more than one million lives ...
Qatar's first female published author
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1978, Kaltham Jaber published her first book – a collection of short stories. She is an assistant professor and acclaimed writer from Qatar. Her ...
First Emirati female teacher
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It was rare for women in what is now the United Arab Emirates to go to school in the 1960s. At the time, the future country was a collection of emirat...
Inventing robot camel jockeys
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2003, a Qatari engineer came up with the idea for a robot jockey, to replace child jockeys in camel racing.Two years later, the robot was approved ...
Burj Khalifa: Designing the world’s tallest building
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The tallest building in the world opened in 2010. There was a glitzy firework display to celebrate the occasion. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Ara...
Formation of the United Arab Emirates
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A new country, the United Arab Emirates, was formed in 1971. It’s a federation of seven states that has grown from a quiet backwater to one of the M...
The child evacuees of World War Two
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 1 September 1939 was Kitty Baxter’s ninth birthday, it was also the day her life and millions of other people’s changed with the beginning of ...
Māori protests stops South African rugby tour
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1981, the South African rugby tour of New Zealand was disrupted by Māori anti-racism campaigners who invaded pitches. They wanted to highlight the...
The assassination of Pim Fortuyn
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It has been 20 years since one of the most controversial politicians in Europe was assassinated just days before a general election. On 6 May 2002, Pi...
First rape crisis centres in the US
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
1972 was a time of feminist action in the US. People were talking more openly about rape and sharing their experiences. It led to rape crisis centres ...
Polynesian Panthers
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1970s, New Zealand’s government cracked down on Polynesian migrants who had overstayed their work permits. They carried out what became...
Umuganda: Rwanda's community work scheme
04 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1975, President Juvénal Habyarimana introduced Umuganda in Rwanda, where citizens had to help with community projects like planting trees and buil...
Dame Carmen Callil: Feminist publisher
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Carmen Callil, who died in October this year, founded feminist publisher Virago Press in 1972 to promote women’s writing. In this programme fir...
Campaigning against sex-selection in India
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last 50 years an estimated 46 million girls have been aborted in India. The cultural preference for boys and the development of pre-natal sex...
Albania’s Stalinist purges
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1970s, Albania’s Stalinist leader, Enver Hoxha, launched a new series of purges against government ministers and officials, following numerou...
The Little Black Book survival guide
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1985, Carol Taylor wrote a survival guide for young black men in the Unites Stated who were stopped by the police. Her son, Laurence Legall, tells ...
Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech
28 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In October 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard made an impromptu speech in the Australian parliament setting out the misogyny she endured for years as ...
Arrested for wearing trousers in Sudan
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1991, a law was introduced in Sudan which was used to control how women acted and dressed in public. It resulted in arrests, beatings and even deat...
Theatre siege in Moscow
26 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It is 20 years since heavily-armed Chechen rebels took an entire theatre full of people hostage. They threatened to kill them all if the Russian gover...
The Iranian Revolution and women
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Many women supported Iran’s 1979 revolution against the monarchy but some later became disillusioned. Islamic rules about how women dressed were jus...
Indonesia’s indigenous people take a stand
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1998 President Suharto of Indonesia resigned after more than thirty years of military rule. It meant people from indigenous communities were finall...
Founder of the Cuban National Ballet
21 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We go back to 1959 when Cuba’s most famous ballet dancer Alicia Alonso turned her back on a successful career on the world stage and returned home t...
Cuba's boxing ban
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, Cuba lifted a 60-year ban on professional boxing, which Fidel Castro imposed in 1962. Before then, amateur boxers who wanted to tur...
The ‘army’ that taught Cuba to read and write
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1961, Fidel Castro launched a nationwide campaign aimed to eradicate illiteracy in Cuba. An ‘army’ of volunteers known as brigadistas equipped ...
Cuban Missile Crisis: The showdown
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jo Fidgen hears what was happening in the Pentagon and the Kremlin in the final days of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrush...
Cuban Missile Crisis: The photos
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Jo Fidgen spoke to American Intelligence officer Dino Brugioni who p...
Cesar Chavez’s campaign for farm workers
14 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, a wave of strikes and protest marches by Mexican-American farm workers inspired Latinos across the US. The movement was led by Cesar Cha...
Torturing strikers in South Korea
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Park Heongjun takes us back to May 1980, when a strike in the city of Gwangju became one of the most divisive moments in South Korea’s history and l...
Disney animators' strike
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Walt Disney cartoonists went on strike for nine weeks in 1941. They were led by Art Babbitt, Disney’s top animator who created Goofy.The picket line...
UK’s ‘Winter of Discontent’
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1979, British public sector workers went on strike over pay. Among those taking industrial action were gravediggers. But the media, politicians and...
The beginnings of Notting Hill Carnival
07 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 30 January 1959, the late Trinidadian activist Claudia Jones held a Caribbean party in St Pancras Town Hall in London, planting the seeds for the f...
The Harder They Come
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1972, a low-budget Jamaican film and its legendary soundtrack helped popularise reggae music in the world. Ben Henderson speaks to one of the most ...
The fall of Slobodan Milosevic
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 5 October 2000, protests in the Yugoslav capital Belgrade spiralled into an attack on the parliament building. Hours later President Slobodan Milos...
The release of Gilad Shalit
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 18 October 2011, Israeli solider Gilad Shalit was freed after spending over five years in captivity in Gaza. His release was part of a controversia...
The funk and soul club that changed Manchester
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1962, Nigerian man Phil Magbotiwan opened a brand new nightclub in Manchester, England. In part because of his own personal experiences of racism, ...
Dassler brothers’ rift
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1948, brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler who lived in a small German town fell out. They went on to create globally renowned sportswear firms Adidas and...
The raising of the Mary Rose
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 40 years since a wrecked English Tudor warship was brought back to the surface. On 11 October 1982, 60 million people worldwide watched the ext...
Castrating Pablo Escobar's hippos
28 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When drug kingpin Pablo Escobar died in 1993 having built a billion dollar cocaine empire, he left behind a zoo. While his rhinos, giraffes, elephants...
The power of Jomo Kenyatta
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1970s, Sharad Rao was Kenya’s assistant director of public prosecutions, working closely with Kenyan leader Jomo Kenyatta who was seen as rut...
Festival of Light
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In September 1971, Christians from all over the UK held the Nationwide Festival of Light to protest against what they saw, as increasingly liberal att...
Iran-Iraq War begins
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Iran-Iraq war began on 22 September 1980. It lasted for eight years and became one of the bloodiest wars in recent history. Pooneh Ghoddoosi was j...
The first Pope to visit Africa
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, popes rarely left the Vatican City. So it was a major event when Pope Paul VI accepted an invitation to visit Uganda in 1969. Hugh Coste...
Ancient fossils give new insight
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1967, a major breakthrough was made in our understanding of the evolution of the world. A student discovered fossils at Mistaken Point in Newfoundl...
World War Two child evacuees in Britain
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 1 September 1939 was Kitty Baxter’s ninth birthday, it was also the day her life and millions of other people’s changed with the beginning of ...
The last days of Queen Victoria
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901. In this programme from 2010, Claire Bowes looks back on the monarch’s last days.She speaks to the author Ton...
When the Queen opened Buckingham Palace
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Elizabeth II first opened her London home to the paying public on 7 August 1993. Tourists were allowed to look round Buckingham Palace while the...
Windsor Castle fire
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In November 1992, a fire devastated Windsor Castle - a symbol of the British monarchy and Queen Elizabeth II’s weekend home. Coming at the end of a ...
Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Derby
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A few days after Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, she had her best chance of owning the winner of the Derby, but first the horse would have to beat the...
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In June 1953, the young Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Two of her Maids of Honour, Lady Anne Glenconner and Lady Jane Vane-Tempe...
The car that charmed Brazil
10 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since its launch in the 1950s, the Brazilian version of the VW Beetle has had a special place in the nation's heart. Cheap, charismatic and virtually ...
The Candelaria child massacre
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1993, eight homeless children were murdered outside the Candelaria church in Rio De Janeiro. The murders caused international outrage and put a spo...
Building of Brasilia
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1960, Brazil opened a new capital city in its remote central plains.The city was designed by modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer and was supposed to...
The murder that shocked Brazil
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2002, an investigative journalist called Tim Lopes was brutally killed by a drug gang in Rio de Janeiro. The murder sent shockwaves throughout Braz...
Doomed hero of Brazilian democracy
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In March 1985, Brazil experienced the most traumatic moment in its transition to democracy when the first civilian president-elect in more than 20 yea...
Mikhail Gorbachev: Release of Irina Ratushinskaya
02 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mikhail Gorbachev - the last leader of the Soviet Union - has died aged 91. On the eve of an important summit on nuclear disarmament between the Sovie...
Mikhail Gorbachev: Perestroika
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died aged 91. Gorbachev came to power in 1985 at a time when the Soviet economy was on the...
Princess Diana dances with John Travolta
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's the 25th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in an underground tunnel in central Paris on the 31st August 1...
The 'Last Indian'
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1911, a mysterious Native American man called Ishi emerged from the North Californian forest after more than three decades in hiding. He is thought...
Marikana Massacre
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 16 August 2012, police shot dead 34 striking miners at a platinum mine in Marikana, South Africa. It was one of the bloodiest police operations sin...
India's onion election
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In January 1980, Indira Gandhi's Congress (I) party was voted into power in India. Before the election, inflation meant that onions were unaffordable ...
The 'Nixon Shock' and the end of the Gold Standard
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1971, inflation was a huge problem in the USA so the President, Richard Nixon, made one of the most drastic moves in economic history: abandoning t...
The Gay Games
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It has been 40 years since the first ever Gay Games were held in San Francisco. Attracting a large crowd and featuring more than 1,000 athletes from m...
Hundreds die in Darayya
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years ago, Syrian government soldiers surrounded Darayya, a suburb of Damascus, bombing buildings and searching for people opposed to President As...
Bulgaria's cash crisis
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1997, Bulgaria was in financial meltdown with hyperinflation making money in the country worth a lot less. Bulgaria had emerged out of communism fo...
The Bard of Bengal
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In August 1941, one of the greatest poets India has ever produced died. Known as the "Bard of Bengal", Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European ...
The death of Jawaharlal Nehru
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In May 1964 India's first prime minister and the man who led India to independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, died. On the 50th anniversary of his death in 20...
The last Viceroy of India
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The daughter of the last British Viceroy in India, Lord Mountbatten, remembers the transfer of power in 1947. Lady Pamela Hicks accompanied her father...
India's Partition - Part Two
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The partition of India led to millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs fleeing their homes during horrific religious violence. This is the second of two ...
India's Partition - Part One
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The partition of India led to millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs fleeing their homes amid horrific violence. This is the first of two programmes re...
The nightclub that changed Ibiza
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In June 1973, the nightclub Pacha opened in Ibiza. Other clubs with the capacity to fit thousands of people on the dancefloor opened in the years afte...
Discovering Hale Bopp
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hale Bopp is one of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century. Its discovery in 1995 resulted in huge advances in science. Russell Crewe spo...
Indonesia's forest fires
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty five years ago in Indonesia, some of the worst forest fires in history devastated the environment and resulted in a smog which engulfed South E...
Sweden’s pronoun battle
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sweden has a long history of championing LGBTQ+ rights. But campaigners spent years battling to get the gender-neutral personal pronoun ‘hen’ incl...
The resignation of President Nixon
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 8 August 1974 Richard Nixon became the first US president in history to resign from office, following the Watergate scandal. In 2014, Farhana Haide...
The return of Asians to Uganda
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, he encouraged exiled Asians to return to Uganda and reclaim their homes and businesses to help r...
The city shaped by Ugandan Asians
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of Asians who were expelled from Uganda in 1972, settled in the UK and many made Leicester their home. Their arrival in the East Midlands he...
The exodus of Asians from Uganda
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1972, the dictator Idi Amin announced that all Asians had just 90 days to leave Uganda. Teacher Nurdin Dawood, who had a young family, didn't at fi...
When Asians were forced to leave Kenya
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Many South Asians migrated to Kenya in the early 20th century. They lived in a society divided by race and experienced discrimination from the white r...
Why Asians came to Uganda
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 20th century, South Asians migrated to Uganda in search of a better life. Jamie Govani’s grandparents married in Gujarat, India, in the...
The Leaflet Bomber
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1971, young communist Bob Newland left the UK and headed to South Africa to take part in a secret mission to support the African National Congress....