Witness History

Egypt and the ‘Cairo 52’

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A group of men known as the ‘Cairo 52’ were arrested in Egypt in May 2001. They were on board the Queen Boat, a floating gay nightclub on the Rive...

Hiroo Onoda, Japan’s last WW2 soldier to surrender

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hiroo Onoda was an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who spent nearly 30 years in the Philippine jungle, believing World War Two was still g...

St Teresa of Avila's severed hand

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After winning the Spanish Civil War in 1939, Franco's dictatorship began. During the war, he acquired St Teresa of Avila's severed hand and kept it fo...

The Scream: A stolen masterpiece

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream was stolen in 1994, an undercover operation was launched to get it back.Thirty years on from its recovery, h...

How Lake Karla in Greece was drained

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lake Karla supported hundreds of families in Thessaly, providing fish for all of the region and beyond. Christos and Ioanna Kotsikas grew up on the sh...

The 2010 Kampala bombings

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In July 2010, two bombs went off at a rugby club in Uganda's capital Kampala. It was where hundreds had gathered to watch the football World Cup final...

Bonus: The Black 14

06 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A bonus episode from the Amazing Sport Stories podcast – The Black 14. Sport, racism and protests are about to change the lives of “the Black 14”...

Sweden's Cinnamon Bun Day

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sweden’s most beloved pastry is the cinnamon bun and every year on 4 October, locals celebrate the sweet, spiced snacks.The country’s first offici...

The Bluetooth story

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1990s, Bluetooth was invented in a lab in Lund, Sweden.The technology is used today to wirelessly connect accessories such as mice, keyboards, ...

Sweden's pioneering paternity leave

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty years ago Sweden became the first country in the world to offer paid parental leave that was gender neutral.The state granted mothers and father...

The man who invented the seat belt

02 Apr 2024

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...

Fifty years of Abba

31 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's 50 years since Swedish pop group Abba won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.The victory provided a platform for the band to become one of the most...

Surviving the Rwandan genocide

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

April 1994 was the start of the Rwandan genocide, 100 days of slaughter, rape and atrocities.As part of the Tutsi ethnic group, Antoinette Mutabazi’...

The founding of Nato

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nato - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - was formed in 1949 by 12 countries, including the US, UK, Canada and France.Its aim was to block expan...

Britain's first beach for nudists

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1980, the seaside town of Brighton opened a very unusual attraction.It was the first British beach dedicated to nudists.The opening followed a pass...

The Heimlich Manoeuvre

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since its adoption as a first aid method, the Heimlich Manoeuvre has saved untold numbers of lives around the world. Developed by American physician D...

Britain's Mirpuri migration

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1967, a dam was built in Mirpur, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, that would spur a huge global migration. Water diverted by the dam forced around 10...

Wham! in China

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1985, the British band Wham! became the first Western pop act to play in China.Around 12,000 fans packed into the Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing t...

Discovering the Terracotta Army

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's 50 years since a chance find by Chinese farmers led to an astonishing archaeological discovery.Thousands of clay soldiers were uncovered in the p...

The 'comfort women' of World War Two

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1932 and 1945, hundreds of thousands of women and girls across Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army.Referred to ...

Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1968, Jingyu Li and her parents were among hundreds of thousands of Chinese people sent to labour camps during Mao Zedong’s so-called cultural re...

Pinyin: The man who helped China to read and write

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1958, a brand new writing system was introduced in China called Pinyin. It used the Roman alphabet to help simplify Chinese characters into words. ...

The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Mount Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii in 79AD is well known, but far fewer people know about the last time the volcano erupted in 1944.It wa...

Winifred Atwell: The honky-tonk star who was Sir Elton John’s hero

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Winifred Atwell was a classically-trained pianist from Trinidad who became one of the best-selling artists of the 1950s in the UK. She played pub tune...

Paraguay adopts its second language

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1992, Guarani was designated an official language in Paraguay’s new constitution, alongside Spanish.It is the only indigenous language of South A...

Finding the longest set of footprints left by the first vertebrate

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1992 off the coast of Ireland, a Swiss geology student accidentally discovered the longest set of footprints made by the first four-legged animals ...

11M: The day Madrid was bombed

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A regular morning turned into a day of nightmares for Spanish commuters on 11 March 2004.In the space of minutes, 10 bombs detonated on trains around ...

MH370: The plane that vanished

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 8 March 2014, a plane carrying 239 passengers and crew disappeared.What happened to missing flight MH370 remains one of the world's biggest aviatio...

Rehabilitating Kony's child soldiers in Uganda

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2002, a Catholic nun arrived in Gulu, a town in northern Uganda, to help set up a sewing school for locals. For years, the town had been the targe...

The Carnation Revolution in Portugal

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

25 April is Freedom Day in Portugal. Five decades ago on that date, flowers filled the streets of the capital Lisbon as a dictatorship was overthrown....

French child evacuees of World War Two

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In August and September 1939, tens of thousands of children began to be evacuated from Paris.The move, part of France's 'passive defence' tactic, aime...

Uruguay v the tobacco giant

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Uruguay was one of the first countries in the world to introduce anti-smoking laws.But in 2010, the tobacco giant Philip Morris took the country to co...

The Whisky War: Denmark v Canada

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1984, a diplomatic dispute broke out between Canada and Denmark over the ownership of a tiny island in the Arctic.The fight for Hans Island off the...

The discovery of the Lord of Sipan in Peru

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1987, Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva received a call from the police urging him to look at ancient artefacts confiscated from looters.The seize...

The lost Czech scrolls

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 5 February 1964, an unusual delivery was made to a synagogue in London. More than 1,500 Torah scrolls, lost since the end of World War Two, were ar...

Crimea's Soviet holiday camp

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Artek, on the shores of the Black Sea in Crimea, was a hugely popular Soviet holiday camp.Maria Kim Espeland was one of the thousands of children who ...

Russia annexes Crimea

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, Russia annexed the strategic Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, a move seen by Kyiv and many other countries as illegal.The crisis it caused was...

Whistler: Creating one of the world’s biggest ski resorts

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2003, Whistler Blackcomb won its bid to host the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. It was sixth time lucky for the Canadian ski resort which...

Columbus Lighthouse

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1992, Columbus Lighthouse opened in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It was designed to house the ashes of explorer, Christoph...

Trans murder in Honduras

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In June 2009, transgender sex worker and activist Vicky Hernandez was murdered in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula.The killers were never identifie...

Icelandic women's strike

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In October 1975, 90% of women in Iceland took part in a nationwide protest over inequality.Factories and banks were forced to close and men were left ...

The Soviet scientist who made two-headed dogs

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1950s, Soviet scientist Dr Vladimir Demikhov shocks the world with his two-headed dog experiments.He grafts the head and paws of one dog onto t...

Supermalt: The malt drink created after the Nigerian civil war

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1972, a food supplement used by soldiers during the Nigerian civil war was turned into a popular malt drink by a brewery in the Danish town of Faxe...

The small Irish town known as ‘Little Brazil’

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gort in the west of Ireland is known by the nickname ‘Little Brazil’ because it’s home to so many Brazilians.They first came to Ireland in the l...

The Juliet letters

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Juliet Club is in Verona, Italy, a place known throughout the world as being the city of love. The club has been replying to mail addressed to Sha...

Patty Hearst: Rebel heiress

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When wealthy newspaper heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by far-left militants in February 1974, America saw her as a victim.But two months later, sh...

The WW2 escape line that fooled the Nazis

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1940 a daring rescue operation began to help Allied servicemen escape from Nazi-occupied France.French resistance fighter Roland Lepers was among t...

The Battle of Versailles: Catwalk clash of American and French fashion

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1973, a fashion show was held in France which became known as the Battle of Versailles, a duel between designs from modern America and the capital ...

How Rosa Parks took a stand against racism

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rosa Parks was brought up in Alabama during the Jim Crow era, when state laws enforced segregation in practically all aspects of daily life.Public sch...

Lucha Reyes: Peruvian music star

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lucha Reyes was one of Peru’s greatest singers. She was born into poverty in 1936 and fought terrible health problems and racism throughout her life...

A young mother saved from death by stoning

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In March 2002, a young Nigerian Muslim woman was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and conceiving a child out of wedlock. Amina Lawal’s cas...

Queen of the 'fro

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1986, 16-year-old Charlotte Mensah went to work in the UK’s first luxury Afro-Caribbean hair salon, Splinters.In London’s glamorous Mayfair...

First internet cafe

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The first commercial internet cafe opened in London on 1 September 1994. Eva Pascoe, from Poland, is one of the founders of Cyberia. She claims that K...

The Arctic’s doomsday seed vault

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In January 2008, seeds began arriving at the world's first global seed vault, buried deep in a mountain on an Arctic island, 1,000km north of the Norw...

Brazil's Landless Workers Movement

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1980, poor rural workers set up camp on land owned by the rich at Encruzilhada Natalino in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Brazil's government sent...

Silenced by the Vatican

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In September 1984, the Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff was summoned to Rome, facing accusations that his writing and teachings were "dangerous to t...

Jack Strong aka Ryszard Kukliński: Cold War traitor or hero?

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During the 1970s, the US and Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War. The US, along with other Western countries, was a member of Nato, while the S...

The Hungarian footballer executed for love

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Magnificent Magyars were Hungary’s golden football team of the 1950s.But behind their shine lay a dark secret.In 1951, defender Sándor Szűcs w...

Wang Jingwei: China’s traitor or protector?

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1937, Japan invaded China committing atrocities including the Nanjing Massacre. Wang Jingwei was a Chinese national hero and second-in-command of C...

Axis Sally: World War II traitor who broadcast for the Nazis

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1949, Mildred Gillars – otherwise known as Axis Sally – became the first woman in American history to be convicted of treason.The former Broadw...

Vidkun Quisling: Norway's traitor

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1939, fascist Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling travelled to Berlin from Oslo for a secret meeting with Adolf Hitler.Quisling suggested...

Jamuna Tudu: The real life 'Lady Tarzan'

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 2000s, a woman called Jamuna Tudu set out on a mission to protect her home state of Jharkhand's forests from India's so-called timber maf...

Ibadan Zoo

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

British zoologist Bob Golding turned the University of Ibadan's zoo into one of Nigeria's biggest tourist attractions in the 1970s.The zoo was famous ...

Tortured in Iran's Evin Prison

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In June 2009, millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest against what they considered a rigged presidential election.The hardline incumbent M...

The Green March: Moroccans take over the Sahara

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 6 November 1975, tens of thousands of Moroccans poured into Spanish Sahara in a bid to claim it for their own.They danced, waved flags and played m...

The hunger-striking Bolivian president

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Bolivia, on 25 October 1984, President Hernán Siles Zuazo announced he was going on hunger strike. He was trying to stop the booming cocaine indus...

Gürtel scandal: Spain's Watergate

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For two years, José Luis Peñas risked his life making secret recordings that revealed one of Spain's biggest corruption scandals.It forced the rulin...

The first World Laughter Day

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the 11 January 1998 in Mumbai, India, the first World Laughter Day took place.It was the idea of Dr Madan Kataria, a medical doctor who wanted to t...

Russian ballerina defects to the west

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1970, Natalia Makarova became the first female ballet star to defect to the West from Russia.The dancer claimed asylum during a UK tour, nine years...

The mystery of France's lost king

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The fate of Louis-Charles, son of the last king of France, was for years shrouded in rumour.The little boy was said to have died in prison in 1795. Bu...

The world’s first lesbian couple to get married

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise gay marriage.Four couples were chosen to take part in a collective ...

What the 1989 solar storm did to Quebec

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 13 March 1989, the Canadian province of Quebec suffered a nine-hour electricity blackout. Much of the state's infrastructure was damaged, but the p...

The Hindenburg airship disaster

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1937, the Hindenburg airship burst into flames during its mooring in New Jersey, in the US, killing 35 of the 97 passengers and crew.

The invention of the wingsuit

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The wingsuit is the ultimate in extreme sports clothing. The aerodynamic outfit allows base jumpers and skydivers to free-fall for longer before openi...

Discovery of the hole in the earth’s ozone

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1985, British scientists made what would turn out to be one of the most important environmental discoveries of the 20th century - finding a hole in...

Earth: A pale blue dot in the universe

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In February 1990, Nasa space probe Voyager took a famous photo of Earth as it left the Solar System.Seen from six billion kilometres away, our planet ...

Ken Hom's 'Chinese Cookery'

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1982, after a two-year global search, the BBC auditioned Ken Hom to be the star of a new Chinese cookery TV series.In the show, called Ken Hom's Ch...

The disputed history of pad Thai

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s one of the most popular dishes in South East Asian cooking and for many it’s seen as Thailand’s national dish. However, the origins of pad ...

Flavr Savr tomato: The world's first genetically-engineered food

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1994, biotech company Calgene brought the world's first genetically-modified food to supermarket shelves.The Flavr Savr tomato kept fresh for 30 da...

Kiwi: How New Zealand hijacked China's fruit

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The kiwi fruit is synonymous with New Zealand in the minds of most European and American shoppers.But the hairy fruit actually comes from China and wa...

Inventing Nutella

25 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1946, Italian confectioner Pietro Ferrero set out to bring chocolate to the masses. His recipe evolved over the years to become a world-famous prod...

'The bad boy of Welsh politics'

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s, the singer Dafydd Iwan started campaigning for the Welsh language to gain official status in Wales. For years, Dafydd received little su...

Al Jazeera Three: Imprisoned in Egypt

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014 three journalists were sentenced to seven years in jail in Egypt.Peter Greste, Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed became known as the Al Jazeera...

The mysterious death of Pablo Neruda

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In late 1973, Chile was in turmoil. General Augusto Pinochet had led a military coup deposing the socialist president Salvador Allende who was now dea...

The assassination of King Faisal

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 25 March 1975, Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was murdered, shot by his nephew as he bent to kiss him as a greeting.The king’s oil minister Ahmed Z...

Tsunami devastates Samoa

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 29 September 2009, a devastating tsunami hit Samoa, killing 149 people and leaving a trail of destruction. For Lumepa Hald it was a terrifying d...

The funeral of Nelson Mandela

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 15 December 2013, South Africa held the funeral of Nelson Mandela who led the struggle in defeating apartheid and became the country’s first blac...

Vatican citizen Emanuela Orlandi disappears

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1983, the disappearance of a teenage girl who was a citizen of Vatican City led to a scandal.When Pope John Paul II made a public appeal to the peo...

Anna Akhmatova: The poet who defied a regime

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova lived through some of the darkest chapters of Soviet history, but never stopped writing even though the communis...

Yeltsin speaks at the reburial of the Romanovs

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin shocked the nation with a last-minute decision to speak at the reburial of Tsar Nicholas II and his family...

Murder of the Romanovs

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As civil war raged in Russia, on 17 July 1918, the imprisoned royal family were told they were to be taken to a place of refuge.But the move was a tri...

The release of DOOM

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1993, the release of a new video game captivated gamers around the world. It was called DOOM. Set on a Martian military base overrun by zo...

‘The disappeared’ of Argentina

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1976 and 1983 in Argentina, the military ruled the country. Thousands of mainly young, left-wing Argentinians went missing. Known as 'the disa...

A Greek coup: The day the colonels took power

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 21 April 1967, a group of right-wing army officers seized power in Greece to prevent the election of a social democratic government led by veteran ...

Thousands of Danish brains in plastic buckets

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1945, two Danish scientists opened an institute to study mental illnesses. In the four decades until it closed, almost 10,000 brains were collecte...

La Haine: The film that shocked France

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, film director Mathieu Kassovitz started work on what would become a cult cinema classic, La Haine. La Haine would follow three friends from a...

World's first solar-heated home

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1948, a family of Hungarian refugees moved into the world's first home to be heated entirely by solar power.What made the Dover Sun House,...

Tanzania adopts Swahili to unite the country

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After Tanzania, then called Tanganyika, became independent from Britain in 1961, the country's leader, Julius Nyerere, made Swahili the national langu...

Cameroon’s mysterious lake deaths

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 21 August 1986, hundreds of villagers in a remote part of Cameroon mysteriously died overnight, along with 3,500 livestock.In the weeks-long invest...

The bird that defied extinction

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1969, a Peruvian farmer called Gustavo Del Solar received an unusual assignment - finding a bird called the white-winged guan that had been regarde...