Witness History

Oklahoma City bombing

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 19 April 1995, a huge truck bomb killed 168 people in a government building in Oklahoma City, US. There were 19 children among the dead and more th...

Liberia’s women in white who helped end civil war

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December 2011, Leymah Gbowee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in helping to end the devastating civil war in Liberia.She had mobilise...

The Reichstag fire

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building in Berlin, which was home to the German Parliament, was burned down.This was a key event in the establishm...

The UN retreat from Somalia

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1991, a horrific civil war erupted between rival warlords in Somalia. A US-led United Nations mission tried to restore order and provide humanitari...

Resusci Anne: the world’s first life-saving resuscitation dummy

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1960, Norwegian toymaker Åsmund Lærdal began selling his latest invention - a life-size training dummy designed to teach mouth-to-mouth resuscita...

JFK’s 1963 Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

United States President John F Kennedy gave a speech in Berlin at the height of the Cold War on 26 June 1963. It galvanised the world in support of We...

The Wonder Woman of DC Comics

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1976, Jenette Kahn took on one of the biggest roles in comic books - publisher of DC Comics, home to superheroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder W...

The invention of superglue

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1951, American chemist Dr Harry Coover was experimenting with a substance called cyanoacrylate but it was sticking to everything.He realised its po...

The 'ghost town' of Namibia

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1900s, the first diamond was found in Kolmanskop, in the African country of Namibia. It led to a diamond rush and the town was created.Ha...

The father of Ethio-Jazz

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For more than 50 years, Mulatu Astatke has been performing at venues around the world, inspiring audiences with his original genre of music known as E...

Harold Riley’s 'one of a kind' portrait of Nelson Mandela

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Harold Riley was the only artist in the world granted a sitting to capture Nelson Mandela on canvas. The unique portrait was unveiled in 2005 and rais...

The suspicious death of Rear Admiral Durović

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As Yugoslavia began to break down, the Balkans conflict began - a series of brutal wars characterised by disputes over territory, identity, and ethnic...

Goodluck Jonathan’s phone call that changed Nigeria

25 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015 Goodluck Jonathan became the first Nigerian president to concede election defeat. It allowed the transfer of power to the opposition party in ...

The Germanwings plane crash

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When General David Galtier hovered above the French Alps in a helicopter on 24 March 2015 he could not see the 60-tonne plane he was looking for. Inst...

The visionary behind the European Space Agency

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In October 2012, the founding father of the European Space Agency was honoured when a spacecraft named after him was sent to the international space s...

The historic handshake in space

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In July 1975, former competitors the Soviet Union and the United States both launched rockets into the sky within hours of each other, as part of a jo...

In event of moon disaster: 'The speech that never was'

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.”These are the opening lines of th...

First spacewalk

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 18 March 1965, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to spacewalk.He spent around 10 minutes floating above the Earth, tethered to the sp...

The rocket that revived Brazil’s space programme

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2003, 21 people died when a space rocket exploded at Brazil’s Alcantara Launch Centre, three days before its planned flight. It was the country...

Bardo Museum attack in Tunisia

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 18 March 2015, 22 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Hamadi Ben Abdesslem,...

The Gambia’s ‘Queen of Recycling’

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1997, Isatou Ceesay, who lives in The Gambia had an idea to make bags and purses out of old discarded plastic.Her idea to help the environment star...

The Capitol Crawl

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

By the beginning of 1990, the United States Congress stalled on passing the Americans with Disabilities Act, a piece of legislation aimed at prohibiti...

King Kong: South Africa's first all-black musical

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1959, Todd Matshikiza composed the score for King Kong, it was South Africa’s first musical with an all-black cast and it opened to critical accl...

The invention of GPS

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are few inventions that we rely on as much as the Global Positioning System, also known as GPS. But, when it was created in the late 1970s, nobo...

How bloodshed in Selma led to the US Voting Rights Act 1965

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In March 1965, hundreds of peaceful civil rights protesters in Selma were brutally beaten by Alabama state troops.They had been marching to demonstrat...

The Great Toyota War

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1987, a decades-long war in Chad reached a dramatic turning point in what would come to be known as the Great Toyota War. Named after the rugged pi...

The US invasion of Panama

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1989, more than 20,000 US soldiers descended on the tiny Central American country of Panama. The Americans sought to remove the country’...

The invention of the shopping trolley

04 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1937, American supermarket owner Sylvan Goldman came up with a way to get his customers to spend more.He introduced his 'folding basket carriers' i...

The Calais 'Jungle' migrant camp

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, Europe was in the grip of a migrant crisis, as more than one million people fled regions including the Middle East. Many set their sights on ...

Africa’s stolen Metis children

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1953, in what was then the Belgian Congo, four-year-old Marie-José Loshi was forcibly removed from her family’s village and taken more than 600k...

Surviving Chile's tsunami

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Chile. It shook the central and southern parts of the country for more than three minutes, ca...

Denmark’s Inuit children experiment

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1951, a group of 22 Inuit children from Greenland were sent to live with foster parents in Denmark. It was part of a social experiment aimed at imp...

The Nellie massacre

25 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Nellie massacre on 18 February 1983 was the worst bloodshed in the country since Indian independence in 1947. It is estimated that 3,000 people di...

Discovering the structure of haemoglobin

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What was it in September of 1959 that caused an Austrian scientist to rush out from his lab and buy children's modelling clay?Austrian born Dr Max Per...

Assassination of Malcolm X

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sixty years ago, on 21st February 1965, the controversial black leader, Malcolm X, was assassinated in Harlem, New York as he was preparing to speak ...

Murder at the Berlin Wall

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 29 March 1974, Czesław Kukuczka stormed into the Polish embassy in East Berlin, threatening to detonate a bomb unless he was allowed to escape to ...

Bolivia’s first indigenous president

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December 2005, Evo Morales made history in Bolivia when he became the country’s first indigenous president. The country is one of the poorest in...

Bo: The death of a language

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010, one of the oldest languages in the world died after the death of its last remaining speaker.For 40 years, Boa Senior from the Indian Andaman ...

The world's longest kiss

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, Guinness World Records deactivated the record for the longest kiss after 15 years, saying it had become too dangerous and some of the rules c...

Eva Peron: Argentina’s Evita

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Eva Peron – otherwise known as Evita - became an icon in 1940s Argentina, famous for her passionate speeches and populist rhetoric. Born into povert...

Paul Keating's Redfern speech

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 10 December 1992, Australia’s Prime Minister, Paul Keating, addressed a crowd in a Sydney suburb called Redfern, to mark the UN’s International...

Mary Fisher's 'A Whisper of Aids' speech

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Mary Fisher was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 she did not represent the typical stereotype of someone HIV-positive. She was white, heterosexual and ...

Eisenhower's farewell address

11 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In January 1961, US President Dwight Eisenhower ended his time in the White House with a farewell address regarded as one of the greatest speeches mad...

La Pasionaria: Heroine of the Spanish Civil War

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dolores Ibárruri was nicknamed La Pasionaria for her fiery speeches to the anti-fascist forces during the Spanish civil war. The fighting had begun i...

Heathers: The making of a cult classic

07 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1989, a dark teen comedy exploring self-harm and suicide flopped at cinemas.Heathers would have to wait years before achieving cult status through ...

The first global case of coral bleaching

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, a mysterious phenomenon turned many of the world’s most colourful coral reefs deathly white.It was the first recorded global coral bleachin...

Cuban blindness

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1990s, as Cuba faced a devastating economic crisis, leading to severe food shortages and malnutrition, around 50,000 Cubans were inexplic...

Oradour massacre

04 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In June 1944, a village in France was destroyed in just one day. German soldiers entered Oradour-sur-Glane and gathered the villagers together. They ...

Jacques Derrida: ‘Rock star’ philosopher

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1966, at Johns Hopkins University in the US, a little-known glamorous French philosopher called Jacques Derrida took to the stage and eviscerated t...

English TV lessons in China go primetime

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1981 the first major series of English lessons was broadcast on Chinese television.President Deng Xiaoping had allowed private enterprise and was p...

1968 New York City teachers' strike

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A series of unprecedented teachers’ strikes temporarily shut most of New York’s schools in the late 1960s, provoked by an ongoing dispute over whe...

Lithuania's 'wolf children'

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the aftermath of World War Two, children were left orphaned, or separated from their families. They were forced to flee East Prussia when the Red A...

The Baltic chain protest

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 23 August 1989, approximately two million people joined hands to form a 690-kilometre human chain across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.It was a key...

The Milltown Cemetery attack

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 16 March 1988, loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone killed three mourners and injured 60 others attending a funeral for IRA members killed in Gibral...

The launch of Windows 95

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In August 1995, Microsoft released a new operating system - Windows 95 – following one of the computer industry’s biggest and most expensive marke...

Replacing the Panchen Lama

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 29 November 1995, Tibetan Buddhist leaders attended a secret ceremony in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. They were present to witness the choice of the...

The murder of Maurizio Gucci

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 27 March 1995, fashion heir Maurizio Gucci was shot dead outside his office in Milan, Italy.Five people, including his ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani, ...

Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1995, an obscure Japanese religion launched a chemical attack on the Tokyo metro. Members of the doomsday cult, which called itself Aum Shinrikyo, ...

Hunting the Unabomber

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During a 17-year bombing campaign, an elusive terrorist known as the Unabomber killed three and injured 23 Americans.In 1995, he contacted The New Yor...

Drum: Africa’s revolutionary magazine

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Drum was considered to be the first African lifestyle magazine with a readership of 40,000 in its 1950s heyday. It was first printed in South Africa i...

'I wrote Schindler's List'

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1980, Australian author Thomas Keneally stumbled across the story of Oskar Schindler while buying a briefcase in Beverly Hills, in the USA.The owne...

Kobe earthquake

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 17 January 1995, an earthquake devastated the port city of Kobe, in west Japan.More than 6,000 people died and around 300,000 people were left home...

Confronting Betty Ford’s addiction

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1978, former first lady of the United States, Betty Ford, announced that she had an addiction to alcohol and prescription medication, and would be ...

Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1933, newly-elected US President Franklin D Roosevelt attempted to drag the United States out of the depression with the New Deal.One of the bigges...

The Bosphorus boat spotter tracking Russian military trucks

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Yörük Işık is a ship spotter who logs all the boats that pass through the narrow Bosphorus Strait near his home in Istanbul, Turkey. In October 20...

The mystery of Raoul Wallenberg

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis during World War Two.Once Soviet troops reached Budapest, Walle...

The invention of the hotel key card

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970s, Norwegian Tor Sornes invented the hotel key card. He wanted to improve security in hotels after he heard the news that one of his favour...

Charlie Hebdo attack

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 7 January 2015, 12 people were shot dead at the offices of a satirical magazine in Paris, the capital of France.The two gunmen had targeted Charlie...

Marie Kondo

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2011, Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo’s first book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up was published. Overnight she went from tidying other...

Creating Alexa

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The smart speaker Alexa is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, but did you know its voice was created by two people in ...

Klaus Fuchs: Oppenheimer’s atomic spy

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

German-born physicist Klaus Fuchs played a key role in the development of the first atomic bomb during World War Two.The project, known as the Manhatt...

Robert Ripley and the ‘Believe It or Not’ empire

01 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1918, sports writer and cartoonist Robert Ripley was struggling to find some content for his column in the New York Globe.So he compiled a...

Indian Ocean tsunami - Aceh

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An earthquake off the coast of Indonesia on 26 December 2004, triggered a tsunami which cost the lives of an estimated 230,000 people around the India...

Indian Ocean tsunami - Tamil Nadu

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 26 December 2004, an earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia sparking a tsunami which swept away entire communities around the Indian Ocean. I...

Dinner for One: How an English comedy became a German tradition

27 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every New Year’s Eve, millions of Germans turn on their TVs to rewatch an old favourite – the comedy Dinner for One.The black and white sketch is ...

'Kimchi war'

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the run-up to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, in the United States, a row broke out between Japan and South Korea over who would supply the athl...

Chef to five presidents

25 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cristeta Comerford has cooked for some of the most powerful people in the world. She spent almost three decades as a chef in the White House, serving ...

When instant noodles came to India

24 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The arrival of instant noodles in India was a turning point in culinary history. In 1983, before Maggi 2-Minute Noodles launched, the country’s food...

'I created MasterChef'

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1990, a cookery programme launched on BBC TV that would become a global phenomenon. Today, MasterChef airs in 70 countries around the world and has...

Australian republic referendum

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 6 November 1999, voters in Australia were asked if they wanted to break ties with the British monarchy and become a republic.The No campaign won wi...

Poland's bleak Christmas

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1981, the communist government of Poland declared martial law in an attempt to suppress rising protests and strikes.The civil unrest had been spark...

Ceefax: the start of interactive television

18 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1974, the BBC launched the world's first teletext service.It provided information, like news and weather, through our TV screens, whenever users wa...

Surviving Andes plane crash

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the Andes mountains in 1972, search teams soon gave up hope. But two months later, 16...

Peshawar school massacre

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ten years ago, the Taliban killed more than 140 people at Peshawar Army School on 16 December 2014.It’s one of the worst terror attacks in Pakistan’...

The birth of reggaeton

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Singer and DJ, Leonardo Renato Aulder, got together with friends, including El General, to pioneer a movement in the 1980s which they called “reggae...

The handover of the Panama Canal

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Panama Canal is a short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean and plays a huge role in global shipping.The United States had rights to the la...

The Purple Heart Warriors

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During World War Two, a Japanese American battalion became one of the most decorated army units in US military history.The 442nd Regimental Combat Uni...

Castro's Cuban revolution attempt

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1953, Fidel Castro attacked military barracks in the east of Cuba in a bid to revolutionise the country. He failed, but it marked the beginning of ...

India’s 1998 nuclear tests

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1998, India conducted five nuclear tests, drawing international condemnation. It was the first time the country had tested nuclear weapons for ...

Julia Gillard speaks out on sexism

05 Dec 2024

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 ...

The ‘Three Marias’

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1974, people gathered in Lisbon, Portugal, to see whether three women would be sent to jail for writing a book. Maria Teresa Horta, Maria Velho...

The discovery that led to Covid vaccines

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Katalin Karikó grew up in a small town in Hungary with no electricity or running water at home. She overcame great adversity to become a scientist...

Gloria Steinem: The start of Ms. Magazine

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1972, feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem co-founded the first magazine in the US which was owned, run and written by women.Called Ms. Magazine, it ...

The end of the US HIV travel ban

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For 22 years, a travel and immigration ban was in place which stopped people with HIV legally entering the US.In 2009, President Barack Obama announce...

The deepest man-made hole in the world

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970s and 1980s, scientists in Russia managed to dig a hole more than 12,000 metres deep.It was called the Kola Superdeep Borehole.They wanted ...

Thich Quang Duc: Buddhist monk who set himself on fire

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In June 1963, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk died after setting himself on fire in protest against the Catholic South Vietnamese government.Malcolm Brown'...

The Iran-Contra Affair

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Iran-Contra affair was a scandal that went right to the heart of Ronald Reagan’s White House and it became known as one of the most controversia...

Strictly Come Dancing

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Television extravaganza Strictly Come Dancing debuted in May 2004 in the UK, bringing ballroom dancing to a whole new generation. Pairing celebrities ...

Creation of the UFC

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, a new combat sport was born. Its founders called it the Ultimate Fighting Championship – UFC.It pitted all forms of mixed martial arts agai...

Lord of the Flies

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s 70 years since William Golding’s acclaimed novel was published. Lord of the Flies is the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a...