Witness History

In 1956, the two largest US parties agreed to participate for the first time in a televised debate ahead of the presidential elections. But instead of incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson, the audience watched two female representatives defending their candidates. Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Margaret Chase Smith took the stage to...

On 8 August 1974, Richard Nixon became the first US president in history to resign from office, following the Watergate scandal. This scandal began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in 1972, which was linked to Nixon’s re-election campaign. The release of tapes from within the White House, dubbed the Nixon Tapes, revealed Nixon’s invo...

In 1979, the Moral Majority was launched and changed the course of US politics. It was set up to promote family values by religious conservatives from Catholic, Jewish and evangelical Christian communities. It urged Protestants, in particular, to go against the tradition of separating politics and religion. It encouraged them to vote Republican. Richard Viguerie was one of the driving forces behin...

The US presidential election of 2000 was one of the closest and most contested in history. It was more than a month before the result was decided after a Supreme Court decision. It all came down to the vote in Florida, where irregularities and technical problems added to the confusion. In the end it's thought there were just a few hundred votes in it but the result still divides opinion. Callie Sh...

Pete Souza was Chief Official White House Photographer during Barack Obama's presidency. His photo from when Bin Laden was killed by US soldiers in 2011 has become one of his most famous. He tells Uma Doraiswamy what that day was like leading up to the moment when he took the photo. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to...

In 2014, the ice bucket challenge craze took over the internet. Millions of people including sports stars and celebrities filmed themselves being doused in ice cold water for charity. Nancy Frates' son Pete helped to make the ice bucket challenge become a phenomenon. Nancy tells Gill Kearsley the poignant story of how the challenge went from a simple idea to world news. Eye-witness accounts brough...

A warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners - this programme contains the names of people who have died. Nearly 60 years ago, a group of university students set out on a bus to challenge the discrimination of Australia’s indigenous people. Led by Sydney University’s first indigenous undergraduate, Charles Perkins, they toured north-western New South Wales highlighting the public...

In 1998, brown bears were declared a protected species in Bulgaria and the ancient tradition of forcing them to dance for people's entertainment became illegal. A veterinarian called Dr Amir Khalil helped establish a bear sanctuary in the country, to look after the retired animals. In this programme, first broadcast in 2018, he spoke to Farhana Haider. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archi...

When Islamic State (IS) militants took control of Syria and Iraq in June 2014, the entire Yazidi population in Sinjar were immediately in grave danger. The Sunni Muslims of IS believed Yazidis were infidels and should either convert to Islam or be killed. On 3 August 2014, 5,000 Yazidis were killed on the first day of the genocide. For those who survived that night, the only escape route was to cl...

In 1983, punk rock was strictly forbidden in East Berlin. However, that didn’t stop young music obsessive Mark Reeder, from Manchester in the UK, smuggling cassettes, and then a punk band across the Berlin Wall. Mark shares how he arranged for the West German band, Die Toten Hosen, to perform illegally at a secret concert in a church. This episode was produced by Paul Hanford and Rosalie Delaney....

In 1974, Ghana pioneered a new system which would help in the roll-out of the immunisation of serious diseases across Africa and the rest of the world. The World Health Organisation chose the country to trial its cold chain system, to help keep vaccines for often deadly diseases refrigerated. It would later evolve into the storage systems used to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. Justice Baidoo mee...

More than 10,000 Russian workers built the first line of the Moscow Metro which opened in 1935 to great fanfare. The spectacular stations were designed to show the world the power and possibility of Russian strength. Stalin wanted architects to design stations to be 'palaces for the people', with statues and structures built to make people look up and admire the marble walls, high ceilings and gra...

At the London 2012 Olympics, the Somali sprinter Zamzam Farah became a crowd favourite after finishing last in her 400m heat by 27 seconds. Zamzam had grown up in war-torn Mogadishu, where she had to dodge violence while training on the so-called ‘Road of Death’. She competed with her body fully covered, but, after the Olympics, her family in Somalia received death threats because of what Al-Shaba...

After being designed in one night, Shuss, the cartoon skier, debuted at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France. Instead of ‘mascot’, the Olympic Organising Committee referred to it as a ‘character’ at the time. In the colours of the French flag, Shuss was available as a variety of souvenirs. Megan Jones speaks to one manufacturer of Shuss merchandise, André Thiennot. Eye-witness accounts brough...

The last time Paris held the Olympic Games was 100 years ago in 1924. More than 3,000 athletes from 44 nations took part, of which only 135 were women, in 17 sports. Rachel Naylor goes through the BBC archive for interviews with two British medallists - the sprinter Harold Abrahams and the tennis player Kitty Godfree. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fa...

In the 1990s, Ayia Napa, in Cyprus, went from quiet fishing village to party resort. The Kool Club was one of the first nightclubs to open in 1995. Rachel Naylor speaks to founder and DJ Nick Power, the 'godfather of Ayia Napa'. 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...

Between 1963 and 1974, more than 2,000 people in Cyprus went missing during clashes, a coup and the Turkish invasion. Only about half of them have been found. Rachel Naylor speaks to Nick Neokleous, the President of the Organisation of Relatives of Missing Cypriots, whose brother, Pavlos, went missing in 1974. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated...

In April 2003, the people of Cyprus were allowed to cross the ceasefire line for the first time in 29 years. Hundreds of people rushed to the check points and queued for hours to visit the homes they had left after the Greek coup and Turkish invasion of July 1974. Greek Cypriots made up the great majority of those displaced, often fleeing under fire with nothing but the clothes they had on. Singer...

On the 20 July 1974, a young pilot was preparing to land passenger flight CY317 into Nicosia Airport in Cyprus, amidst the threat of an imminent Turkish invasion. From the air, he could see warships approaching the island. Little did he know that his aircraft would be the final one to land there, it would be destroyed within hours, and the airport remains frozen in time to this day.   Fifty years...

On 15 July 1974, the Greek military dictatorship in Athens sponsored a coup on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, aiming to overthrow its selected president and unite the island with Greece. Days later, Turkey invaded the island, taking a third of it and displacing many thousands of its inhabitants. The writer Bekir Azgun grew up in the village of Potamia, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots...

Like many young children growing up in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s, Dilma Mendes had one dream: to play football for her country. There was just one problem. It was illegal for women in Brazil to play football at that time, a law that came into force in 1941 - and lasted nearly 40 years. Dilma lost count of the amount of times she was arrested and taken to the police station for playing football...

In September 1988, protests broke out in Manfredonia, Italy, after the arrival of a large ship carrying toxic waste of Italian origin. The Deep Sea Carrier had arrived from Nigeria, after a protracted diplomatic dispute between Italy and Nigeria. For four days, the town was completely shut down and by the end of the protests, an environmental movement was born. The Deep Sea Carrier and another shi...

On 2 October 1968, thousands of students protested in Mexico City, 10 days before the Olympics. The students wanted the government to free political prisoners and respect their right to protest. More than 4,000 activists came to the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the capital's Tlatelolco district that evening. It resulted in Mexican soldiers opening fire on the protesters. The death toll has never...

In January 1990, Cuban singer Celia Cruz, known as ‘the Queen of Salsa’, went back to Cuba. Banned by Fidel Castro for opposing his regime, it was the only time in her 43 years of exile that she was able to visit the island. She was invited to sing in the US naval base on Guantanamo Bay. The trip only lasted a day and a half, but it was full of touching moments and symbolisms. Omer Pardillo Cid, C...

In 2006, Dutch engineer Fred van der Weij invented a kitchen device that changed the way many of us cook today: the air fryer. Fred’s first prototype was nearly as big as a dog kennel and made of wood and aluminium, with a chicken wire basket. It was only a partial success. But Fred was certain he could make the machine work thanks to an idea he patented called rapid air technology. Four years lat...