Witness History

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...

Creating CAPTCHA

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2000, as the internet expanded, websites faced a growing challenge to stop spam bots from flooding their systems.To separate humans from machines, ...

The creation of the International Criminal Court

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, at a conference organised by the United Nations, a blueprint was devised for what would be the world's first permanent International Criminal...

Geneva Conventions

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the Battle of Solferino, in Italy. He couldn’t believe the lack of aid for the wounded soldiers an...

The rise and fall of BlackBerry

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 2000s, BlackBerry was the phone that ruled the world. But within a decade, it collapsed, overtaken by the touch screen revolution.Sam Gru...

The book that changed Norway’s view of immigrants

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010, a book came out in Norway that transformed the way people looked at paperless immigrants. The author, a 25-year-old Russian woman, fled North...

One man’s escape from McCarthyism

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1951, at the height of the McCarthy era, a time when the US government pursued suspected communists, Victor Grossman was drafted into the army. A c...

Spot the Dog

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1978, British artist Eric Hill designed an interactive book about a yellow puppy for his two-year-old son, Chris.Eric had noticed Chris kept liftin...

Pramoedya Ananta Toer: The banned author of Indonesia

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1969, Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer was imprisoned without trial in the notorious labour camp on Buru Island. He spent 10 years there.He ...

Jakarta’s ban on dancing monkeys

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, Jakarta's governor moved to outlaw the use of dancing monkeys on the city’s streets.The Indonesian tradition saw macaques made to perform f...

Discovery of the 'Hobbit'

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2003, archaeologists on the island of Flores, in Indonesia, discovered the skeleton of a new species of human - Homo floresiensis.It was nicknamed ...

Borobudur Temple

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1983, Borobudur Temple in Indonesia reopened. The worlds’ largest Buddhist monument is in the shadows of an active volcano and was once lost to t...

The Santa Cruz Massacre

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 12 November 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on independence activists in East Timor's capital, Dili.During a protest march to the Santa Cruz ce...

1965 Singaporean independence

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 9 August 1965 Singapore announced it had left the Federation of Malaysia and become an independent sovereign state. Explaining the separation at a ...

Brazil’s biggest bank heist

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In August 2005, a gang of theives tunnelled their way into a Brazilian bank vault in a heist straight out of the movies.Three months before, the thiev...

The Assam-Tibet earthquake

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 15 August 1950, an 8.6 magnitude earthquake shook the Himalaya mountains – wiping out whole villages in Tibet and north-east India.The death toll...

When Stalin silenced Shostakovich

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. But in 1936, Joseph Stalin attended a performance of Shost...

Nagasaki bomb

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing at least 74,000 people. It led to the end of World War Two in A...

Trailer. 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

03 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The epic space story of a sci-fi dream that changed spaceflight forever. Told by the Nasa astronauts and team who made it happen. Our multi-award-win...

Japan's record-breaking rollercoaster

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 1 August 2000, a new rollercoaster opened to the public at a theme park in Japan.Named Steel Dragon 2000, it's located at the Nagashima Spa Land am...

Chuquicamata: Chile's abandoned mining town

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

By 2007, the 25,000 residents of a Chilean mining town had moved out of their homes due to concerns about pollution levels from one of the largest cop...

Cleveland Balloonfest '86

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1986, a world record attempt was launched by the city of Cleveland, in the US.One and a half million balloons were blown up by volunteers ready to ...

Eta’s assassination of Juan Mari Jáuregui

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 29 July 2000, retired Spanish politician Juan Mari Jáuregui was assassinated by Basque separatists Eta. Deemed a terrorist organisation by the Eur...

The Russian revolutionaries nearly stranded in London

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1907, the men who would go on to lead the Russian Revolution met in London for a crucial congress.But the revolutionaries – including Vladimir Le...

A Chorus Line

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's 50 years since theatre history was made - the premiere of A Chorus Line. It was seen as a seminal moment, turning the spotlight on the people who...

The invention of Kevlar

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1965, a new fibre was discovered by Polish American scientist Stephanie Kwolek. It was called Kevlar and it was found to be five times stronger tha...

President Clinton plays the sax in Prague

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In January 1994, two presidents enjoyed a memorable night in the Czech Republic – ending with an impromptu jazz performance.Five years after the fal...

The killing of Jean Charles de Menezes

22 Jul 2025

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...

Irawati Karve: India’s groundbreaking anthropologist

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Irawati Karve became India’s first female anthropologist - studying tribes that nobody had investigated, and taking her children on expeditions deep...

Italo disco

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1970s, disco died in America and a new wave of Italian producers took advantage of the advances in electronic instruments to craft their o...

The 'Turbot War'

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1995, an international row broke out between Canada and Spain over fishing quotas. It started with gunfire and ended with a deal.The dispute began ...

Greece’s debt crisis

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It was a week that brought the future of Greece and the Eurozone to the brink. Ten years ago, on 6 July the Greek people voted against the terms of a ...

The Iran nuclear deal

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 14 July 2015, Iran agreed to temporarily limit its nuclear programme. The deal was signed in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Officially known as th...

The start of Voice of America

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In March 2025, radio frequencies worldwide stopped carrying Voice of America broadcasts for the first time in 83 years. President Donald Trump’s adm...

The man who said ‘no’ to Disney

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1941, Walt Disney made a tempting offer to a fellow pioneer of the animation industry, Quirino Cristiani - the author of the first animated feature...

Ni Una Menos women’s movement in Argentina

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 3 June 2015, tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Buenos Aires, and in dozens of cities and towns demanding an end to violence agai...

Argentina’s national genetics bank created to identify stolen babies

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1982, Argentine geneticist Victor Penchaszadeh was living in exile in New York when he received a call that would change the course of his career. ...

The mystery of Evita’s corpse

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Eva Peron, Argentina's most famous First Lady, died in 1952, her body was embalmed. Three years later, her widower, Juan Peron, was deposed in a ...

Argentina’s 'trial of the juntas'

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1985, Argentina’s former military leaders were put on trial accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering thousands of their own people. The ‘...

Dancing in the Street: David Bowie and Mick Jagger

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In July 1985, music legends Mick Jagger and David Bowie were asked to perform a duet with a twist at Live Aid, the biggest concert in pop history.Util...

Back to the Future

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 3 July 1985 Back to the Future was released. The film tells the story of Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, played by Michael J Fox, w...

Drill, baby, drill!

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Judging by how often US President Donald Trump has repeated the slogan “Drill, baby, drill”, you might think he coined it. But the phrase actually...

Cecil the lion

01 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 1 July 2015, a much-loved lion was killed in Zimbabwe by an American trophy hunter.Black-maned Cecil was one of the star attractions at Hwange Nati...

Ai Weiwei: Imprisoned for art

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2008, an earthquake in China’s Sichuan province killed almost 90,000 people. Many were crushed when school buildings collapsed, exposing their po...

Italian happiness trains

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1945 and 1952, ‘happiness trains’ transported 70,000 children from southern to northern Italy to live with wealthier families.It was a sch...

The opening of the Medellin Metro

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When the Medellin Metro opened in 1995, the Colombian city had recently been called the “murder capital of the world” due to the high homicide rat...

The funeral train for Robert Kennedy

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In June 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy was killed during his campaign for the American presidency.There was nationwide mourning with huge crowds lining ...

The Czech Freedom Train

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 11 September 1951, the 9.55am train from Prague to Aš, in Communist Czechoslovakia was hijacked and driven to freedom in West Germany.One hundred ...

The Gratitude Train: France thanks America

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1949, the Gratitude Train arrived in the United States, made up of 49 wagons filled with thousands of gifts from France.The convoy was a thank-you ...

Making Jaws

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s 50 years since the original Jaws film was released in cinemas across America. The movie premiered on 20 June 1975. Directed by a young Steven S...

The signing of the Treaty of Versailles

19 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 28 June 1919, in the Palace of Versailles in Paris the signing of the Treaty of Versailles took place. It was a peace agreement that marked the en...

Civil rights swim-in

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 18 June 1964, black and white protesters jumped into a ‘whites only’ swimming pool at a motel in St Augustine, in Florida.Photos of the Monson ...

Charleston church shooting

17 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 17 June 2015, white supremacist Dylann Roof attended a bible group at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in ...

'Tripperburgen' the sexual health clinics that detained women

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After the Second World War, in what was then East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic (GDR), tens of thousands of women and girls were forcibly...

The Schengen Agreement

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 14 June 1985, five politicians met on a boat in the town of Schengen, in Luxembourg, to sign an agreement to get rid of border checks between their...

Ronald Reagan’s ‘Tear down this wall’ speech

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1987 Uunied States President Ronald Reagan spoke at the Berlin Wall. In his speech he called on the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev t...

Lonesome George: The celebrity tortoise

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2012, Lonesome George, the last tortoise of his species died.George, from Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean, was a global symbol o...

The woman born in a prisoner of war camp

10 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After the Sino-Indian war in 1962, around 3,000 men, women and children were incarcerated in a disused World War Two prisoner of war camp. Indians of ...

World War Two’s Rome escape line

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Between September 1943 and June 1944 in World War Two, the Italian capital Rome was occupied by German soldiers.Italy had surrendered and thousands of...

Usonia: Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘utopian’ town

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1948, the foundation was laid for a “utopian” community of houses designed by a man described as America’s greatest ever architect.Frank Lloy...

The discovery of the first exoplanets

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 9 January 1992, astronomers Alex Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced they had discovered the first two exoplanets, or planets outside our solar syst...

Favela life: The diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Carolina Maria de Jesus was a poor, single mother-of-three who lived in a derelict shack and spent her days scavenging for food.Her diary, written bet...

The world’s largest model train set

03 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2000, nightclub owners and twins Frederik and Gerrit Braun went from the neon lights of a Hamburg nightclub to building the world’s largest model...

Dolly Rathebe: South Africa’s first international film star

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

South Africa’s first feature film aimed at black audiences was released in 1949, launching Dolly Rathebe’s career. The actress and jazz musician w...

The Battle of the Beanfield

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 1 June 1985, a convoy of New Age Travellers set off for the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge in the south of England. They were planning to hold ...

The legacy of The Pirate Bay

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 31 May 2006, police launched one of the largest raids in Swedish history, seizing servers from The Pirate Bay - a hugely popular but highly controv...

Chinua Achebe’s revolutionary book Things Fall Apart

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1958 Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, published his first book, Things Fall Apart. Set in pre-colonial rural Nigeria, it examines how the arrival of...

The Tragically Hip's final gig

27 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, rockstar and Canadian icon Gord Downie was given months to live, after doctors found he had a terminal brain tumour. But instead of quietly e...

'I wrote the Champions League anthem'

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1992, European football was at a turning point. The European Cup was going to be replaced with a new format: The Champions League. European footba...

Vivian Maier: Secret street photographer

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It is only since Vivian Maier's death in 2009 that the 150,000 photographs she rarely showed to anyone have come to light. Working as a nanny in the s...

The founding of Magnum Photos

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the aftermath of World War Two, a group of famous photographers brought their individual styles into one powerful collaboration, over a celebratory...

Martín Chambi: Peru's pioneering documentary photographer

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Martín Chambi is regarded as one of the most important indigenous Peruvian photographers of the 20th century. Famous for his black and white images o...

Nigerian photographer’s iconic 'Hairstyles' series

20 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, who was known as Nigeria’s top photographer, started documenting women’s hairstyles in 1968. He built up a portfolio of aro...

Lunch atop a Skyscraper

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1932, a photo was taken showing 11 New York ironworkers casually eating their lunch while sitting on a steel beam at the top of a skyscraper. No sa...

Sweden’s shocking sugar experiment

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1940s, some vulnerable Swedish hospital patients were fed large amounts of sugary sweets as part of an experiment to see what it would do to th...

Mexico’s soda tax: Confronting soft drink giants

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, Mexico’s government approved a tax on sugary soft drinks. The country has one of the highest rates of fizzy drink consumption in the world....

The founding of the Warsaw Pact

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 14 May 1955, the leader of the Soviet Union and leaders from seven European countries met to sign the Warsaw Pact. In the years following World War...

Tesla and Edison: Electricity rivals

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

By 1915, the two great rivals, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, had brought electricity to the world. It was reported that they were set to share the N...

Intervision Song Contest

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1980, Finnish singer Marion Rung won the Intervision Song Contest. Born in the 1960s, Intervision was the Eastern Bloc’s answer to Eurovision. It...

Rescuing Palmyra’s treasures from the Islamic State group

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In May 2015, when the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria was about to fall to jihadist fighters, a group of men risked their lives to load centuries-old...

VE Day celebrations

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The end of the Second World War in Europe came on 8 May 1945, after more than five years of conflict.British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announce...

Sinking of the Lusitania

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 7 May 1915, the British ocean liner, the Lusitania, was sunk by a German submarine off the Irish coast, as it sailed from New York to Liverpool.Tho...

The invention of the automatic electric rice cooker

06 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1955, entrepreneur and engineer Yoshitada Minami came up with a way to liberate women from two to three hours of housework a day.When his water-hea...

Conclave: How a new pope is chosen

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In April 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI following the death of Pope John Paul II.The new leader of the Catholic Church was e...

Snake: Popularising mobile gaming

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, the Snake game made its debut on mobile phones. It is known for its simple yet addictive gameplay and played a major role in popularising m...

Ten countries join the EU in one night

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 1 May 2004, the European Union went through its biggest ever enlargement. 10 countries joined including eight from the former Soviet Union’s sphe...

The Cu Chi tunnels of the Vietnam War

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency aga...

Surviving the fall of Saigon in 1975

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When South Vietnam fell to communist forces in 1975, most could not escape. In the last days, the United States airlifted its remaining personnel and ...

Doi Moi: Vietnam's economic miracle

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1970s, Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world. Its economy had been destroyed by war with the USA, a trade embargo, and the...

The death of Adolf Hitler

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 30 April 1945 Adolf Hitler killed himself in a bunker in the German capital Berlin as Soviet Red Army soldiers closed in. But first he married his ...

Staging Othello in apartheid South Africa

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In September 1987, Othello was staged at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg during the apartheid regime in South Africa. The Immorality Act, which ban...

Coca-Cola’s ‘New Coke'

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Forty years ago, on 23 April 1985, Coca-Cola decided to change the secret formula of its fizzy drink, in a bid to be market leaders. They launched a n...

The creation of YouTube

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An 18-second clip of a young man standing in front of an elephant enclosure at San Diego Zoo in California, describing their “really long trunks” ...

Exercise Tiger: Disastrous D-Day rehearsal

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In April 1944, the Allies planned Exercise Tiger to practise their landing on France's Normandy beaches ahead of D-Day. During the rehearsal, a German...

The origin of World Book Day

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In November 1995, a proposal of having an annual day focused on celebrating books was put forward at the UNESCO conference in Paris.The idea came from...

Clearing landmines in Cambodia

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty years after the start of the genocide that wiped out a quarter of its eight million population, Cambodia remains one of the most heavily landmin...

The Khmer Rouge take power in Cambodia

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In April 1975 the four-year rule of the brutal Khmer Rouge began in Cambodia. Up to two million people are thought to have died - many summarily execu...

The invention of the white LED lightbulb

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, a literal lightbulb moment led to the invention of the first white light emitting diode (LED). These LEDs are now used to light up everything...

The Bali Nine drug smuggling case

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In April 2005, nine young Australians were caught trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Indonesia. The Bali Nine, as they became known, faced a max...

Germany’s ‘Green Belt’

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1989, Germany’s ‘Green Belt’ was born. For more than 40 years, the country had been split by a 1,400km border and, in the decades th...