Witness History Podcast
History as told by the people who were there.
Episodes to download
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The woman who saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto
Today
Polish aid worker Irena Sendler saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto in WW2
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The Shah of Iran's party
Yesterday
In 1971, the Shah of Iran, celebrated 2,500 years of the Persian Empire
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In exile from Iran
Tuesday
Former empress Farah Pahlavi and social scientist Rouhi Shafi speak about leaving Iran
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Iran hostage crisis
Monday
In 1979, Barry Rosen was held hostage after the US embassy in Tehran was stormed
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Siegfried and Roy tiger attack
Last Friday
In 2003, illusionist Roy Horn was attacked by a tiger live on stage.
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Brazil’s electronic voting
Last Thursday
In 1996, an electronic voting system in Brazil was used for the first time
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Jean Batten: New Zealand’s record breaking aviator
Tue 29 Oct 2024
Jean Batten was nicknamed the Queen of the Skies for her pioneering flights of the 1930s
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The creation of Greenwich Mean Time
Mon 28 Oct 2024
Experiments by John Flamsteed in the 17th Century led to the time zone being created
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My dad created Dungeons & Dragons
Fri 25 Oct 2024
In 1974, Gary Gygax created the fantasy roleplay game
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Bonga Kwenda: Music banned in Angola and Portugal
Thu 24 Oct 2024
Outspoken supporter of Angolan independence, Bonga Kwenda was forced into exile in 1972
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Ethiopia's 1984 famine
Wed 23 Oct 2024
In 1984, a news report on a famine in Ethiopia led to a global fundraising campaign
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I found the first dinosaur remains in Antarctica
Tue 22 Oct 2024
In 1986, Argentinian geologist Eduardo Olivero discovered a new kind of Ankylosaurus
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The fight to stop skin lightening in India
Mon 21 Oct 2024
In 2013, Kavitha Emmanuel began campaigning to stop skin lightening in India
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Eight years trapped on the Suez Canal in Egypt
Fri 18 Oct 2024
After the Six Day War in 1967, 14 ships were stuck on the Great Bitter Lake
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Dyke and Dryden: Cosmetic kings
Thu 17 Oct 2024
In 1969, Dyke and Dryden started one the most successful black British businesses
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Fleeing Afghanistan alone as a child
Wed 16 Oct 2024
Dr Waheed Arian escaped poverty and war in Afghanistan to begin a new life in the UK
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The Rose Revolution in Georgia
Tue 15 Oct 2024
In 2003, demonstrators stormed the parliament building in Tbilisi, holding flowers
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The Sunflower Movement
Mon 14 Oct 2024
In 2014, more than 500,000 Taiwanese people protested against a new trade deal with China
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'Robocops’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Fri 11 Oct 2024
Handmade robots were installed in DRC's capital city Kinshasa to direct traffic
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How the QR code was invented
Thu 10 Oct 2024
In 1994 Japanese engineer Masahiro Hara designed a square of data, now known as a QR code
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The world's first general purpose electronic computer
Wed 9 Oct 2024
In 1946, one of the world’s first electronic computers was unveiled in the USA.
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WABOT-1: The first humanoid robot
Tue 8 Oct 2024
Scientists at Waseda University in Japan built the world's first humanoid robot in 1973
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Eliza: When chatbots started
Mon 7 Oct 2024
1966 saw the invention of Eliza, which is said to be the first chatbot
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The longest plane hijacking in Latin America
Fri 4 Oct 2024
In 1973, two men pretending to be Colombian guerrillas hijacked a plane for 60 hours
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The speech that inspired the Law of the Sea
Thu 3 Oct 2024
In November 1967, the Maltese diplomat, Arvid Pardo, gave a historic speech at the UN
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South Africa’s nuclear weapons
Wed 2 Oct 2024
In 1989, South Africa became the first country to make and then dismantle nuclear weapons
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Cambodia war crimes
Tue 1 Oct 2024
Kerry Hamill mistakenly sailed into Cambodian waters and was killed by the Khmer Rouge
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Kristallnacht: The night of broken glass
Mon 30 Sep 2024
In 1938, the Nazis launched a violent anti-Jewish attack, known as Kristallnacht
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The Estonia ferry disaster
Fri 27 Sep 2024
In 1994 the Estonia ferry sank off Finland in one of Europe's biggest shipping tragedies
