Witness History

Cabbage Patch Kids

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1983, all hell broke loose when a new toy hit stores in the United States. Cabbage Patch Kids were so popular that people were getting injured when...

The Mumbai attacks

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 26 November 2008, 10 gunmen from the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba carried out coordinated attacks on Mumbai's busiest hotspots i...

The Paris heatwave

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In August 2003 Europe was hit by the hottest heatwave for hundreds of years. Tens of thousands of people died. Not built to withstand two weeks of e...

Kennedy’s nail-biter election victory

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 22 November 1963, United States President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.Lucy Williamson looks back to 8 November 1960, when Rich...

The invention of bubble tea

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1987, a tea shop in Taiwan named Chun Shui Tang began selling pearl milk tea, or bubble tea, as it’s often called. It would revolutionise the tea...

The independence of Zambia

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1964, Zambia became a republic. It was the ninth African state to leave British colonial rule.Simon Kapwepwe was one of the leaders in the fight fo...

Discovering the ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2000, the pioneering underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio made one of the greatest ever submerged discoveries.He found evidence that the remains ...

The Bolivian Water War

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Bolivian Water War was a series of protests that took place in the city of Cochabamba in 2000 against the privatisation of water. People objected ...

Rosalind Franklin: DNA pioneer

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1951, Rosalind Franklin began one of the key scientific investigations of the century. The young British scientist produced an X-ray photograph tha...

Eyjafjallajökull: The volcano that stopped a continent

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010, a previously little-known Icelandic volcano erupted twice, sending a huge plume of volcanic ash all over Europe. The ash cloud grounded fligh...

The invention of the EpiPen

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970s, engineer Sheldon Kaplan and his colleagues were tasked with creating an auto-injector pen to be used by US soldiers needing a nerve agen...

The hippo and the tortoise

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Following the devastating tsunami of 2004, a baby hippo named Owen was rescued from the sea off the coast of Kenya.He was taken to Haller Park in Momb...

Destruction of Mostar Bridge

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 9 November 1993, one of Bosnia's most famous landmarks, the historic bridge in Mostar, was destroyed by Croat guns during the Bosnian war. Built by...

The Pakistani teens who became disco superstars

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1980s, a brother and sister from Pakistan topped the charts in countries all over the world with their dancefloor filler, Disco Deewane.Nazia a...

Debbie McGee in Iran

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1978, British showbusiness star, Debbie McGee was a dancer with the Iranian National Ballet Company.Debbie was living in the capital, Tehran, at th...

Ycuá Bolaños supermarket fire

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In August 2004, more than 300 people died when a supermarket caught fire in Paraguay's capital, Asunción.It is seen as the country's worst peacetime ...

Freddie Mercury 'marries' Jane Seymour

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 5 November, 1985 some of the world's top designers and music stars joined together in a special event at London’s Royal Albert Hall to raise mone...

Che Guevara’s daughter: A Cuban doctor in Angola

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1986 Dr Aleida Guevara, the daughter of revolutionary icon Che Guevara, went to Angola to work as a paediatrician.Dr Aleida was one of a number of ...

Inventing the black box

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 23 March 1962, a prototype of the first cockpit flight recorder, the black box, was tested in Australia. In the early 1950s, fuel scientist David ...

The discovery of the HIV virus

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1983, scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris became the first to identify the HIV virus. It was a vital step in fighting one of the worst epi...

The billion dollar bid to stop oil drilling in the Amazon

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010, a $3.6billion fund was launched to stop oil drilling in the most biodiverse place on the planet: the Yasuni national park in Ecuador.The Yasu...

Turkey: Gezi Park protests

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, environmental protests in Gezi Park, Istanbul led to civil unrest across Turkey.For one protestor, a post he made on social media led to a dr...

'The streets of Harare were littered with money'

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In November 2008, Johns Hopkins University calculated Zimbabwe’s year-on-year inflation rate as 89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000% – one of the worst...

The 1993 MAD hijack

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 25 October1993, a Nigerian Airways flight from Lagos to Abuja was hijacked by four teenagers calling themselves the Movement for the Advancement of...

The 1980 Turkey coup

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 12 September 1980, the army took control in Turkey. It was not the first time they had done so. It was the third coup d'état in the history of the...

The first Bosphorus Bridge

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1973, the Bosphorus Bridge was completed connecting Europe and Asia.The suspension bridge was the first of three spanning the Bosphorus Strait in I...

Osmondmania

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 21 October 1973, American heartthrobs The Osmonds were met by hysterical crowds when their plane landed at London's Heathrow Airport. A surge by so...

Launching Lagos Fashion Week

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2011, models, stylists and fashionistas gathered for Lagos Fashion Week’s debut which would put Nigerian style on the global map. Omoyemi Akerele...

Mexico’s murdered women

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993 young women began disappearing in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez. Hundreds were reported to have been kidnapped and killed. Some of...

Rana Plaza building collapse

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In April 2013, Rana Plaza, an eight-storey building on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, collapsed. More than 1,000 people died and m...

Cambodian peace walk

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1992, the first peace walk was held in Cambodia aimed at uniting a country torn apart by years of conflict. Buddhist monks, Cambodian refugees and ...

Surviving an acid attack and changing the law

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, India's Supreme Court made a landmark ruling aimed at transforming the lives of acid attack survivors.It followed a campaign led by Laxmi Aga...

Kwame Nkrumah: Ousted from power

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, one of Africa's most famous leaders, was ousted from power in Ghana.While he was out of the country, the Ghanaian mil...

Theodosia Okoh: Designer of Ghana’s flag

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In March 1957, Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence and a new flag was unveiled marking a fresh start for the for...

The 84-year-old primary school pupil

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2004, Kimani Maruge became the oldest man to start primary school when he enrolled at the Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Kenya. The 84-year-old stu...

Yinka Shonibare: Nelson's Ship in a Bottle

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 24 May 2010, artist Yinka Shonibare unveiled Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square.The piece was the wor...

Protectors of the Amazon

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2003, an oil company entered the indigenous Sarayaku community’s territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon in search of oil. Neither the government nor ...

The Amoco Cadiz oil spill

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1978, the Amoco Cadiz tanker ran aground off the coast of France.The supertanker split, releasing more than 220,000 tonnes of crude oil into the se...

Nigeria strikes oil

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1956 commercial quantities of oil were discovered in the Nigerian village Oloibiri.It marked the start of a huge oil industry for Nigeria but came ...

The oilfield that changed Kazakhstan

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the USSR breaking up, Kazakhstan was wrestling with the challenges of independence; hyperinflation, the economy collapsing and food sho...

The oil crisis of 1973

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In October 1973, Arab nations protested the American support of Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria by slashing oil production, causing prices t...

The first cat cafe

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The world's first cat cafe opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998. It started with just five street cats.For the first few months they hardly had any visit...

The Lampedusa shipwreck tragedy

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 3 October 2013, a fishing boat taking more than 500 migrants from Libya sank 800 metres off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island.I...

Kassandra: The peacekeeping telenovela in Bosnia

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1990s, the soap opera or telenovela craze was sweeping the world. One of the most popular was Kassandra made in Venezuela, about a girl s...

Concorde's first flight

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 26 September 1973, Concorde, the supersonic passenger aircraft, made her first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. The droopy-nosed plane took to ...

Vietnam War: Stopping nuclear disaster

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1975, during the final days of the Vietnam War, most of the world was unaware that the North Vietnamese were advancing a new breed of nuclear react...

The year of the vuvuzela

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The vuvuzela was notorious during the 2010 football World Cup.It became the subject of debate when it was labelled as 'the world's most annoying instr...

Kenya: Nairobi shopping mall attack

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2013, gunmen from a Somali Islamist group known as Al-Shabab attacked a shopping centre in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. They took hundreds of people ...

The first person inside the 'Gates of Hell'

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In November 2013 George Kourounis arrived in the Turkmenistan desert.He was determined to become the first person to enter the Darvaza Crater.The cra...

Fighting for legal abortion in Italy

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1978, campaigners won their long fight to legalise abortion in Italy. Emma Bonino and other members of the Radical Party went on hunger strike and ...

Nazi eugenics

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In July 1933, the new German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, passed 'The Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases'.It required the steri...

The Ramallah concert

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In August 2005, an unusual orchestra performed an extraordinary concert in the city of Ramallah.The West-Eastern Divan orchestra was founded in 1999 b...

The siege at the Church of the Nativity

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is on the site believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.But in 2002, it was at the centre o...

Ariel Sharon visits al-Aqsa

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rioting broke out in 2000 after the Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon made a controversial visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s ...

Camp David Summit: How Middle East peace talks failed

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2000, President Bill Clinton led a major effort to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The two sides were brought together at the leafy presidenti...

Oslo Peace Accords: The secret talks behind Middle East deal

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In September 1993, a peace agreement was signed between Israel and the Palestinians after months of secret negotiations.The historic handshake between...

Victor Jara: killed in Chile's coup

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 11 September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet deposed Chile's President Salvador Allende in a military coup.Thousands of people were tortured and kil...

Organising Chile's 1973 military coup

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 11 September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet deposed Chile's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, in a violent military coup.Hermóge...

Murder of Swedish politician Anna Lindh

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2003, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death in a department store in the middle of Stockholm. The 46-year-old member of the ruli...

Bi Kidude: Zanzibar's 'golden grandmother of music'

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1980s, Bi Kidude burst onto the international music scene, when she was in her 70s. She was one of the first women from Zanzibar to sing in pub...

Arctic 30: Russian arrest of Greenpeace campaigners

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 14 September 2013, the Arctic Sunrise - a ship belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace - embarked on an Arctic expedition.Its aim was to di...

Leaving China to study after the Cultural Revolution

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Launched in 1966 by Communist leader Mao Zedong, the Cultural Revolution plunged China into a decade of chaos. The education of millions of young peop...

Saving Guadalupe from goats

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2000, an expedition to the Mexican island of Guadalupe launched a fight to save its ecosystem from being eaten by goats.Russian whalers had introdu...

Egypt's Rabaa massacre

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 14 August 2013, Egypt's army killed hundreds of protestors in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. They were protesting against a military coup that ha...

North and South Korean leaders meet for the first time in decades

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In June 2000, a historic meeting took place between South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il.This was the first inter-...

The Bristol bus boycott

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sixty years ago, there was a boycott of local bus services in the English city of Bristol. The bus company had specified that it did not want to emplo...

Women invade Dublin's male-only swimming spot

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Forty Foot is a famous sea swimming spot in Ireland’s capital city of Dublin. For hundreds of years, only men had the privilege of bathing in it...

Celtic Tiger: Ireland's 'ghost estates'

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2006, Michele Burke and her fiancé William were looking forward to moving into their dream home in the picturesque town of Killaloe, in Ireland. B...

The first Rose of Tralee

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1959, Tralee, in Ireland, hosted a festival to promote the town and build Irish connections around the world. It became known as the Rose of Tralee...

How electricity came to rural Ireland

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1948, Canon John Hayes flicked a switch and brought electricity to the parish of Bansha, in Ireland. The village was the first in County Tipper...

Easter Rising in Ireland

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At Easter 1916, a small army of Irish rebels attempted to start a revolution against British rule.They held out for more than a week against a massive...

The Wizard of Oz: The stolen ruby slippers

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The ruby slippers from the 1939 movie 'The Wizard of Oz' are some of the most treasured film memorabilia of all time. There are thought to be four pai...

Judy Garland: The final shows

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Judy Garland ended her long and glitzy stage and screen career at a London theatre club in January 1969. She was booked for five weeks of nightly show...

Returning Benin Bronzes

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2004, a chance encounter in Nigeria led to the return of two of the country’s ancient artworks, the looted Benin Bronzes.The treasures were among...

Iran: How the prime minister was overthrown in 1953

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The coup of 1953 changed the course of Iranian history. The USA - with British help - overthrew a nationalist prime minister and installed the Shah in...

The boy who discovered a new species of human ancestor

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 15 August 2008, nine-year-old Matt Berger tripped over a fossil that would lead to one of the most important discoveries in the history of human ev...

Jean-Michel Basquiat bursts onto the New York art scene

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1980s, the young black graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat took the New York art world by storm. Soon, his paintings were selling for hu...

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's diamonds scandal

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1979, French journalist Claude Angeli and his colleagues discovered Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the French President, received gifts of diamonds wor...

Sarajevo’s haven of peace

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After the collapse of former Yugoslavia, Bosnian Serb forces laid siege to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in 1992. More than a quarter of a million pe...

The Great Train Robbery

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 8 August 1963, a gang of thieves held up a British Royal Mail train on its journey from Glasgow to London. They stole more than £2 million. It was...

Brownie Wise: The creator of Tupperware parties

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1950s, self-made businesswoman Brownie Wise transformed the fortunes of Tupperware by inspiring thousands of housewives to sell it at parties.H...

Dinosaur in court

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2012 a dinosaur skeleton became the subject of both a restraining order and a court case.Mongolian palaeontologist, Dr Bolortsetseg Minjin helped s...

Treehouse on the Berlin Wall

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1980s, a Turkish worker in Germany, Osman Kahlin, provoked controversy when he turned a patch of disputed land against the Berlin Wall into a m...

Birth of a new language

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language of their own.It was a remarkable achievement, which allowed expe...

First dinosaur eggs identified in India

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1982, nests of dinosaur eggs were identified for the first time in India. They were found in Jabalpur, on a historic fossil site and former British...

José Mujica: Prison break to president

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s and '70s, José Mujica was a leading member of a notorious left-wing militant group in Uruguay called the Tupamaros. He survived multiple...

Mr Bigg's: The birth of Nigeria's iconic takeaway

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been 50 years since a popular Nigerian fast food chain which later became known as Mr Bigg's was first launched. The restaurants began as coffe...

The 1960 coup against Haile Selassie

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1960, there was an attempt to dethrone the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie and replace him with his son. While the emperor was out of the...

The Pope’s controversial Nicaragua visit

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1983 Pope John Paul II visited Nicaragua as part of an eight-day tour of Central America. His trip came at a time of heightened tensions between th...

Brain: The first personal computer virus

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'Welcome to the dungeon' was the message that flashed up on computer screens in 1986.This was thought to be the first virus for personal computers and...

Escaping the Nazis in Greece

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Greek city of Thessaloniki, or Salonica, was once known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans.It was previously home to a large and thriving Sephardi Je...

The US singer who became the Soviet Union’s Red Elvis

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1966, at the height of the Cold War, American singer Dean Reed became the first western rock and roll star to tour the Soviet Union. His visit was ...

The birth of Barbie

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first Barbie doll was sold in 1959. It took Ruth Handler, who created it, years to convince her male colleagues that it would sell.The plastic cre...

Japan surrenders in China

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the autumn of 1945, World War II surrender ceremonies took place across the Japanese Empire. The one in China was held at the Forbidden City in Bei...

The ‘Barricades’ of Latvia

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In January 1991, more than half a million people protested in Riga, the capital city of Latvia. They wanted to stop Soviet troops taking over importan...

Tamoxifen: Breast cancer ‘wonder drug’

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The story of how tamoxifen went from a failed contraceptive pill, to being used to prevent and treat breast cancer around the world. It was the first ...

Creating the first emoji

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1999, Japanese software developer Shigetaka Kurita created the first emoji. The umbrella was one of 176 original images, featuring weather, transpo...

When disposable nappies were invented

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1947, after the birth of her third child, Valerie Hunter Gordon, from Surrey decided she was sick of the drudgery of cloth nappies. She came up wit...

Inventing Rubik’s Cube

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1974, a Hungarian architect, Ernő Rubik invented his very popular puzzle. Nearly 50 years later, more than 450 million Rubik’s Cubes have been s...

Invention of the ballpoint pen

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1938, László Bíró, a Hungarian journalist, invented the ballpoint pen, because he was sick of smudging the ink from his fountain pen.Inspired b...