Witness History

In 1992, the late zoologist Nigel Bonner opened one of the world's most remote museums, the South Georgia Whaling Museum, on South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. Despite its isolated location, 1,400km east of the Falkland Islands, it remains open today and gets around 15,000 visitors a year. Rachel Naylor speaks to Jan Cheek, a friend of the founder and former trustee...

In 2004 Jason deCaires Taylor started building the world's first underwater gallery. He wanted to attract divers away from fragile coral reefs, so he submerged life-sized, human cement models in the Caribbean Sea. Within a few days the art was covered in purple and blue sponges, orange fire coral and green algae... and was even home to a few octopuses. Nineteen years later, Jason tells Anoushka Mu...

In 2009, Rudolf Brazda, one of the last known survivors of the Pink Triangles, returned to the former site of Buchenwald concentration camp where he’d been imprisoned during World War Two, for being gay in Nazi Germany. In never previously broadcast recordings, taped by Jean-Luc Schwab, who wrote Rudolf’s biography, we hear Rudolf’s reaction to returning as a 95-year-old man. Jean-Luc Schwab who b...

Fifty years ago, indigenous American activists staged a historic protest against the US authorities. A siege began which lasted for two months and resulted in the violent deaths of two tribal members and the injuring of a US marshal. In 2011 Russell Means, the former national director of the ‘American Indian Movement', spoke to the programme. (Photo: Russell Means in 1973. Credit: Getty Images) HI...

How did an estimated 900 million people come to witness Her Majesty the Queen apparently parachuting from a helicopter with James Bond? Frank Cottrell-Boyce who wrote the scene for the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games explains how it came about. Josephine McDermott hears how corgis, a clothes line and the Queen’s dresser all played important parts. Eye-witness accounts brought to...

Despite facing malnutrition, starvation and disease, Christopher John Huckstep's father set up a school in the Japanese internment camp where his family was sent in 1943.Herbert Huckstep ensured the 350 children of Lunghwa Civilian Assembly Centre were taught a wide range of subjects using brown paper bags to write on. The school was called Lunghwa Academy and it had its own badge, motto and certi...

In 1958, Stanislav Brebera invented Semtex. It was a malleable, odourless and stable plastic explosive which became the choice weapon for those seeking to spread terror. In 2018, Maria Jestafjeva spoke to Mirisov Brebera, the brother of the chemist who created it.(Photo: Semtex. Credit: Getty Images) HISTORICAL ARCHIVE & EVIDENCE The original photo gallery, unedited witness statements, and the...

Mauritian musician Kaya, who pioneered a new genre called seggae, fusing reggae and sega, died in police custody on 21 February 1999.His death sparked three days of rioting. People believed Kaya had been beaten to death. Veronique Topize, Kaya's widow demanded an independent autopsy and President Cassam Uteem travelled into the heart of the disorder to appeal directly to the rioters to put down th...

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany had to decide which city would be the new capital. The contenders were the West German city of Bonn and the East German city of Berlin and the two fought it out in a ferocious political battle that would help define the country. Ilona Toller hears from Bonn citizen Jürgen Nimptsch, who would later become the mayor of the city and Wolfgang Schäuble who foug...

On 17 February 1980, the first people climbed Everest in winter. John Beauchamp hears from Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki from Poland who were the men who did it. It was at the height of the Cold War, when Poland was behind the Iron Curtain. The two climbers decided that they had to show the world that their country was still capable of doing extraordinary things. Despite a lack of money and...

On 16 February 1923, the sealed burial chamber of ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaoh Tutankhamun was opened for the first time. Mike Gallagher takes us back to the Valley of the Kings and the discovery of the ancient Egyptian ruler king’s resting place in 1922 by the English archaeologist Howard Carter. This programme was first broadcast in 2010.(Photo:The opening of Tutankhamun's tomb. Credit: G...

On 27 February 1996, gamers were first introduced to characters Pikachu, Eevee, and Charmander when the first Pokémon games were released in Japan. Known as Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green, the games were released simultaneously on the Nintendo Game Boy hand-held console. In a matter of years the franchise would make the leap from an ageing games console to television animation and b...

In January 1972, King Frederick IX of Denmark died after a short illness at the age of 72. He was succeeded by his daughter Margrethe who became the first Queen of Denmark in 600 years. Watching her proclamation as Margrethe II of Denmark in the room next to the balcony of the Christiansborg Palace was the country’s former Foreign and Defence Minister Kjeld Olesen. He’s been remembering that day w...

In 1969 and 1970, thousands of workers in Italy went on strike, protesting against low pay and poor working conditions. It became known as the ‘Hot Autumn’.Renzo Baricelli represented tyre workers at the Pirelli rubber factory in Milan, one of the main centres of protest. He tells Vicky Farncombe how he had to step in when angry workers with hammers were threatening to smash up the factory.(Photo:...

On 11 February 2013, Benedict XVI shocked the world by becoming the first pope in nearly 600 years to quit. All other popes in the modern era had held the position from election until death. He said he was resigning because of old age. Little known journalist Giovanna Chirri got the world exclusive on the story. She shares her memories of that time with Matt Pintus.(Photo: Pope Benedict XVI. Credi...

In April 1986, Pope John Paul II made a historic visit to a Rome synagogue. It was aimed at healing centuries of deep wounds between Jews and Catholics. Giacomo Saban, who welcomed the pontiff to the synagogue, tells his story to Alan Johnston. This programme was first broadcast in 2014.(Photo: Pope John Paul II at the synagogue. Credit: Getty Images) HISTORICAL ARCHIVE & EVIDENCE The original...

Cardinal Albino Luciani became Pope John Paul I on 26 August 1978. He died unexpectedly 33 days later. He was discovered in the early morning lying on his bed, a collection of sermons in his hand. He was considered an excellent communicator, and his warm personality earned him the nickname of "the smiling Pope". But his death shook the Catholic Church. Rebecca Kesby spoke to Cardinal Beniamino Ste...

In January 1959, Pope John XXIII announced a council of all the world's Catholic bishops and cardinals in Rome. It led to sweeping reforms, including allowing Mass to be said in languages other than Latin and an attempt to build relationships with other denominations and faiths. But not everyone was happy with the changes. Monsignor John Strynkowski was a student priest in Rome at the time and tol...

Following the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in April 2005. He was elected after four ballots of the papal conclave. The late Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor took part and told Rebecca Kesby the story of how the new leader of the Catholic Church was chosen by 115 cardinals. This programme was first broadcast in 2013. (Photo: Pope Benedict XVI. Credit...

In 1981, Rita Marley’s brother Leroy Anderson aka Lepke launched the Dread Broadcasting Corporation (DBC), Europe’s first dedicated black music station. Frustrated by the lack of airtime for reggae music in the UK, Lepke setup a mast in his back garden and began to broadcast to a small area of West London every Sunday afternoon. DBC soon expanded to cover all styles of black music and with its unm...

In July 1993, Melchior Ndadaye became Burundi’s first democratically elected president. He was also the first president to come from the country’s Hutu majority. For decades up to that point, Burundi had been ruled by a small group of individuals drawn from the among the Tutsi minority. President Ndadaye had come to power promising a new vision for Burundi. But within months he was murdered by sol...

The US space shuttle Columbia broke up on its way back to Earth on 1 February 2003. It had been in use since 1981. Iain Mackness spoke to Admiral Hal Gehman who was given the job of finding out what went wrong. The admiral’s report led to the ending of the American space shuttle programme in 2011.A Made in Manchester production for BBC World Service first broadcast in 2019.(Photo: Space shuttle Co...

30 years ago this month, Czechoslovakia split into the separate states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was a rare instance of a state separating without a single life being lost. Thanks to this it became known as the ‘Velvet Divorce’. Rather than putting it to a vote, the country and its assets were divided behind closed doors by the Czech and Slovak leaders, Václav Klaus and Vladimír Mečia...

Mordechai Chertoff was the foreign editor on the Palestine Post (precursor to the Jerusalem Post) when it was bombed on 1 February 1948. He tells Lucy Williamson how, despite the attack, the newspaper still came out the next morning. This programme was first broadcast in 2010. (Photo: Palestine Post bombing. Credit: Getty Images) HISTORICAL ARCHIVE & EVIDENCE The original photo gallery, unedit...

Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg from Germany spent more than a decade developing MP3 technology, which was developed to convert audio into digital form. He had been working on it since 1982.It compressed music into a file size that made it easier to transmit, leading to the first MP3 players and fast music sharing. Laura Jones has been speaking to Professor Brandenburg.(Photo: Karlheinz Brandenbur...