Witness History

In December 1995, India's parliament passed the country's first disability rights legislation. The landmark law aimed to give full participation and equality rights to an estimated 60 million people - around five percent of India's population who are affected by physical or mental disabilities. In 2015, Farhana Haider spoke to disability rights activist Javed Abidi who led the campaign to change t...

Operation Flagship was a U.S Marshals sting operation, where some of Washington DC’s most wanted fugitives, were lured to a convention centre under the pretence of having won coveted NFL tickets in December 1985. Upon their arrival, they were greeted by cheerleaders and mascots – all law enforcement officers in disguise. It led to one of America’s most successful mass arrests with more than 100 pe...

On 12 December 2015, nearly 200 countries adopted the Paris climate agreement. It legally committed countries to climate action plans, designed to stop global temperatures rising 2C above pre-industrial levels. Those commitments have influenced government policy and people's lives ever since. Christiana Figueres was head of climate negotiations at the conference. She speaks to Ben Henderson about...

Following the abolishment of Apartheid in the 1990s, South Africa had to find a way to confront its brutal past without endangering the chance for peace. But it was a challenging process for many survivors of atrocities committed by the former racist regime. Sisi Khampepe served on the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she spoke to Rebecca Kesby in 2018 about how she ha...

In 1938, South African museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered a coelacanth, a fish that was believed to have been extinct for 65 million years. It is thought to be our ancestor and the missing link between how fish evolved into four-legged amphibians. This was produced and presented by Rachel Naylor, in collaboration with BBC Archives. Eyewitness accounts brought to life by archive....

In 2015, Banksy turned a derelict swimming pool in Weston-super-Mare, England, into a dystopian theme park which drew huge crowds and Hollywood stars. Working under cover of darkness, the street artist created Dismaland - a 'bemusement park' offering a satirical twist on mainstream resorts. The temporary exhibition featured a fire-ravaged castle, a riot police van sinking into a lake, and Cinderel...

In December 1975, four members of one of the IRA’s deadliest units were chased by police through the streets of London before hiding out in a small flat owned by a middle-aged couple called John and Sheila Matthews. The resulting six-day siege was covered live on television and radio, and gripped Britain. It ended when Metropolitan Police negotiators persuaded the gunmen to leave the flat peaceful...

In 2011, Lagos Fashion Week debuted, putting Nigerian style on the map. Omoyemi Akerele founded the event which helped to launch the careers of designers internationally. It has grown into a major fashion event and won the 2025 Earthshot Prize for sustainability. In 2023, Omoyemi Akerele spoke to Reena Stanton-Sharma about the first show. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness Hi...

In 1967, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka tried to stop the country’s Biafra war, in which Nigeria’s Igbo people responded to violence by seceding from the rest of the country. They proclaimed a new Republic of Biafra. When the fighting began, Soyinka was building a reputation as a poet and playwright abroad. However, in a last-ditch attempt to avert civil war, he set off on a secret mission behind th...

When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out in May 1967. More than a million people died before the fighting stopped. In 2021, Patricia Ngozi Ebigwe, now better known as TV and music star Patti Boulaye, spoke to Paul Waters about escaping the conflict. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those...

It's 25 years since the opening of the New Afrika Shrine, an open-air entertainment centre in Nigeria. A hub for Afrobeat music and culture, it's dedicated to the legacy of Fela Kuti who pioneered the genre. Omoyeni Anikulapo-Kuti, also known as Yeni Kuti, is Fela’s eldest daughter. She speaks to Surya Elango about building the New Afrika Shrine. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Wi...

In 2015, West African countries fought against the jihadist militant group Boko Haram which controlled large areas of northeastern Nigeria. The group, whose name means 'western education is forbidden', had killed thousands and displaced millions in the years preceding 2015. They made worldwide headlines in 2014 when they kidnapped 276 girls from a boarding school. Tim O’Callaghan speaks to retired...

Following the Beatles final concert tour, George Harrison travelled to India in 1967 to learn sitar under the renowned musician Ravi Shankar. Fleeing Beatlemania he travelled in disguise to Mumbai and then to Srinagar in Kashmir. Listening to BBC archive and using excerpts from a Martin Scorsese documentary, we hear one of the world's most famous guitarists challenge himself to learn a new instrum...

In 1946, an Indian woman made history by leading her country’s first delegation to the United Nations. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit described it as a moment that reshaped her life. As the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, she was already in the public eye, but stepping onto the global stage was far from easy. She grappled with doubt before accepting the role at the United Nations....

In 1971, the publishing world was rocked by one of the biggest hoaxes in literary history – a fake autobiography of the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. Hughes was an aerospace engineer, film producer, record-breaking aviator and business tycoon, who’d built a $2 billion fortune to become one of the richest people in the world. But for years he’d been living as a recluse, reportedly so terrifi...

In 1995, a cathedral was built 180m underground in the Zipaquirá Salt Mine in Colombia. The idea came from the miners building makeshift altars in the mine in the 1930s, to pray for their safety before starting their shifts. It’s now a major tourist attraction, attracting more than 600,000 visitors a year. Rachel Naylor speaks to the engineer behind it, Jorge Enrique Castelblanco. Eye-witness acco...

Released in 1995, this buddy movie about a cowboy doll and a toy astronaut was the first to use entirely computer-generated images. The story, about a group of toys who come alive when humans are not around, appealed to audiences around the world. In 2017, animator Doug Sweetland spoke to Ashley Byrne about his work on the Pixar film. This was a Made in Manchester production. Eye-witness accounts...

The Dayton Peace Accords were signed on the 21 November 1995, ending the three-and-a-half-year war in Bosnia. The war was part of the break-up of Yugoslavia; it is estimated that 100,000 people were killed. In 2010, Lucy Williamson spoke to Milan Milutinović who was one of the leading negotiators for the Serbian delegation about the final 24 hours of negotiations. Eye-witness accounts brought to l...

In 1975, the death of General Francisco Franco was announced in Spain, bringing to an end 36 years of dictatorship. Franco had already chosen his successor: Prince Juan Carlos, grandson of the last monarch, Alphonso XIII. This was the man who - Franco thought - would continue his authoritarian, anti-democratic and deeply conservative regime. But Juan Carlos defied expectations. In the years that f...

General Francisco Franco died in November 1975, ending 36 years of dictatorship over Spain. The general had been in power since 1939 after winning the country’s bloody civil war, and his death followed a long illness. He was mourned by conservative Spaniards but those on the left celebrated, calling him a fascist who had once been an ally of Hitler and Mussolini. In 2015, Louise Hidalgo spoke to J...

In the summer of 2015, there was a surge in the number of people from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, seeking asylum in Europe. Social Democrat politician Aydan Özoğuz was Angela Merkel's minister of state concerned with immigration, refugees and integration from 2013 to 2018. She describes to Josephine McDermott visiting her father's home city of Kilis in Turkey, near the Syrian border in 2015, wher...

Forty years ago, in November 1985, two of the world’s most powerful leaders met for the first time. With Cold War tensions running high and the nuclear arms race dominating global politics, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came together for the first time at the Geneva Summit. Using archive recordings, Megan Jones explores what happened during this landmark meeting. E...

On 17 October 2009, the Maldives’ top government officials donned their scuba gear for the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting. Fish floated around while ministers communicated with hand gestures, white boards and special underwater pencils. Meanwhile on the surface, journalists jostled to see what was happening. The watery meeting was filmed and photographed and subsequently broadcast across...

On 13 November 2015, 90 people were shot dead by gunmen at the Bataclan theatre in France during an Eagles of Death Metal concert. A further 40 people were killed in co-ordinated terror attacks by jihadists across the city on the same night. Rachel Naylor speaks to British couple Justine Merton-Scott and Tony Scott, who managed to escape the venue by climbing out of a skylight. Eye-witness account...

In November 1945, the first major war crimes trial in history opened in the German city of Nuremberg. Senior Nazis who had committed atrocities during World War Two were prosecuted by the victorious Allied powers of Britain, the USA, France and the Soviet Union. In 2014, Louise Hidalgo spoke to Benjamin Ferencz, who helped unearth evidence of mass murder by the Nazi mobile death squads and prosecu...