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Witness History

BBC World Service
Daily podcast. Next episode today.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest, the disastrous D-Day rehearsal, and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

2000 episodes  •  0 archived  •  
Yesterday
Yesterday
10 mins
January 1
January 1
9 mins
Dec 31, 2025
Dec 31, 2025
10 mins
Dec 30, 2025
Dec 30, 2025
9 mins
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Dec 29, 2025
10 mins
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Dec 25, 2025
9 mins
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Dec 24, 2025
10 mins

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