The History Hour

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...

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 acco...

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 wh...

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 Howa...

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 edi...

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 Jervie...

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 i...

Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service. These include memories of the horsemeat scandal of 2013 from the man who uncovered what was happening. We'll hear analysis of other historical food scandals from expert Professor Saskia van Ruth. Plus the last passenger off the plane, which landed on the Hudson river in 2009, shares his story....

Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service. You'll hear the story of how a marine biologist made a shocking discovery finding small bits of plastics floating thousands of miles of the east coast of America. Then, marine biologist Christine Figgener talks about the history of oceans. Also, the world's first transatlantic concert, a disput...

Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service. You'll hear the story of how a protest led by the punk band Pussy Riot in one of Moscow's main cathedrals led to a trial which made the news inside Russia and around the world. Then, historian Robert Service talks about other examples of rebellion, from the time of the Russian empire through to...

Stories about the history of food, including the creation of ciabatta bread by a rally driver in Italy in 1982 and the Maltese bakers' strike in 1977. Also, the invention of instant noodles in Japan, the start of the Slow Food Movement in Rome and the creation of Chicken Manchurian in India. (Photo: Different shaped artisan bread loaves. Credit: Getty Images) Contributors: Marco Vianello - baker a...

Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service. Sir Trevor McDonald reflects on the BBC's first black producer, Una Marson, and her legacy in the development of the BBC Caribbean Service. Also, how the BBC managed to broadcast through the Iron Curtain, Colombia's false positives scandal and the incredible rescue of 33 miners trapped in Chile...

The forced removal of families who weren't white from District Six, in Cape Town, by the South African apartheid regime and the man who jumped from space back to earth. Also, stories about a Soviet fashionista, the Nazi occupation of Jersey and the Mongolia Revolution. (Photo: District Six, circa 1969, in Cape Town. Credit: Getty Images) Contributors: Zahra Nordien - who was forced out of District...

Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service. We go to Quebec in 1995 when voters went to the polls to decide whether the province should declare independence from Canada. Tim Marshall, the author of The Power of Geography and presenter of the World Service podcast, The Compass, explores other referendums which have taken place in recent h...

Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service. We hear from a man who was aged six when he was among the Japanese families expelled from his island home, as it was taken over by the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Our guest is Professor Haruko Satoh from Osaka University who analyses recent Japan-Russian relations and the impact of...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Malaysia's Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, recounts being put on trial for sodomy and corruption. Our guest is the BBC's South East Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, who tells us about Malaysian political history. Iran's first women's minister describes the challenges she had to overcome. We hear...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes, which focus on the Arabian Peninsula to mark the start of the football World Cup in Qatar. Our guest is Dr Wafa Alsayed, Lecturer in Political Science and History at the Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait. We hear about how the states across the peninsula won independence, and speak to...

A collection of Witness History episodes, presented by Max Pearson. We look at how racism led to raids in the 1970s and protests in the 1980s in New Zealand, and the assassination of Pim Fortyn. In New Zealand in the 1970s, dawn raids targeted Polynesian migrants who had overstayed their work permits. In response, the community formed a resistance group, the Polynesian Panthers, in June 1971. Prof...

A collection of Witness History episodes, looking at how young men in Africa have been exploited through football and and sex-selective abortion in India. Presented by Max Pearson. For millions of gamers all over the world Tonton Zola Moukoko is a cult hero. The Swedish-Congolese footballer found fame as a brilliant player in the computer game series Championship Manager. But in the real world, th...

A collection of Witness History episodes, this week focusing on global events where women have taken a stand for equality from Sudan to Iran and Australia. In Iran in 1979, Islamic rules about how women dressed were just one of the issues women objected to during the Iranian revolution. The BBC's Rana Rahimpour discusses the protests currently taking place in Iran triggered by the death of Mahsa A...

A collection of the latest Witness History programmes which are all about Cuba. Presented by Max Pearson, who speaks to boxing journalist Steve Bunce about the nation's great boxers. Earlier this year, Cuba lifted the ban on professional boxing, which Fidel Castro imposed in 1962. Rachel Naylor speaks to Mike ‘The Rebel’ Perez, who escaped in 2007 after being rewarded with a fizzy drink and two sn...

A collection of the latest Witness History programmes, presented by Max Pearson. We look at moments from around the world when workers took industrial action in pursuit of better conditions from geisha in Japan to tortured wig factory workers in South Korea. This programme contains descriptions of torture. Disney cartoonists went on strike for nine weeks in 1941. They were led by Art Babbitt, Disn...

A collection of this week's Witness History programmes, presented by Max Pearson. The guest is Dr Emily Zobel Marshall. She explains the rise of festivals around the world celebrating Caribbean culture. In 1962, Nigerian man Phil Magbotiwan opened a brand new nightclub in Manchester, UK. In part because of his own personal experiences of racism, Phil wanted to create somewhere where everyone would...

A collection of this week's Witness History programmes, presented by Max Pearson. The guest is Nicholas Smith, author of "Kicks: The Great American Story of Sneakers" and Presenter of the BBC's "Sneakernomics" podcast. He explains how footwear revolutionised sport and became high-fashion. In 1948, two brothers from a small German town called Rudi and Adi Dassler created the sportswear firms Puma a...

We look at some of the broadcasts delivered by Queen Elizabeth II including her first radio address to the children of the Commonwealth on 13 October 1940. Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond looks back on the Queen's significant moments in front of a microphone. Pope Paul VI's first visit to Africa when he travelled to Uganda in 1969, and was hosted by an Ismaili Muslim family and the star...