The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Jean H. Lee, an American journalist who has covered both North and South Korea extensively. Jean is also the co-host of the BBC World Service podcast, The Lazarus Heist. She tells us more about the relationship between the two countries. The programme begins with the historic meeting...

Max Pearson presents a collection of Witness History stories from the BBC World Service, this week we are focusing on Irish history. In 2006, Ireland’s economic boom, known as the Celtic Tiger, ended. It meant thousands of people, like Michelle Burke, were left devastated as house construction stopped. In 1959, Tralee, in Ireland, hosted a festival to promote the town and build Irish connections a...

A compilation of this week's Witness History episodes. Gerald Clarke, the author of Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, speaks to Max Pearson about the legacy of the stage and screen actress who died in 1969. We also look at how a chance encounter led to the return of two of the looted Benin Bronzes, ancient artworks which were among thousands stolen from Benin City by the British Army in 1897. A...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories from the BBC World Service. Journalist Claude Angeli discovered French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing received diamonds from a depraved African emperor, which contributed to him losing the presidential election in 1981. How Bosnia’s small Jewish community helped people from all sides of the conflict, during the siege of S...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about a prehistoric discovery in India - a nest full of dinosaur eggs found in 1982. Plus, why a Mongolian dinosaur skeleton became the centre of a 2012 court battle in a case known as United States V One Tyrannosaurus Bataar. Our guest, palaeobiologist Neil Gostling reveals how newly-unco...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Ozoz Sokoh, Nigerian food writer and author of the Kitchen Butterfly food blog, who tells us about the history of West African food. The programme begins with the story of Mr Bigg's, Nigeria's answer to McDonald's. Then, we hear about the 1960 coup against the Emperor of Ethiopia, Hai...

Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories from this week’s Witness History episodes. In the autumn of 1945, World War II surrender ceremonies took place across the Japanese Empire. Thousands of people watched the incredible moment Japanese generals handed over their swords in China's Forbidden City in Beijing. Historian James Holland, talks about the ritual and significance of a surrender. Als...

Max Pearson presents a selection of this week’s Witness History stories. In 1999, Aibo: the world's first robot dog, hit the shops in Japan and sold out in just 20 minutes. We hear from Toshitada Doi who spent six years on the project when he worked at Sony. Plus we hear from Dr Ella Haig about the development of artificial intelligence. Japanese software developer Shigetaka Kurita created the fir...

Max Pearson presents a selection of this week’s Witness History stories. In 1972, tourists arrived in the Maldives for the first time. We hear from one of the people who made it happen, plus analysis of the growth of tourism around South East Asia with Ploysri Porananond. Also, on the 75th anniversary of the National Health Service in the UK, one of the first doctors shares his experience. Lawyers...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories. In 1995, the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in the South Korean capital, Seoul, killed and injured hundreds of people. Explaining the impact it had on urban planning is Dr Youngmi Kim, senior lecturer in Korean Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Also, the speech President John F Kennedy made at the height of...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories. Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, a fighter pilot in the Somali air force defied orders to bomb civilians in 1988. Explaining more about the Somali civil war and its legacy is BBC Monitoring's regional analyst Beverly Ochieng. Also, the demonstrations in East Germany that triggered martial rule in 1953. From the archive, Sam King recall...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories. We focus on some of the world’s best known photographs - and the photographers who took them. We find out why Lee Miller was in Hitler’s bath in the dying days of World War Two; and historian Dr Pippa Oldfield discusses the women who were the pioneers of war photography. Also, Sir Don McCullin tells the story behind one of h...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History and Sporting Witness stories. We hear about the Inuit children taken away from their homes and culture, to be educated in Canadian cities. Adamie Kalingo tells his story about being placed with a foster family in Ottawa in 1964. Dr Raven Sinclair explains how Adamie’s story was part of a wider program of resettling Indigenous childre...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes focusing on Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. It's 70 years since Edmund Hillary with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first people to reach the summit of Everest in 1953. We hear about some of the earliest, tragic attempts to scale the mountain, and from those who've blazed a trail up the slopes for others...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear how a shocking photo from a Bosnian concentration camp stunned the world, what it's like to be in a tornado and the heroic clown who helped after an earthquake in Peru. Plus the 1980 military coup in Suriname and the moment in the 1960s when African de-colonisation might have led to a Unit...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the German children who were evacuated to camps in the countryside to avoid the bombs of World War Two. You may find some of the content distressing. Also we find out about the execution of Flor Contemplacion Plus the creation of the 3000 km Te Ararora trail in New Zealand, the Dambu...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the Allies' campaign in North Africa in the Second World War in 1943. Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2025, the BBC is trying to gather as many first-hand accounts from surviving veterans as possible, to preserve for future generations. Working with a numb...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the Scottish students who removed the 'Stone of Destiny' from Westminster Abbey in London. Former King Simeon II of Bulgaria explains how he went from child King to Prime Minister of his country. Also, why the body of Oliver Cromwell was dug up and executed in the UK in 1661. The son...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about Althea McNish, the Trinidadian artist who designed fabric for Queen Elizabeth II. Former Vogue editor Suzy Menkes on the success of the fashion celebration, the Met Gala. The Guatemalan Bishop, Juan Gerardi, killed in his home, after presenting the conclusions of a major investigatio...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the invention of the labradoodle, the first dog in space and how a Yorkshire terrier called Smoky became the world's first therapy dog. Author Mackenzi Lee talks about her book, The History of the World in Fifty Dogs. She discusses Napoleon Bonaparte's turbulent relationship with pug...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the unearthing of a mass grave in Sernyky, Ukraine, in 1990, and when the Boston Marathon was the target of a terror attack in 2013. This programme contains distressing details. Contributors: James Bulgin - head of public history at the Imperial War Museum in Bri...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the lengths one woman goes to to escape Eritrea, how Zumba was invented by accident and how a giant peace statue on a Japanese island, crumbled into a ghostly ruin. Plus the arguments then, and the arguments still over the Good Friday Peace Agreement for Northern Ireland, and a picni...

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 powe...

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 Ch...

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 p...