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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  •  
The signing of the Treaty of Versailles
Yesterday
Yesterday
9 mins
Civil rights swim-in
June 18
June 18
10 mins
Charleston church shooting
June 17
June 17
8 mins
'Tripperburgen' the sexual health clinics that detained women
June 16
June 16
10 mins
The Schengen Agreement
June 13
June 13
10 mins
Ronald Reagan’s ‘Tear down this wall’ speech
June 12
June 12
10 mins
Lonesome George: The celebrity tortoise
June 11
June 11
10 mins
The woman born in a prisoner of war camp
June 10
June 10
10 mins
World War Two’s Rome escape line
June 9
June 9
10 mins