Witness History

The first PC virus

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The first virus for personal computers in 1986 became known as 'Brain'. 'Welcome to the dungeon' was the message that flashed up on computer screens. ...

Battle of Gallipoli

09 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It's 110 years since the end of the Battle of Gallipoli. It was one of the deadliest in World War One. Among the 40,000 dead was a large contingent of...

Sazae-san: World's longest-running cartoon

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1969, a cartoon about a traditional Japanese family premiered on Fuji TV.More than 55 years later, Sazae-san still airs in its original time slot. ...

Tracey Emin’s unmade bed

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1999, Dame Tracey Emin’s unmade bed was nominated for Britain’s prestigious Turner art prize opening up conversations about how we define art.T...

Isabel Allende: The House of the Spirits

06 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1982, Isabel Allende published her debut novel, The House of the Spirits. The characters are based on her family, and the story reflects Chile’s ...

The Hillsborough Disaster

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On 15 April 1989, there was a crowd crush at a football match in Sheffield, England, which led to the death of 97 fans. It was the semi-final of the F...

South Africa's luxury train

02 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1986, South African businessman Rohan Vos was sitting in the bath when he decided to pursue his passion and launch a vintage railway business. Howe...

The American Freedom Train

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In April 1975, the American Freedom Train set out on a tour across the United States to celebrate 200 years of American independence.On-board were mor...

The longest musical composition

31 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 31 December 1999, a piece of music started playing in a lighthouse in East London. It’s called Longplayer, and it’s set to keep going, without ...

Radio Free Europe

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Seventy-five years ago, Radio Free Europe started broadcasting news to audiences behind the Iron Curtain.It initially broadcast to Bulgaria, Czechoslo...

SMS: The invention of text messaging

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In October 1984, as the market for mobile phones was just opening up, one man decided it would be useful if the new technology could be used to send a...

Creating the board game Catan

26 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1995, Klaus Teuber’s board game Catan launched in Germany. The board is made up of hexagonal tiles, and it's a game about strategy and collecting...

Tamagotchi is born

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Tamagotchi was first released in Japan in 1996 after it was developed by Akihiro Yokoi and his colleagues at his toy development company.Measuring...

How the hoverboard was created

24 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It was Back to the Future II that made a generation of children dream of travelling by hoverboard.In the 1989 film, the hero Marty McFly escapes from ...

Inventing Play-Doh

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1956, one of the world’s most beloved children’s toys went on sale for the first time, but its origins were surprising.The modelling clay had s...

The invention of Jenga

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's just over 30 years since the brick game was introduced to the world at a department store in London. Made of 54 wooden blocks stacked into a towe...

The first television opera

19 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 24 December 1951, in the United States, television history was made with the live broadcast of Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera ever c...

When Laurel and Hardy spent Christmas at an English pub

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1953, Hollywood film stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy spent a few weeks at the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, while they performe...

When Norway introduced salmon sushi to Japan

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1980s, Norway needed a new market for its growing farmed salmon production. Fish-loving Japan and its lucrative sushi market seemed to fi...

India's disability law

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1995, India's parliament passed the country's first disability rights legislation.The landmark law aimed to give full participation and eq...

How NFL tickets caught fugitives

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Operation Flagship was a U.S Marshals sting operation, where some of Washington DC’s most wanted fugitives, were lured to a convention centre under ...

Introducing The Bomb: Kennedy and Khrushchev

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The world is on the brink of nuclear war. How can the Soviet Union and the USA prevent it? Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the su...

The Paris climate agreement

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 12 December 2015, 193 countries and the European Union adopted the Paris climate agreement. It legally committed countries to climate action plans,...

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Following the abolishment of Apartheid in the 1990s, South Africa had to find a way to confront its brutal past without endangering the chance for pea...

The discovery of the coelacanth

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1938, South African museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered a coelacanth, a fish that was believed to have been extinct for 65 million...

Dismaland: Banksy's dystopian theme park

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, Banksy turned a derelict swimming pool in Weston-super-Mare, England, into a dystopian theme park which drew huge crowds and Hollywood stars....

The Balcombe Street IRA siege

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1975, four members of one of the IRA’s deadliest units were chased by police through the streets of London before hiding out in a small ...

How Lagos Fashion Week began

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2011, Lagos Fashion Week debuted, putting Nigerian style on the map. Omoyemi Akerele founded the event which helped to launch the careers of design...

Wole Soyinka: Imprisoned during Nigeria’s Biafra war

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1967, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka tried to stop the country’s Biafra war, in which Nigeria’s Igbo people responded to violence by seceding fro...

Escaping Nigeria's Biafra war

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out in May 1967. More than a million peop...

Building the New Afrika Shrine in Nigeria

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's 25 years since the opening of the New Afrika Shrine, an open-air entertainment centre in Nigeria. A hub for Afrobeat music and culture, it's dedi...

West Africa fights back against Boko Haram

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, West African countries fought against the jihadist militant group Boko Haram which controlled large areas of northeastern Nigeria. The group,...

Ravi and George

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Following the Beatles' final concert tour, George Harrison travelled to India in 1967 to learn sitar under the renowned musician Ravi Shankar. Fleei...

India goes to the UN

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1946, an Indian woman made history by leading her country’s first delegation to the United Nations.Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit described it as a moment...

The Howard Hughes literary hoax

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, the publishing world was rocked by one of the biggest hoaxes in literary history – a fake autobiography of the reclusive billionaire Howard...

Colombia's Salt Cathedral

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1995, a cathedral was built 180m underground in the Zipaquirá Salt Mine in Colombia. The idea came from the miners building makeshift altars in th...

Toy Story: the first digitally-animated feature film

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Released in 1995, this buddy movie about a cowboy doll and a toy astronaut was the first to use entirely computer-generated images. The story, about a...

How the Bosnian war ended

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Dayton Peace Accords were signed on the 21 November 1995, ending the three-and-a-half-year war in Bosnia. The war was part of the break-up of Yugo...

The Spanish king reclaims his throne

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1975, the death of General Francisco Franco was announced in Spain, bringing to an end 36 years of dictatorship.Franco had already chosen his succe...

The death of Franco

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

General Francisco Franco died in November 1975, ending 36 years of dictatorship over Spain. The general had been in power since 1939 after winning the...

Angela Merkel suspends EU asylum rules in 2015

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 2015, there was a surge in the number of people from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, seeking asylum in Europe. Social Democrat politicia...

Reagan and Gorbachev: The Geneva Summit

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Forty years ago, in November 1985, two of the world’s most powerful leaders met for the first time. With Cold War tensions running high and the nucl...

When Maldives' ministers met underwater

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 17 October 2009, the Maldives’ top government officials donned their scuba gear for the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting. Fish floated ...

Bataclan attack in Paris

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 13 November 2015, 90 people were shot dead by gunmen at the Bataclan theatre in France during an Eagles of Death Metal concert. A further 40 people...

Prosecuting Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In November 1945, the first major war crimes trial in history opened in the German city of Nuremberg. Senior Nazis who had committed atrocities during...

Birth of the G7

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In November 1975, a summit took place at Rambouillet, France, where the heads of six of the world’s most industrialised nations and their finance mi...

Breaking the sound barrier

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 14 October 1947, American Chuck Yeager became the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound. Despite having two broken ribs, Chuck reached ...

Discovering the largest dinosaur ever

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2012, a shepherd uncovered a bone belonging to a new species of dinosaur on a ranch in Patagonia, in Argentina.A team from the Museum of Paleontolo...

The ‘father of e-books’

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, an American historical document typed out on a university computer played a vital role in the digital revolution of electronic books. It beca...

The creation of Miffy

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's 70 years since Miffy was created.The little rabbit with two dots for eyes and an X for a mouth went on to feature in 32 books translated into mor...

President Clinton is impeached

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1999, the US Senate chamber in Washington DC was turned into a court to put President Bill Clinton on trial, after he admitted lying about an affai...

The brains behind Thunderbirds

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1965, a groundbreaking children's show using cutting-edge puppets first blast onto television screens. Thunderbirds was set in 2065 and followed th...

Emerante de Pradines: Haiti’s musical trailblazer

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Emerante de Pradines was a Haitian singer, dancer and folklorist who became the first person from her country to sign a record deal. She was dedicated...

Orson Welles broadcasts The War of the Worlds

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The night before Halloween in 1938, 23-year-old Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air performed a radio adaptation of HG Wells’s The War o...

Srebrenica massacre

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's 30 years since a massacre of Bosnian Muslims during the war in the former Yugoslavia. The Srebrenica massacre, recognised by the United Nations a...

The invention of the balloon-expandable stent

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An estimated 2 million stents are implanted into people’s hearts around the world each year – making it one of the key treatments for heart diseas...

Death of a priest

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 1977 murder of Father Rutilio Grande sent shockwaves through El Salvador. The 48-year-old Jesuit priest was an outspoken champion of the poor in t...

The man who invented the scratch card

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1974, scratch cards went on sale for the first time in the US State of Massachusetts. Free giveaway and coupon games from stores had been comm...

GLP-1: A breakthrough for diabetes and obesity

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1980s, scientists made a discovery that would eventually lead to the development of drugs now used worldwide to treat diabetes and to help peop...

The UK’s first black-owned music studio

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sonny Roberts, a Jamaican carpenter, arrived in Britain in the 1950s. It was a time of racial disharmony, including the Notting Hill riots and the mur...

Wangari Maathai: The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2004, the Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movem...

The British oil tanker sunk in Indonesia

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1958, the British oil tanker, SS San Flaviano, was sunk in the harbour of Balikpapan, Indonesia, while a rebellion was underway against President A...

My aunt created The Moomins

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first Moomins story about a family of nature-loving white round trolls was published in 1945 during World War Two. The Moomins and the Great Flood...

Helen Fielding: The creator of Bridget Jones

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1995, a single 30-something woman with big knickers and blue soup first appeared in a weekly column, published by British newspaper The Independent...

The trial of Soviet writers Daniel and Sinyavsky

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1965, two writers were accused of publishing anti-Soviet material abroad.The arrest of Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky was seen as symbolic of the...

Jorge Luis Borges: 'Father' of Latin American fiction

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1961, the Argentine poet and short story writer Jorge Luis Borges won the Formentor Prize for literature.Borges’ stories were characterised by mi...

Wallander and the rise of Nordic Noir

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Published in 1991, Faceless Killers was the first of Henning Mankell’s crime novels featuring police inspector Kurt Wallander. The series changed th...

How BRICS got its name

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 p...

Japan surrenders in Beijing

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 Forb...

The remote island that was evacuated to 10,000km away

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

'I designed the Indian rupee symbol'

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 home video war

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 wit...

The acquittal of OJ Simpson

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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. Ro...

'I took the famous photo of JFK and his son'

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 Reso...

The strike that shook up India's tea industry

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 yea...

The birth of the Excel spreadsheet

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In September 1985, Microsoft introduced Excel, an electronic spreadsheet program that revolutionised the way we organise and analyse data.With its gri...

The Cradock Four killings

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 bod...

Guinea stadium massacre

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 presi...

The secretary who made millions from her typos

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1950s, secretary Bette Graham from Texas was struggling to cope with her new electric typewriter.“My fingers would hang heavy on the sensitiv...

DDLJ: India’s longest-running film

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the ultimate Bollywood romance was released to critical acclaim in October 1995, becoming the longest-running movie in In...

The birth of Médecins Sans Frontières

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, 13 men sat down in a Paris office to launch what would become one of the world’s best known humanitarian organisations: Médecins Sans Fron...

The start of Scouting

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1900s, while serving in the British Army, Lord Robert Baden-Powell laid the foundations for what would become one of the largest internat...

Omar Sharif stars in Lawrence of Arabia

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1962, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif made his Hollywood debut in Lawrence of Arabia, a sweeping epic that would become one of cinema’s most popular f...

The Aswan High Dam

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1960s, Unesco appealed for scientists to go to Egypt to save antiquities that were threatened by the construction of one of the largest d...

Egypt criminalises sexual harassment

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, Egypt’s outgoing president, Adly Mansour, issued a decree which categorised sexual harassment as a crime punishable by a minimum six-month ...

Reforming Egypt’s divorce laws

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1979, Egypt’s former first lady Jehan Sadat helped lead a campaign to grant women new rights to divorce their husbands and retain custody of thei...

Mohamed Morsi: Egypt's first democratically elected president

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In June 2012, Mohamed Morsi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, became Egypt's first democratically elected president.In 2022, Ben Henderson spoke t...

How the Philippines saved Jews during World War Two

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were introduced in Nazi Germany.In 1938, seven-year-old Lotte Hershfield and her family left their home in Bresl...

9/11: The generosity of Gander

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 11 September, 2001, a small Canadian town called Gander became a haven for thousands of airline passengers and crew stranded after the 9/11 terror ...

The story behind The Peter Principle book

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1969, a satirical book, The Peter Principle, suggested promotion led to incompetence.It was written by a Canadian Professor of Education, Dr Lauren...

The Enabling Act

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 23 March 1933, the Enabling Act was passed in Germany, handing Adolf Hitler unchecked power. It became the legal foundation of his dictatorship.But...

Festac ’77: Nigeria’s largest festival of African arts and culture

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1977, Nigeria hosted the largest festival of African arts and culture there had ever been. About half a million visitors attended, as well as 16,00...

‘How I sold my clothes and created a $5 billion Vinted empire’

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2008, Lithuanian student Milda Mitkutė realised she had too many clothes when she was moving out.She told her friend Justas Janauskas and together...

World's first womb transplant baby

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In September 2014, the world's first baby was born to a mother with a transplanted womb, making headlines around the globe.Malin Stenberg had the pion...

The Chindits

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During World War Two, an unconventional special force was formed. Known as the Chindits, they fought behind enemy lines in Burma, now Myanmar during 1...

The founding of USAID

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 3 November 1961, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was founded, bringing all existing aid work under one single agency...

Discovering the Titanic

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In September 1985, the wreck of the Titanic was discovered around 400 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, during a joint American-Fr...

John Lennon's final headline concerts

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1972, after leaving The Beatles, John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed in the United States at the One to One benefit concerts at Madison Square Garde...

The making of the Third Man: A film noir classic

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1948, filming began on a post-war thriller that would become one of the greatest British movies of all time.Directed by Sir Carol Reed, the film ca...

Washington DC’s Mount Pleasant riot

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1991, a female police officer shot and wounded a young immigrant from El Salvador in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in Washington DC in the U...