The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about Vietnam's manicure godfather, how Bengaluru became India's Silicon Valley and how the first ever photograph from a mobile phone was sent.Plus, the popularity of theoretical physicist Prof Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, and the windmill that revolutionised wind power.Contributors:Tuong Vu - Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon. Kien Nguyen - Wife of Minh Nguyen. Narayana Murthy - Founder of Infosys. Philippe Kahn - Software engineer and owner of world's first mobile phone photo. Peter Guzzardi - Publisher and editor. Britta Jensen - Teacher. (Photo: Minh and Kien Nguyen outside beauty school in California. Credit: Kien Nguyen)

Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories about the history of film and cinema from around the world, including the longest running film in Indian cinema, the man who lived in an airport for 18 years and the ambitious release of the orca from the movie, Free Willy.Plus, the real life escape from Alcatraz and the incredible story of Vietnamese movie star, Kieu Chinh.Contributors:Dr Ranita Chatterjee - Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of Exeter. Kajol - Indian actress. Kieu Chinh - Vietnamese actress. Andrew Donkin - Biographer of Mehran Karimi Nasseri. Jolene Babyak - Lived on Alcatraz Island. Dave Phillips - Founder of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.(Photo: People queuing for DDLJ in Mumbai. Credit: Getty Images)

A compilation of stories marking the 20th anniversary of the American led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Caroline Hawley, who was the Baghdad correspondent for the BBC at the time, speaks to Max Pearson about reporting on Iraq. Contributors:Lubna Naji - schoolgirl in Baghdad when the war broke out. Yasir Dhannoon - became a refugee when he fled Iraq. General Vincent Brooks - first revealed the playing cards to help US troops identify the most-wanted members of Saddam Hussein's government. Muwafaq al Rubaie - was asked to help to identify Saddam Hussein after he was captured. Banwal Baba Dawud - brother to Ammo Baba.(Photo: US Marines help Iraqis take down a Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad. Credit: RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP via Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories celebrating women who made history including a ground-breaking, African American science fiction writer and the first presidential hopeful in Mexico. Plus the UN's first ever all-female peacekeeping unit, a woman who helped bring peace to Northern Ireland and a child goddess in Nepal.Contributors:Dr Brenda Stevenson - Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women’s History at St John’s College, Oxford University. Nisi Shawl - friend of Octavia Butler. Rosario Piedra - daughter of Rosario Ibarra. Nick Caistor - journalist. Seema Dhundia - member of India’s Central Reserve Police Force. Lesley Pruitt - author of The Women in Blue Helmets. Monica McWilliams - one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement. Chanira Bajrycharya - former child goddess in Nepal.(Photo: March for International Women's Day in Mexico City in 2023. Credit: Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Uta Rautenberg from the University of Warwick in the UK, an expert on homophobia in Nazi camps.Rudolf Brazda recounts his experience of being a gay man in a Nazi concentration camp, symbolised by the pink triangle he was forced to wear on his uniform. Then, we hear first-hand accounts of the Indigenous American protest at Wounded Knee 50 years ago, and the assassination of Serbia's Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic, in 2003. We finish with two lighter stories: the world's most remote museum on the island of South Georgia and the first ever underwater sculpture park in the Caribbean.Contributors: Dr Uta Rautenberg - University of Warwick. Rudolf Brazda - Nazi concentration camp survivor. Russell Means - former National Director of the American Indian Movement. Gordana Matkovic - former Serbian cabinet minister. Jan Cheek - South Georgia Museum trustee. Jason deCaires Taylor - creator of Grenadian underwater sculpture park.(Photo: Marchers carry a pink triangle at a Gay Pride event in London. Credit: Steve Eason/Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Philippe Sands, Professor of the Public Understanding of Law at University College London, who tells us about the history of ethnic tensions in Mauritius. The programme begins with Kaya a Mauritian musician whose death sparked three days of rioting. Then, we hear from John Huckstep who was interned by the Japanese when living in China during World War Two. In the second half of the programme, we tell the story of how Semtex was invented, and the debate about where the German capital should be after reunification. Finally, the man who made the Queen appear to jump out of a helicopter tells us how he did it, with the help of corgis, a clothesline, the Queen's dresser and of course James Bond.Contributors: Veronique Topize - Kaya's widow. Cassam Uteem - Former President of Mauritius. Phillippe Sands - Professor of the Public Understanding of Law at University College London. Jurgen Nimptsch - Former Mayor of Bonn. Wolfgang Schauble - Member of German Bundestag. John Huckstep - Held as a child at an interment camp in China. Stanislav Brebera - Brother of chemist who invented Semtex. Frank Cottrell-Boyce - Writer.(Photo: Mural of Kaya. Credit: BBC)

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Ilaria Favretto, Affiliate Professor at Kingston University in London, who tells us about the history of workers' protests across Europe.The programme begins with a former union leader describing Italy's 'Hot Autumn' of 1969 when protests erupted. Then, we hear the archaeologist Howard Carter's remarkable account of opening the burial chamber of Tutankhamun, the Egyptian Pharaoh, 100 years ago.In the second half of the programme, we hear about the creation of Pokémon, and the coronation of Denmark's first Queen in 600 years. Finally, an American woman tells us how she became a Muay Thai boxing champion.Contributors: Ilaria Favretto - Affiliate Professor at Kingston University in London. Renzo Baricelli - Italian union leader. Howard Carter - British archaeologist. Akihito Tomisawa - Pokémon developer. Kjeld Olesen - Danish politician. Sylvie Von Duuglas-Ittu - Muay Thai boxer.

It has been 10 years since Pope Benedict XVI announced his shock resignation. It was the first time in almost 600 years that a pope had stepped down.In this programme, we hear stories about the history of the papacy, including how a pope is chosen, the inception of Vatican II and what happens when a pope dies.Contributors:Giovanna Chirri - former Ansa journalist Catherine Pepinster - former editor of Catholic newspaper, The Tablet Cormac Murphy-O'Connor - Cardinal John Strynkowski - Monsignor Beniamino Stella - Cardinal Don Davide Tisato - former professional footballer Felice Alborghetti - journalist from the Centro Sportivo Italiano(Photo: Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Credit: Getty Images)

The launch of the first black music station in Europe - the Dread Broadcasting Corporation in London in 1981 - and why Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.Plus the assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye, the Columbia space shuttle disaster and the bombing of the Palestine Post.Contributors:Michael Williams - former DBC station manager Carmella Jervier - DJ Dr Caroline Mitchell - Professor of Radio at the University of Sunderland Jean-Marie Ngendahayo - former minister in Burundi Václav Klaus - former prime minister of the Czech Republic Vladimír Mečiar - former prime minister of Slovakia Mordechai Chertoff - former foreign editor of the Palestine Post Admiral Hal Gehman - Chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board(Photo: Radio Caroline Pirate Radio ship. Credit: Getty Images)

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Chiara Sangiorgio, Death Penalty Adviser at Amnesty International, who tells us about the history of the death penalty and its effectiveness. The programme begins with two perspectives on capital punishment: Yoshikuni Noguchi recounts his time as a prison guard on death row in Japan in the 1970s; then we hear archive recordings of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's most famous hangman. Poland's former-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, describes how close he came to death in the 2010 Smolensk air disaster, in which the country's President was killed. Paul McLoone, the frontman of The Undertones, a punk-rock band, tells the bizarre story of how he became the broadcasting voice of IRA commander Martin McGuinness when the organisation was banned from British airwaves in 1988. Finally, Karlheinz Brandenburg explains how he revolutionised the way we listen to music through his invention of the MP3. Contributors:Chiara Sangiorgio - Death Penalty Adviser at Amnesty International Yoshikuni Noguchi - Japanese death row prison guard. Albert Pierrepoint - British executioner. Radosław Sikorski - former-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland. Paul McCloone - band member of The Undertones and the voice of Martin McGuinness. Karlheinz Brandenburg - inventor of the MP3.(Photo: Nooses. Credit: Rebecca Redmond/EyeEm via Getty Images)