Witness History

Handover of Macau

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1999, the small territory of Macau was handed back to China after centuries of Portuguese rule.Lawyer and comedian Miguel Senna Fernandes was a mem...

The Siege of Yarmouk

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During the early years of Syria’s brutal civil war, one neighbourhood close to the Syrian capital, Damascus, bore the brunt of the government’s vi...

Iran's secret Christian 'house churches'

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, some Christians faced persecution. Between 2002 and 2005, Naghmeh Panahi and her husband, Saeed Abedini, set ...

German naturists

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since the 19th Century, Germans have been bathing nude at the beach. The naturist movement, known as the FKK, was banned under the Nazis.People also f...

Luana Mansilla: Changing gender aged six

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, a six-year-old from Argentina became one of the youngest people in the world to legally have their gender changed on official documents throu...

India's capsule coal mine rescue

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In November 1989, mining engineer Jaswant Singh Gill saved 65 miners from the Mahabir Coal Mine, in India.The miners, who had been trapped for three d...

How Greece got rid of their king

12 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1974, Greece held a referendum to decide the future of the country’s monarchy, and whether Constantine II would remain their king.Constantine had...

The Pakistan mountain massacre

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, 11 people were shot dead in base camp of the Nanga Parbat mountain in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. The gunmen were associated wit...

The invention of the ‘Baby’ computer

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In June 1948, the ‘Baby’ was invented. It was the first stored-program computer, meaning it was the first machine to work like the ones we have to...

The woman who saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Irena Sendler was a Polish social worker who risked her life to save 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto during World War Two. Irena, a Catho...

The Shah of Iran's party

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, celebrated 2,500 years of the Persian Empire by throwing a huge three-day party. Trees were planted,...

In exile from Iran

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 16 January 1979, the Shah of Iran and his wife, Farah Pahlavi, left Iran for the last time. There had been increasingly violent protests against Mo...

Iran hostage crisis

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most dramatic moments from the Iranian revolution took place in November 1979. Young insurgents stormed the US embassy in the Iranian capit...

Siegfried and Roy tiger attack

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For nearly 40 years, the magicians Roy Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher wowed audiences in Las Vegas with their death-defying tricks involving white lio...

Brazil’s electronic voting

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1996, Brazil introduced a pioneering electronic voting system, revolutionising its election process. Carlos Velozo, an electoral lawyer and judge, ...

The Ken Burns Effect

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2002, filmmaker Ken Burns received an intriguing proposition from Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. He wanted Burns’ signature filming style to be inserted ...

Jean Batten: New Zealand’s record breaking aviator

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealander Jean Batten was nicknamed the ‘Queen of the Skies’ for her record breaking flights of the 1930s. After abandoning a career in music,...

The creation of Greenwich Mean Time

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1676, Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed was looking to find a way to determine longitude at sea, so ships could know their position and hazards.Feuds...

My dad created Dungeons & Dragons

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1970, father of five Gary Gygax was fired from his job as an insurance underwriter in Chicago, in the United States of America. It may sound like a...

Bonga Kwenda: Music banned in Angola and Portugal

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Star athlete, Jose Adelino Barceló de Carvalho, abandoned his career in 1972 to follow his one true passion, music.After growing up under Portuguese ...

Ethiopia's 1984 famine

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1984, Ethiopia suffered one of its worst ever famines. A BBC news report from the area shocked the world - and led to a huge global fundraising cam...

I found the first dinosaur remains in Antarctica

22 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Argentinian geologist Eduardo Olivero became the first scientist to find the remains of a dinosaur in Antarctica in 1986. But digging in frozen ground...

The fight to stop skin lightening in India

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, Emami, an Indian beauty and wellness company, put out an advert for their skin lightening product 'Fair and Handsome'.It features billionaire...

Eight years trapped on the Suez Canal in Egypt

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After the Six Day War in June 1967, the Suez Canal in Egypt was closed.It meant 14 ships from eight different countries, including the United States, ...

Dyke and Dryden: Cosmetic kings

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1969, a new sound began to dominate the airwaves in the UK, reggae.This was terrible news for two Jamaican men, Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden who were...

Fleeing Afghanistan alone as a child

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1999, Waheed Arian left his family in Afghanistan to seek refuge in the UK. He was just 15.He was escaping violence, poverty and the threat of bein...

The Rose Revolution in Georgia

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In November 2003, the people of Georgia ousted veteran president Eduard Shevardnadze. Protestors stormed the parliament building in the capital Tbilis...

The Sunflower Movement

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Between 18 March and 10 April 2014, more than 500,000 people in Taipei, Taiwan, protested against a new trade deal with China.It was one of the larges...

'Robocops’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After the death of her brother, engineer Thérèse Izay Kirongozi got to work handmaking huge robots to direct traffic and save lives. In 2013 they we...

How the QR code was invented

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1994, bar codes were in widespread use in businesses around the world, but the Japanese car component company, Denso Wave, wanted something quicker...

The world's first general purpose electronic computer

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1946, one of the world’s first electronic computers was unveiled in Philadelphia, in the USA. It was called the Electronic Numerical Integrator a...

WABOT-1: The first humanoid robot

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Scientists at Waseda University in Japan built the world's first humanoid robot in 1973. They called it the 'WABOT', the Waseda robot. It could see, w...

Eliza: When chatbots started

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Eliza is the name of a 1966 invention by German born scientist, Joseph Weizenbaum, that is said to be the first chatbot.Eliza worked by someone typing...

The longest plane hijacking in Latin America

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1973, two men pretending to be Colombian guerrillas took a plane and flew across Latin America for 60 hours. It was the longest hijacking of an air...

The speech that inspired the Law of the Sea

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In November 1967, the Maltese diplomat, Arvid Pardo, addressed the United Nations with a remarkable speech that shaped the laws governing the sea.Pard...

South Africa’s nuclear weapons

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1989, South Africa became the first, and only country to make and then dismantle nuclear weapons.The project was conducted at Kentron Circle, a sec...

Cambodia war crimes

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2009, a UN-backed war crimes tribunal opened in Cambodia to try the senior Khmer Rouge commanders responsible for genocide.An estimated two million...

Kristallnacht: The night of broken glass

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In November 1938, the Nazis organised a night of terror against Jews in Germany. Windows of homes, businesses and synagogues were broken. Kurt Salomon...

The Estonia ferry disaster

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1994, the MS Estonia ferry sank in the Baltic Sea with the loss of 852 lives. It was one of the deadliest shipping tragedies since the sinking of t...

South Africa’s first inter-racial marriage

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1949, inter-racial marriage and relationships were banned by South Africa’s apartheid government. In June 1985, the ban was lifted. Suzanne La Cl...

Arrested for 'immorality' in South Africa

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1969, a white man and an Indian woman were put on trial in South Africa for conspiring to have sex.Dr Zureena Desai and Professor John Blacking wer...

Why Tupac was fired from Menace II Society

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, a gritty and unflinching crime movie called Menace II Society was released to huge acclaim.The debut picture from the teenage directors, Alle...

India's Mars Orbiter Mission

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission meant the country was the first in the world to successfully place a satellite into orbit around Mars on its i...

Designing the Google logo

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of us see the Google logo every day. Ruth Kedar is the designer of the logo. The story of how she got the job starts in a martial arts class ...

The discovery of New Zealand’s first dinosaur

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 2 December 1972, Joan Wiffen, her husband, son and daughter started a camping trip. But it was far from ordinary. They were obsessed fossil-hunters...

India’s plague outbreak

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1994, the pneumonic plague broke out in the city of Surat, causing mass panic. It saw the largest migration across India since independence was dec...

Camouflaging Leningrad

17 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s 85 years since the start of World War Two. During the conflict, the Russian city of Leningrad came under siege in 1941. To camouflage the landm...

The invention of the CT scanner

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, the CT scanner was invented by South African physicist Allan Cormack and British engineer Sir Godfrey Hounsfield.It was a ground-breaking mom...

When Italy gave back Ethiopia’s stolen obelisk

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2005, the pieces of an ancient monument were flown back to Ethiopia, having been stolen by Italy.The Obelisk of Axum, built around 1,700 years ago,...

Abebech Gobena: Africa's 'Mother Teresa'

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1980, Abebech Gobena was on a pilgrimage to Wollo in Ethiopia, when she witnessed the devastating effects of a severe famine and drought, one of th...

Ardi: The oldest skeleton of a human ancestor

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1994, a college student called Yohannes Haile Selassie unearthed a 4.4 million-year-old skeleton in Ethiopia. She was the first near-complete skele...

Emperor Haile Selassie in Bath

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1936, Haile Selassie came to Bath in the west of England to escape Mussolini and the fascists who had invaded Ethiopia.He bought a property – Fai...

Emperor Haile Selassie overthrown

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Haile Selassie was Emperor of Ethiopia. His dynasty ruled for centuries, supposedly descending from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In 1974 he wa...

Giant Gonzalez: from NBA star to WWE wrestler

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1988, Jorge Gonzalez was a basketball star in Argentina and became the first athlete from this country drafted by an NBA team, the Atlanta Hawks. H...

Apollo 13

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 13 April 1970, a Moon mission almost ended in tragedy, after an explosion on board the spaceship.Fred Haise was one of the Apollo 13 astronauts. In...

The end of the Irish marriage bar

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Until 1973, married women in Ireland were banned from working in state jobs.It was one of the longest lasting marriage bars in the world.Rachel Naylor...

Ramesses II's 'mummy makeover'

03 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1976, the 3,000-year-old mummy of Ramesses II was found to have a fungal infection.The embalmed body of the Egyptian pharaoh was flown from Cairo t...

I led the 'Umbrella' protests

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the 26 September 2014 Nathan Law stood on a makeshift stage outside Hong Kong's central government complex and chanted ‘Democracy Now’ and ‘F...

The woman who spoke to the space station

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Amateur radio enthusiast Maggie Iaquinto spent a year trying to make contact with Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station using special equipment....

Guatemala's disappeared

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More than 200,000 people were killed during Guatemala's 36-year civil war between the military and left-wing rebels which ended in 1996. Of these, an ...

Waris Dirie

28 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1987, an unknown 18 year-old Somalian model called Waris Dirie walked into the studio of renowned British photographer Terence Donovan.She had neve...

The writer of Mary Poppins

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1964, the Disney film 'Mary Poppins' was released. It was based on the character created by writer PL Travers.Travers disliked the Oscar-winning Di...

Canada’s first UFO landing pad

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1967, the small town of St Paul, Canada declared that they were a place that welcomed everyone, even the aliens. They did this by building a giant ...

Spain's La Tomatina

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1945, a fight broke out between two groups of teenage boys during a parade in the Spanish town of Buñol in Valencia. The boys ended up throwing to...

Argentina's five presidents in two weeks

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2001, Argentina suffered an economic catastrophe so severe the country went through five leaders in two weeks. On the streets police engaged in bat...

India’s first female bartender

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1996, an Indian government minister said that the work of women serving in bars "is not suited in our Indian culture”. There were protests and re...

Nazis in Egypt

20 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After World War Two, Egypt’s government recruited thousands of Nazis and their collaborators to bolster the country’s defence and security. This w...

The celebrity murder case that divided France

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2003, the French rock star Bertrand Cantat murdered his actress girlfriend, Marie Trintignant.The attack happened in Lithuania where Marie had been...

Saving lives after the 2002 Bali bombings

16 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two bombs ripped through the Kuta area of the Indonesian island of Bali on 12 October 2002. 202 people were killed. 28 burns victims were taken to Ro...

How the CIA caught 'Carlos the Jackal'

15 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as ‘Carlos the Jackal’, carried out bombings, killings and kidnappings. Born in Venezuela, he was considered one of...

Sukarno: The founding father of Indonesian independence

14 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the morning of 17 August 1945, the Indonesian nationalist leader, Sukarno, read out a statement declaring independence.It was broadcast to the coun...

The last ever Olympic art competition

13 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From 1912 until 1948, you could win medals in art at the Olympic Games, in categories such as architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture....

Clara Nunes: Queen of Samba

12 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Singer Clara Nunes is an icon of African Brazilian culture and known as the Queen of Samba.Her first samba song Ê Baiana was released in 1973.In 1974...

The first televised US presidential debate

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1956, the two largest US parties agreed to participate for the first time in a televised debate ahead of the presidential elections. But instead of...

President Richard Nixon resigns

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 8 August 1974, Richard Nixon became the first US president in history to resign from office, following the Watergate scandal. This scandal began wi...

Ronald Reagan and the Moral Majority

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1979, the Moral Majority was launched and changed the course of US politics. It was set up to promote family values by religious conservatives from...

Bush v Gore: The election decided in the Supreme Court

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US presidential election of 2000 was one of the closest and most contested in history. It was more than a month before the result was decided afte...

The Situation Room photograph

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pete Souza was Chief Official White House Photographer during Barack Obama's presidency. His photo from when Bin Laden was killed by US soldiers in 20...

Ice Bucket Challenge

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, the ice bucket challenge craze took over the internet.Millions of people including sports stars and celebrities filmed themselves being douse...

The 1965 Freedom Riders of Australia

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners - this programme contains the names of people who have died.Nearly 60 years ago, a group...

Finding a home for Bulgaria's dancing bears

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, brown bears were declared a protected species in Bulgaria and the ancient tradition of forcing them to dance for people's entertainment becam...

Yazidi genocide: A rescue mission on Mount Sinjar

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Islamic State (IS) militants took control of Syria and Iraq in June 2014, the entire Yazidi population in Sinjar were immediately in grave danger...

The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1983, punk rock was strictly forbidden in East Berlin. However, that didn’t stop young music obsessive Mark Reeder, from Manchester in the UK, sm...

The first cold chain vaccination storage system

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1974, Ghana pioneered a new system which would help in the roll-out of the immunisation of serious diseases across Africa and the rest of the world...

Building the Moscow Metro

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More than 10,000 Russian workers built the first line of the Moscow Metro which opened in 1935 to great fanfare. The spectacular stations were designe...

Olympics: Zamzam Farah at London 2012

24 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the London 2012 Olympics, the Somali sprinter Zamzam Farah became a crowd favourite after finishing last in her 400m heat by 27 seconds. Zamzam had...

The first Olympic ‘mascot’

23 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After being designed in one night, Shuss, the cartoon skier, debuted at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France. Instead of ‘mascot’, the Olympi...

The 1924 Paris Olympics

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The last time Paris held the Olympic Games was 100 years ago in 1924.More than 3,000 athletes from 44 nations took part, of which only 135 were women,...

How Ayia Napa became a clubbing capital

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1990s, Ayia Napa, in Cyprus, went from quiet fishing village to party resort.The Kool Club was one of the first nightclubs to open in 1995.Rach...

The missing people of Cyprus

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1963 and 1974, more than 2,000 people in Cyprus went missing during clashes, a coup and the Turkish invasion. Only about half of them have bee...

Cyprus 2003: Crossing the ceasefire line

17 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In April 2003, the people of Cyprus were allowed to cross the ceasefire line for the first time in 29 years. Hundreds of people rushed to the check po...

Cyprus 1974: The Final Landing

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the 20 July 1974, a young pilot was preparing to land passenger flight CY317 into Nicosia Airport in Cyprus, amidst the threat of an imminent Turki...

Cyprus 1974: The Greek coup

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 15 July 1974, the Greek military dictatorship in Athens sponsored a coup on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, aiming to overthrow its sel...

Arrested for playing football in Brazil

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Like many young children growing up in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s, Dilma Mendes had one dream: to play football for her country. There was just one...

Italy's 'poison ships'

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In September 1988, protests broke out in Manfredonia, Italy, after the arrival of a large ship carrying toxic waste of Italian origin. The Deep Sea Ca...

The 1968 Mexico City massacre

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 2 October 1968, thousands of students protested in Mexico City, 10 days before the Olympics.The students wanted the government to free political pr...

The day Celia Cruz returned to Cuba

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In January 1990, Cuban singer Celia Cruz, known as ‘the Queen of Salsa’, went back to Cuba. Banned by Fidel Castro for opposing his regime, it was...

How the air fryer was invented

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2006, Dutch engineer Fred van der Weij invented a kitchen device that changed the way many of us cook today: the air fryer.Fred’s first prototype...

Conservative wipe-out in Canada

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Canada's 1993 election, the governing Progressive Conservative Party was routed, ending up with just two seats.In the 1980s, the party won the larg...

Fight the Power: The song that became an anthem of protest

04 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's 35 years since the release of one of the most provocative songs in music history.Fight the Power by hip-hop group, Public Enemy, was radical both...