Witness History
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.
Latest Episode
Previous Episodes
- One man’s escape from McCarthyism 19.08.2025
- Spot the Dog 18.08.2025
- Pramoedya Ananta Toer: The banned author of Indonesia 15.08.2025
- Jakarta’s ban on dancing monkeys 14.08.2025
- Discovery of the 'Hobbit' 13.08.2025
- Borobudur Temple 12.08.2025
- The Santa Cruz Massacre 11.08.2025
- 1965 Singaporean independence 08.08.2025
- Brazil’s biggest bank heist 07.08.2025
- The Assam-Tibet earthquake 06.08.2025
- When Stalin silenced Shostakovich 05.08.2025
- Nagasaki bomb 04.08.2025
- Trailer. 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle 03.08.2025
- Japan's record-breaking rollercoaster 01.08.2025
- Chuquicamata: Chile's abandoned mining town 31.07.2025
- Cleveland Balloonfest '86 30.07.2025
- Eta’s assassination of Juan Mari Jáuregui 29.07.2025
- The Russian revolutionaries nearly stranded in London 28.07.2025
- A Chorus Line 25.07.2025
- The invention of Kevlar 24.07.2025
