The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. This week’s programmes are all about the history of footwear. First we take a trip back to the 1960’s when Brazilians were introduced to a new type of footwear, which went on to become one of the country’s biggest exports. Plus the story of how a then rookie basketball player called Michael Jordan...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. This week, we hear how nuclear testing changed politics in French Polynesia. Plus, the story of how the FBI caught Ana Montes, the spy known as the ‘Queen of Cuba’. We also talk to Jewish and Palestinian people about the moment the state of Israel was proclaimed in 1948. Finally, we tell the unlik...

This week, how more than one billion people living in India were given a unique digital ID during the world's largest biometric project. The Aadhaar scheme was launched in 2009 but it wasn't without controversy. Our guest, digital identity expert Dr Edgar Whitley, tells us about the history of ID schemes around the world. Plus, the Spanish doctor whose pioneering surgery helped millions of people...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. This week we hear the story of Rogelio Goiburu, who has dedicated his life to finding the victims of Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship in Paraguay, including the remains of his own father. Our expert Dr Francesca Lessa talks about other enforced disappearances in South America. Plus, we hear about...

It’s been thirty years since the first fully democratic elections in South Africa, which saw the African National Congress take power in 1994. But two years before that historic moment, white South Africans had to vote in a referendum that would decide whether or not to usher in a multi-racial government. We hear from President FW de Klerk’s then communications officer about how they helped “close...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. It’s 10 years since the world’s deadliest outbreak of Ebola started in West Africa. We hear from a survivor and discuss the legacy of the epidemic with the BBC's global health reporter Tulip Mazumdar. Plus, the first World War Two battalion to be led by an African-American woman. Major Charity Ada...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. It's 30 years since Edvard Munch’s painting, The Scream, was stolen from the national gallery in Oslo, Norway. We hear from the man who helped to recover it. Our expert guest is historian and author, Susan Ronald, who explores the history of art heists in the 20th century. Plus, a first hand accou...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. It has been 50 years since Abba won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, so we're exploring Swedish history. Also in 1974, Sweden became the first country in the world to offer paid parental leave that was gender neutral. One father who took the leave tells us about this pioneering policy. We hear fr...

It's 75 years since the founding of Nato. In 1949, a group of 12 countries formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to block the expansion of the Soviet Union. Professor Sten Rynning, the author of Nato: From Cold War to Ukraine, talks about some of the most significant moments in Nato's history. It's 30 years since the beginning of the Rwandan genocide. We hear from one of the survivors, Ant...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. To mark 50 years since the discovery of the Terracotta Army, we're exploring modern Chinese history. We hear from the man who helped to modernise the Chinese language by creating a new writing system. It's called Pinyin and it used the Roman alphabet to help simplify Chinese characters into words....

First, we go back to 1992, when off the coast of Ireland, a Swiss geology student accidentally discovered the longest set of footprints made by the first four-legged animals to walk on earth. They pointed to a new date for the key milestone in evolution, when the first amphibians left the water 385 million years ago. Dr Frankie Dunn, who is a senior researcher in palaeobiology at the Oxford Univer...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We first hear about Uruguay’s tale of David v Goliath - when a tobacco giant took South America's second-smallest country to court over its anti-smoking laws. Uruguay’s former public health minister María Julia Muñoz describes the significance of the ban and its fallout. And we shed some light on...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We first hear about a bloodless war between Denmark and Canada, that involved whisky. In 1984, the two nations were disputing the ownership of the tiny Hans Island, just off the coast of Greenland. It might be the friendliest territorial dispute ever. We hear from Tom Hoyem and Alan Kessel, politi...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the famous ski resort, Whistler Blackcomb. In 2003, the venue won its bid to host the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. Hugh Smythe, known as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Whistler, has been sharing his memories of the mountain. We also have former Winter Olympian and BBC p...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the Juliet Club in Verona, Italy. The club has been replying to mail addressed to Shakespeare’s tragic heroine, Juliet since the early 1990s. Professor Lisa Bitel talks about the traditions of Valentine’s Day. Plus, how the small Irish town of Gort became known as ‘Little Brazil’ bec...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service telling stories about inspirational black women. In 1973, the Battle of Versailles pit up-and-coming American designers using black models against the more traditional French. We hear from Bethann Hardison, one of those black models, about how the capital of couture, Paris, became the stage for thi...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about Cyberia - the first commercial internet café which opened in London in 1994. Director of the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, Professor Vicki Nash, talks us through other notable landmarks in the internet’s history. Plus how the Covid N95 mask was invented by a...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service all about figures branded as traitors. In 1939 Wang Jingwei, once a national hero in China, signed an agreement with Japanese invaders which made his name synonymous with the word ‘Hanjian’, a traitor to China. But Pan Chia-sheng’s memories of living under Wang Jingwei’s government in Nanjing tell...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We’re going wild for animals this week. We find out how the Ibadan Zoo became one of Nigeria’s biggest tourist attractions during the 1970s. Our guest Harriet Ritvo, professor of history at MIT, looks back across the centuries to reveal the fascination that humans have always had for animals. And...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise gay marriage. Four couples were chosen to take part in a collective wedding at midnight which was broadcast on TV. Hélène Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus talk about the wedding they thought they'd never have. Our guest Lauren Moss, the LGBT...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Barbara Waibel, author of a book on the Hindenburg and Director of Archives at the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany. She tells us about the history of airships. We begin with some remarkable archive of the Hindenburg airship disaster in 1937. Then British scientist Jonathan...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. This week, we look at the disputed history of pad Thai with food writer Chawadee Nualkhair. We also hear from former fruit exporter Don Turner on why his family changed the name of the Chinese gooseberry to the kiwi fruit. Our expert guest is food historian, Prof Katarzyna Cwiertka, who highlights...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. This week, we hear from Lumepa Hald who survived the devastating tsunami that hit Samoa in 2009 but suffered a tragic loss. Our expert guest, Prof Tiziana Rossetto, looks back at some of the worst tsunamis in history and how they have shaped our landscapes. Plus we talk to Caster Semenya, the gold...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Ongama Mtimka, lecturer in South African politics at the Nelson Mandela University. He tells us about Mandela's life and legacy 10 years on from his death. We start with with Mandela's daughter, Makaziwe, describing her relationship with her father and planning his funeral. Then, t...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about two of the most influential computer games of the 1990s with their creators. John Romero was one of the developers of Doom and talks about the concept of a martian military base populated by zombie soldiers. Coder Jan Tian describes how his devotion to working on the football game FI...