Witness History
BBC World Service
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.
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 28, 2023 • 9min
Sampoong department store disaster
On 29 June 1995, the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea, collapsed due to structural failures.The disaster killed 502 people and injured more than 900. It provoked national outrage as the building's construction was riddled with corruption and malpractice.Sun Minh Lee was working at the shop that day. She speaks to Ben Henderson.(Photo: Sampoong Department Store after the collapse. Credit: Choo Youn-Kong/AFP/Getty Images)
Jun 27, 2023 • 11min
First reports of Ebola
In 1976 in a small Belgian missionary hospital in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire, people were dying from an unknown disease which caused a high temperature and vomiting. It was the first documented outbreak of Ebola the virus.About 300 people died. Dr Jean Jacques Mueyembe and Dr David Heymann worked to bring the outbreak under control. Claire Bowes spoke to them in this programme first broadcast in 2009.(Photo: Residents who were being examined during the Ebola outbreak in Zaire in 1976. Credit: Public domain/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Jun 26, 2023 • 10min
JFK’s Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech
United States President John F Kennedy gave a speech in Berlin at the height of the Cold War on 26 June 1963.It galvanised the world in support of West Berliners who had been isolated by the construction of the Berlin Wall. Tom Wills speaks to Gisela Morel-Tiemann, who attended the speech as a student. A Whistledown production for BBC World Service.(Photo: John F Kennedy making his speech in Berlin. Credit: Lehnartz/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Jun 23, 2023 • 10min
My dad played golf on the moon
Alan Shepard played golf on the moon in 1971.He became the first and only person to enjoy the sport on the lunar surface.The astronaut golfer’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley was inspired by her father’s big journeys and later travelled to space herself, although she didn’t pack golf clubs.Tricia Penrose hears Laura’s recollections of life with her father and his unique sporting space trip. A Moon Road production for BBC World Service.(Photo: Alan Shepard on the moon. Credit: NASA)
Jun 22, 2023 • 9min
The Empire Windrush arrives
The Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in England on 22 June 1948 with 802 people on board from the Caribbean.The former passenger liner's arrival on that misty June day is now regarded as the symbolic starting point of a wave of Caribbean migration between 1948 and 1971 known as the "Windrush generation".Sam King was one of the passengers. He describes to Alan Johnston the conditions on board and the concerns people had about finding jobs in England. In this programme first broadcast in 2011, Sam also talks about what life was like in their adopted country once they arrived.(Photo: Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks in 1948. Credit: Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images)
Jun 21, 2023 • 9min
Anti-gay police raid at Tasty nightclub
In the early hours of 7 August 1994, police raided Tasty, a gay nightclub in downtown Melbourne, Australia.
On the hunt for drugs they strip-searched more than 450 people in a raid that lasted hours.
Many people felt what happened was homophobic and that the police had abused their powers. Some of those searched took legal action. Damages were awarded and years later Victoria Police gave a formal apology.
Gary Singer who was in Tasty when the raid happened and was the organiser of the class-action lawsuit tells Alex Collins about how his night out on the town went from joy to despair once the police entered the club.(Photo: People being searched by police in Tasty)
Jun 20, 2023 • 12min
The Somali pilot ordered to bomb his own country
At the end of May 1988, rebels from the Somali National Movement launched a series of lightning attacks on cities in northern Somalia - the area that today is the self-declared republic of Somaliland.
The rebels were fighting against the military dictatorship of President Siad Barre. By the start of June, they had taken control of most of Hargeisa, the biggest city in the north.
Government forces fell back to Hargeisa airport and other areas on the outskirts and were ordered to begin the indiscriminate bombardment of the city.
At the time Ahmed Mohamed Hassan was a fighter pilot in the Somali air force. He now faced a choice: join other pilots in bombing the city or refuse and face the prospect of being shot. He’s been talking to Rob Walker.
(Photo: Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in 2023. Credit: Ahmed Mohamed Hassan)
Jun 19, 2023 • 9min
Uprising in East Germany
East German workers went on strike in protest at Soviet rule on 16 June 1953.Demonstrations spread throughout the country but were soon crushed by communist troops. Martial law followed. In 2011, Nina Robinson spoke to Helmut Strecker who was a 21-year-old student and the son of communist party supporters. Helmut was on the streets of East Berlin trying to persuade marchers to go home.(Photo: East Germany demonstrators march through Brandenburg Gate. Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images)
Jun 16, 2023 • 10min
Ming Smith makes history at MoMA
In 1979, The Museum of Modern Art, (MoMA) purchased photographs from an African-American woman for the first time in its history. Ming Smith was famous for capturing her subjects with slow shutter speeds and using oil paints to layer colour onto her black and white photos.She worked as a model in New York in the 1970s, while pursuing her passion for photography and was friends with Grace Jones.Ming took a powerful image of Grace performing at the iconic Studio 54 nightclub in 1978 after meeting her at an audition. Ming was also a backing dancer in Tina Turner’s music video for What’s Love Got to Do with It, where she captured Tina glancing away from the camera, in front of Brooklyn Bridge wearing a leather skirt, denim jacket and patent stilettos with huge spiky hair. Ming speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about graduating with a degree in microbiology, modelling and struggling to make a living, and then becoming a famous photographer with a retrospective at MoMA in 2023. (Photo: Tina Turner, What’s Love Got to Do with It. Credit: Ming Smith)
Jun 15, 2023 • 10min
Sir Don McCullin’s photo of a US marine
In 1968, British photographer Sir Don McCullin travelled to Vietnam for his second ever war assignment. His graphic photographs of the fighting made his reputation and influenced public opinion in the West.Sir Don produced some of his most powerful work during the visit including 'Shell-Shocked US Marine, The Battle of Hue'.The photograph shows an American soldier, gripping his rifle whilst the carnage of one of the war’s most intense battle surrounds him.Speaking to Louise Hidalgo in 2012, Sir Don describes how he took several frames of this man and how the soldier didn’t blink once. (Photo: Sir Don McCullin in front of his photographs including 'Shell-Shocked US Marine, The Battle of Hue'. Credit: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)
