Podcasts by The History Hour

Doom and Danish brains from 2023-12-09T00:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear about two of the most influential computer games of the 1990s with their creat...

Saving animals from extinction and Cabbage Patch Kids from 2023-12-02T14:06

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

This week, the bird that defied extinction. In 1969, a Peruvian farmer Gustavo Del So...

Zambia celebrates independence and the invention of bubble tea from 2023-11-25T00:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

This week, we’re looking at the birth of a new African nation – Zambia - in 1964, and ...

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in Iceland and EpiPen invention from 2023-11-18T00:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Jenni Barclay from the University of East Anglia in the UK. She tells...

Pakistani popstars, and the hippo and the tortoise from 2023-11-11T00:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear from Zoheb Hassen, one half of a sibling duo from Pakistan who topped the ch...

Che Guevara's daughter and marrying Freddie Mercury from 2023-11-04T00:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Tony Kapcia, Emeritus Professor at the University of Nottingham's Centre for Re...

Gezi Park protests and MAD hijack from 2023-10-27T23:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear from activist and actor Memet Ali Alabora on how his social media post contrib...

Osmondmania! and the launch of Lagos Fashion Week from 2023-10-20T23:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear about Osmondmania! The moment in 1973 when teenage fans of American heartthrob...

The creation of Ghana's flag and the oldest person at primary school from 2023-10-13T23:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear from Kwasi Okoh about how his mother Theodosia Okoh designed Ghana’s flag afte...

Marking 50 years since the 1973 global oil crisis from 2023-10-06T23:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

To mark 50 years since the global oil crisis, we’re focusing on oil - from discovery ...

The Lampedusa disaster and cat cafes from 2023-09-29T23:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the sinking of a migrant boat off Lampedusa in 2013 which was one of the Medit...

Nazi eugenics and the year of the vuvuzela from 2023-09-22T23:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear about the people with disabilities who were sterilised in Germany following an...

Israeli and Palestinian history from 2023-09-15T23:30

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. It's thirty years since the Oslo Accords were signed. This agreement in 1993 aimed to brin...

The Chilean coup and Zanzibar’s most famous singer from 2023-09-09T13:06

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear from Chilean politician Hermógenes Pérez de Arce, who helped oust President A...

Historic Korean summit and goat island from 2023-09-01T23:30

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...

Ireland's 'ghost estates' and the first Rose of Tralee from 2023-08-25T23:30

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 ...

Judy Garland's legacy and the Benin Bronzes from 2023-08-18T23:30

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 wh...

Presidential diamonds and Tupperware parties from 2023-08-11T23:05

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 d...

Dinosaur discoveries and a Berlin Wall treehouse from 2023-08-05T07:00

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 i...

West African food and computer viruses from 2023-07-28T23:30

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,...

Wartime surrenders and the birth of Barbie from 2023-07-21T23:30

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. Tho...

Five great inventions that changed the world from 2023-07-14T23:30

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 ...

Tourism arrives in the Maldives and a royal night out from 2023-07-07T23:30

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, pl...

South Korea store collapse and Lady Gaga's meat dress from 2023-06-30T23:30

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 hund...

Somalia's civil war and golf on the moon from 2023-06-24T00:00

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 ...

Amazing photographs and the people who took them from 2023-06-16T23:30

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 ...

Inuit children taken from families and Le Mans crash from 2023-06-09T23:30

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 C...

Scaling Everest, the highest mountain in the world from 2023-06-02T23:30

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 Tenzi...

Bosnian concentration camp photo and hero clown from 2023-05-27T14:00

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...

Singapore executes Filipina maid and German child evacuees of World War Two from 2023-05-19T23:30

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 ...

World War Two African victory and 'Kai Tak heart attack' from 2023-05-12T23:30

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. Listen

The 'Stone of Destiny' and a self-proclaimed Emperor from 2023-05-05T23:30

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 Westminst...

Artist Althea McNish and history of the Met Gala from 2023-04-28T23:30

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 ...

The history of dogs from 2023-04-21T23:30

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 Yorks...

Unearthing World War II mass graves and the Boston bombing from 2023-04-15T14:00

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,...

Escaping Eritrea and inventing Zumba from 2023-04-08T14:00

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 ...

The godfather of manicures and India's Silicon Valley from 2023-04-01T13:00

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 Valle...

Film and cinema around the world from 2023-03-25T14:00

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...

The Invasion of Iraq from 2023-03-18T15:00

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, speak...

International Women's Day from 2023-03-11T15:00

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...

Pink triangles and political assassinations from 2023-03-04T08:00

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 homoph...

Riots in Mauritius and the Queen 'jumping out of a helicopter' from 2023-02-28T16:43

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 Coll...

'Hot Autumn' and Tutankhamun from 2023-02-18T10:00

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 tell...

Popes from 2023-02-11T10:00

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 abo...

Pirate radio and the Velvet Divorce from 2023-02-04T15:00

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.

Pl...

The death penalty and broadcasting bans from 2023-01-28T10:00

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...

Horsemeat scandal and the Miracle on the Hudson from 2023-01-21T16:00

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 ...

Plastics in oceans and sea cucumbers from 2023-01-14T14:00

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 s...

Pussy Riot and other Russian rebels from 2023-01-07T11:00

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 Mo...

Food from 2022-12-31T15:00

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 noodle...

90 years of the BBC World Service from 2022-12-24T11:00

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...

District Six and daredevils from 2022-12-17T15:00

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...

Referendums and Teletubbies from 2022-12-10T10:00

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 provinc...

Contested islands and Miss World protests from 2022-12-03T15:00

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 expelle...

Anwar Ibrahim and road safety inventions from 2022-11-26T09:57

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 ...

Arabian Peninsula from 2022-11-19T10:00

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.

...

Racist raids, protests and a political assassination from 2022-11-12T14:00

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....

The best Championship Manager player ever from 2022-11-05T11:00

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 m...

Women taking a stand from 2022-10-29T08:00

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...

Cuban boxing and the brink of nuclear war from 2022-10-22T13:00

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.

Earl...

Global strikes and industrial action from 2022-10-15T16:00

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...

Caribbean carnivals and a racially inclusive nightclub from 2022-10-08T13:00

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 ...

Dassler brothers' rift from 2022-10-01T13:57

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 ...

Queen Elizabeth II and broadcasting from 2022-09-24T14:00

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 ...

Queen Elizabeth II from 2022-09-18T20:00

We hear personal accounts of historical moments during the seventy year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Memories from the Queen's maids of honour from her coronation in 1953; the huge race her hors...

Brazil from 2022-09-11T14:00

Stories from Brazil, ahead of the presidential election in October, including the murder of Tim Lopes, the hero of Brazilian democracy and the Candelaria Massacre.

Plus the creation of the...

Gorbachev's legacy from 2022-09-03T14:00

The former President of the Soviet Union's reforms in 1987, known as Perestroika, and the release of the dissident poet Irina Ratushinskaya in 1986.

Plus a survivor of the Marikana Massacr...

Inflation and the cost of living from 2022-08-27T14:00

A compilation of witness accounts from when inflation and the cost of living were seriously affecting people's lives, among other topics.

In 1971, inflation was a huge problem in the USA s...

Seventy-five years since India's Partition from 2022-08-20T14:00

Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories marking 75 years since India's Partition. We'll hear the stories of people from both sides of the divide and find out about partition’s effect on th...

The nightclub that changed Ibiza from 2022-08-13T14:00

Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the nightclub that changed Ibiza, some of the worst forest fires in history, the resignation of Richard Nixon, discovering the Hale Bopp comet and S...

Fifty years since Asians were kicked out of Uganda from 2022-08-06T14:00

Compilation of stories marking 50 years since Idi Amin expelled thousands of Asians from Uganda in 1972. We hear about why they migrated there, their expulsion, and what they did next.

Jam...

The Revolution on Granite from 2022-07-30T14:00

A student protest in Ukraine, the Surkov leaks, the world’s deadliest ever earthquake, a leaflet bomber in South Africa and the invention of the nicotine patch.

(Photo: Oksana Zabuzhko wea...

Stories from iconic TV shows from around the world from 2022-07-23T14:00

The history of television from around the world and its enduring impact, including a look at Nigeria's sitcom Papa Ajasco and an interview with actor turned food writer and Indian TV cook Madhu...

Stories from the abortion fight frontline from 2022-07-16T14:00

Stories from around the world on women's reproductive rights. Women fighting both sides of the abortion debate as well as the first Muslim country to legalise abortion. Also, the development of ...

America’s first gay election candidate from 2022-07-09T13:00

In 1961 the first openly gay person ran for public office in the United States. He was a drag queen called Jose Sarria, well-known for his performances at the bohemian 'Black Cat' bar in San Fra...

Hong Kong: 25 years since the handover from British to Chinese rule from 2022-07-02T14:00

Stories from Hong Kong, 25 years on since the handover from British to Chinese rule. We hear from the last governor of Hong Kong, a pro democracy campaigner and about life in Kowloon Walled City...

Egypt's first democratic Presidential election from 2022-06-25T14:00

In June 2012, Egypt held its first ever free democratic Presidential election. Mohamed Morsi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, emerged victorious. Ben Henderson spoke to Rabab El-Mahdi, Chie...

Cambodian genocide trials from 2022-06-18T14:00

In 2009, Rob Hamill testified in the trial of Comrade Duc, who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng prison during the Cambodian genocide. Josephine McDermott spoke to him.

It is 50 years since Ki...

How Sri Lanka's president survived a suicide bombing from 2022-06-11T13:00

Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the 2006 suicide bombing attack on Sri Lanka's president, the 75th anniversary of Anne Frank's diary and the 1968 assassination in the US of Bobby K...

The Syrian civil war from 2022-06-04T13:00

Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the 2013 chemical weapons attack in Syria and the opening of a refugee camp for Syrians fleeing the civil war. Plus, how lynching was finally outlaw...

Artists who made history from 2022-05-28T13:00

Max Pearson introduces the memories of people who knew Picasso, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe; plus, how a collector in the Soviet Union managed to open a museum for Russian artists banned by...

The Marcos regime in the Philippines from 2022-05-21T13:00

Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the rule of Ferdinand Marcos Senior in the 1970s and 80s; plus, Shanghai during World War Two, and the opening of the first McDonald's in the Soviet...

The war in Transnistria from 2022-05-14T13:00

With speculation mounting that President Putin might mount an attack on Moldova, Max Pearson hears a first-hand account of the war in the 1990s between the Moldovans and Russian-backed separatis...

Fighting for Uyghur rights in China from 2022-05-07T13:00

Max Pearson gets a first-hand account of how the minority Uyghur community in China staged some of the first protests against the all-powerful Communist Party in the 1980s. Plus, the young lawye...

Algeria's War of Independence from 2022-04-30T13:06

Sixty years after Algeria's independence from France, first-hand accounts of a traumatic 'birth of a nation': a female Algerian bomber who was part of the battle for Algiers; how the French mili...

The Falkands War from 2022-04-09T13:00

On the fortieth anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, Max Pearson hears two contrasting accounts of the war with Britain. Patrick Watts was the manager of the radio stat...

Protesting against Putin from 2022-04-02T09:00

Starting in late 2011, tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets to try to stop what they saw as a power grab by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The movement was not successful, but ana...

Ukrainian history special from 2022-03-26T15:34

To mark the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a special edition on episodes from Ukrainian history.

In April 1986 a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine. Ser...

Women who made history from 2022-03-12T14:00

To celebrate International Women's Day, a special edition on five women who've made their mark on history. US feminist Gloria Steinem remembers founding Ms Magazine in 1972; Iranian lawyer Shiri...

Russia under Putin from 2022-03-05T14:06

How Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, rose to power and transformed Russia. We hear eyewitness accounts of Putin's war in Chechnya, his campaign against Russia's independent media, and the war...

LGBT history special from 2022-02-19T10:00

In the 1990s, doctors in Berlin began a cutting-edge treatment programme that led to a patient being cured of HIV/AIDS. The so-called "Berlin patient" was Timothy Ray Brown: he was suffering fro...

The Ukraine crisis: an eyewitness history from 2022-02-12T14:06

Former presidents and protestors recount two key moments in the history of the Ukraine crisis - from the historic meeting that ended the USSR to the dramatic anti-government protests in Ukraine...

Kazakhstan's new capital from 2022-02-05T14:05

How Kazakhstan's strongman president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, created a new capital, which would eventually be named after him; transformation in the UEA - the first Emirati female teacher in the ...

Fifty years since Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday from 2022-01-29T18:42

In one of the most controversial episodes of 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, UK soldiers fired on unarmed Catholic protesters, killing 13 in January 1972. We look at why British troops were the...

Fifty years since Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday from 2022-01-29T18:42

In one of the most controversial episodes of 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, UK soldiers fired on unarmed Catholic protesters, killing 13 in January 1972. We look at why British troops were ...

The rise of Boko Haram from 2022-01-22T14:00

In 2009, Boko Haram, a small Islamist group, launched an insurgency in the north eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. The conflict would eventually force hundreds of thousands from their homes, ...

Hitler's Indian ally: Subhas Chandra Bose from 2022-01-15T15:06

The Indian independence campaigner, Subhas Chandra Bose, sided with Hitler's axis powers in World War Two to try to free his country from British rule. We'll hear from his great-niece about why ...

Mozambique's Eduardo Mondlane: From professor to freedom fighter from 2022-01-08T11:01

Mozambique’s struggle to end Portuguese colonial rule and the assassination of Eduardo Mondlane, we'll hear from his daughter Nyeleti Brooke Mondlane and Dr Eric Morier-Genoud from Queen's Unive...

A history of games from 2022-01-01T14:06

The inside story of games that shaped the modern world. Including Atari's Nolan Bushnell on his game Pong which helped launch the video game industry. Plus the origin of Grand Theft Auto, the ma...

The right to drive in Saudi Arabia from 2021-12-25T16:00

In 2011, cybersecurity expert Manal Al-Sharif helped found the Women2Drive movement. It was designed to force the Saudi Arabian government to overturn its ban on women driving cars - one of the ...

Four decades of HIV/Aids from 2021-12-04T14:00

It’s forty years since the first report on HIV/Aids appeared in a medical journal. Back in the early days in the 1980s a misunderstanding made one man the face of the epidemic. A Canadian air stewa...

The assassination of the Mirabal sisters from 2021-11-27T15:00

The three Mirabal sisters were leading figures in the Dominican Republic's opposition movement against the dictator General Rafael Trujillo. They were all killed on the 25th November 1960. We hear ...

Sudan's October Revolution from 2021-11-20T14:15

How in 1964 Sudanese civilian protesters first brought down a military regime, plus the hunt for former Serbian leader Radovan Karadži? later convicted of genocide and war crimes. Also in the prog...

The South African football star murdered for being a lesbian from 2021-11-13T14:06

In 2008, the brutal murder of Eudy Simelane shocked South Africa and highlighted the widespread violence faced by South African women and members of the LGTBI community. But has anything changed? W...

When Eritrea silenced its critics from 2021-11-06T14:00

An hour of first hand accounts from the past. Starting with a crackdown on opposition voices in Eritrea from twenty years ago, plus memories of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the Nuremberg trials, a ...

The child environmental activist of the 1990s from 2021-10-30T14:00

To mark the start of the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP26, taking place in Glasgow in the UK, we’re looking back at the history of our awareness of climate change with some of the scientists ...

The Greenham Common women's peace camp from 2021-10-23T11:16

The anti-nuclear weapons protest began in 1981 and lasted nineteen years. Also the first transgender priest in the Church of England, WW2 Polish refugees in Africa, plus why lesbian mothers caused...

The Pakistani law that jailed rape survivors from 2021-10-16T13:15

Under legislation known as the Hudood Ordinances introduced in 1979, a nearly blind teenaged rape survivor was jailed herself for having sex outside marriage. In 1983 Safia Bibi was sentenced to th...

Black history: Britain and race from 2021-10-09T14:00

As part of our British black history coverage we look back at the racism faced by London's first black policeman from his own colleagues. We also hear about the death in police custody of black ex-...

Photographing Brazil's Yanomami from 2021-10-02T14:00

In 1971 photographer Claudia Andujar began documenting the lives of a remote indigenous tribe in the Brazilian Amazon jungle. Her photographs helped the campaign for recognition of the Yanomami's r...

Kenya: Westgate mall attack from 2021-09-25T13:06

Eyewitnesses remember the Westgate mall attack in Kenya, the 1990s 'miracle water' craze in Mexico, and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Plus the amazing story of how a journalist revealed th...

The earthquake that devastated Haiti from 2021-09-18T14:00

In 2010 the Haitian capital and surrounding areas were hit by a catastrophic earthquake. Much of Port Au Prince was flattened and more than a hundred thousand people were killed. Amid the destructi...

9/11 and the war on terror from 2021-09-11T14:06

In a special edition on the terrorist attacks on America, we hear from the White House official who broke the news to the President and a Muslim first-responder who worked at Ground Zero. Plus, per...

Surviving the fall of Saigon from 2021-09-04T13:06

When South Vietnam fell in 1975, most could not escape. In the last days, the US airlifted its remaining personnel and some high ranking Vietnamese officials - but millions were left behind to awai...

My father survived the sinking of the Titanic from 2021-08-28T13:00

Fang Lang was one of six Chinese men who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The six faced racism and a hostile immigration system when they reached America. Unlike other survivors, their ...

US withdrawal: The Fall of Saigon from 2021-08-21T10:37

The desperate scramble to evacuate the US embassy at the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, also the 1940s Indian radio station calling for independence. We'll look at life as a 'human shield' in Iraq...

The Berlin Wall from 2021-08-14T09:00

In August 1961, communist East Germany began building the Berlin Wall, which divided the city for nearly three decades and became a symbol of the Cold War. We hear the memories of Germans from both...

Chipko: India’s tree-hugging women from 2021-08-07T13:06

The story of the famed 1970s Indian conservation movement. Plus we speak to Professor Vinita Damodaran about the history of Indian environmentalism. Also Patti Boulaye on escaping the Biafran war, ...

Darfur's ethnic war from 2021-07-24T14:06

We hear about the start of the war in Darfur, through the eyes of a teenage boy whose life was changed when the Sudanese military allied to a local militia, the Janjaweed, laid waste to villages ac...

When the Taliban ruled Kabul from 2021-07-17T13:06

Afghans remember life under the Taliban in 1990s Kabul, and we ask Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network about the fall and rise of the Taliban. Plus, Jane Goodall on her ground-breaking s...

North Korea's 1990s famine from 2021-07-10T12:30

When the USSR collapsed it could no longer support North Korea, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths due to starvation and malnutrition. We hear from one survivor and Prof Hazel Smith who ex...

Supernatural sightings from 2021-07-03T14:00

Is there anybody out there? Max Pearson hears about a UFO sighting in rural Zimbabwe in 1994 and talks to Gideon Lewis-Kraus of the New Yorker about whether the US Pentagon is taking UFOs more seri...

The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race from 2021-06-19T13:00

In June 2015 an American anti-racist activist climbed a flagpole on the South Carolina state house grounds to take down the Confederate flag. The protest followed the killing of 9 black people at a...

When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor from 2021-06-12T14:42

On 7 June 1981 Israeli fighter jets launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor located outside Baghdad, killing 11 people. The French-built reactor was still under construction and th...

Amilcar Cabral: an African liberation legend from 2021-05-29T14:06

We remember Amilcar Cabral, who led the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in West Africa in the 1970s and speak to Dr Nayanka Perdigao about his legacy. Plus the shocking fallout of t...

When Egypt said Enough from 2021-05-22T13:00

Under the slogan 'kefaya' which means 'enough' in Arabic, in 2004 Egyptians began protesting in Cairo against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. The months of demonstrations took place several ye...

Why a British MP was filmed taking mescaline from 2021-05-15T13:06

# Warning: This programme contains descriptions of drug use # In 1955 Christopher Mayhew MP took the hallucinogenic drug mescaline for a TV experiment. We look back at the history of psychedelic re...

The IRA hunger strikes from 2021-05-08T14:00

The IRA hunger strikes of 1981 – Max Pearson hears from Suzanne Breen of the Belfast Telegraph about the impact of the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland. Plus, one man’s story of surviving Guantan...

The killing of Osama Bin Laden from 2021-05-01T14:00

It is 10 years since the al-Qaeda leader was killed. We look at the US special forces operation that finally tracked him down to a city in northern Pakistan, the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in M...

How the NRA became a US political lobbying giant from 2021-04-24T14:06

The origins of the gun lobby in the US. Plus we speak to Prof Robert Spitzer about the power of the National Rifle Association. Also, the mysterious American who killed two men in Pakistan and trig...

The first woman in the US Supreme Court from 2021-04-17T14:42

Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed to America's top court in 1981. She'd been nominated by newly-elected Republican president Ronald Reagan. Also in the programme: an eye-witness on the beaches duri...

The women who reclaimed the night from 2021-04-10T14:06

We hear from the women who started "Reclaim the Night" marches in the north of England in 1977 - a time when a serial killer nicknamed the Yorkshire Ripper was murdering women. The women felt polic...

Black Jesus from 2021-04-03T13:00

On Easter Sunday 1967 the Reverend Albert Cleage re-named his church in Detroit the Shrine of the Black Madonna. He preached that if man was made in God's image there was little chance that Jesus w...

The History Hour from 2021-03-20T15:00

The hunt to find the Jamaican drug lord wanted for extradition to the United States, the six men trapped in a simulated space ship for a year and a half, the mother of the Swedish welfare state, t...

The women of Egypt's Arab Spring from 2021-03-13T18:12

The women of Egypt's Arab Spring; the underground abortion network in 1960s America; Greece's champion of the Parthenon Marbles, Melina Mercouri; China’s most powerful 19th-century ruler, and the ...

The Iron Curtain from 2021-03-06T15:00

Churchill's Iron Curtain speech about the Cold War, the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa which radicalised many anti-apartheid movements and we hear from a man whose relatives were killed when ...

The fall of Kwame Nkrumah from 2021-02-27T14:06

An eyewitness account of the overthrow of Ghana's famous independence leader. And we examine Nkrumah's legacy with Prof. Gareth Austin from Cambridge University. Plus the story of a heroic African ...

Black History: The Black Panthers from 2021-02-20T14:00

As part of our Black History coverage we look back at the Black Panthers and ask Professor Clayborne Carson of Stanford University "How radical was the US black rights group?" Also, we bring you an...

US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air raid shelter from 2021-02-13T14:08

More than 400 civilians were killed when two US precision bombs hit the Amiriya air raid shelter in western Baghdad on the morning of 13 February 1991. The Americans claimed that the building had s...

The Burma protests of 1988 from 2021-02-06T14:00

In August 1988, people took to the streets of Burma, or Myanmar, to protest against the country's military government. The bloody uprising would lead to the rise of Aung San Suu Kyi as the country'...

The Arab Spring of 2011 from 2021-01-30T13:23

In the early months of 2011 a wave of social unrest swept across the Arab world as people protested against repressive and authoritarian regimes, economic stagnation, unemployment and corruption. I...

Hitler's beer hall putsch from 2021-01-23T12:00

Hitler made his first attempt at seizing power in Germany in 1923, ten years before he eventually became Chancellor. The failed "beer hall putsch" - so named because it started in a beer hall in th...

Attack at the US Capitol from 2021-01-16T14:00

In 1954, Puerto Rican militants opened fire in the US House of Representatives, wounding five Congressmen - we hear how the assault was one of many previous attacks on American democracy. Plus, the...

Buddhist on Death Row from 2021-01-09T14:06

How US inmates turned to Buddhism to face execution in 1990s Arkansas, and we look at the history of the death penalty in the US with Prof Vivien Miller. Plus, the truth of a space "strike", the 70...

75 years of UNESCO from 2021-01-02T14:00

UNESCO - the United Nations Scientific, Cultural and Educational Organisation - was set up 75 years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War. It’s probably best known for its work protecting ...

Film special from 2020-12-26T12:00

We hear from eye-witnesses to some classic moments in cinema history – from It’s a Wonderful Life to Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy via Studio Ghibli, the Sound of Music and Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dic...

The birth of Bangladesh from 2020-12-19T14:00

How Pakistan's first democratic elections in 1970 led to war, the break up of Pakistan and the creation of a new country, Bangladesh. Also Gibraltar under Spanish blockade plus refugees from Namibi...

The first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize from 2020-12-12T15:00

When Chief Albert Luthuli won the Nobel Peace Prize he was living under a banning order in rural South Africa. He won the prize for advocating peaceful opposition to the Apartheid regime. We hear f...

The fall of Addis Ababa from 2020-12-05T14:00

In May 1991, the brutal Ethiopian dictator, Colonel Mengistu and his military regime were on the verge of collapse after years of civil war. The end came when a Tigrayan-led rebel movement advanced...

Disability History special from 2020-11-28T14:06

We look back at the fight for disability rights in the UK and India in the 1990s, plus the remarkable life of Helen Keller as told by her great niece, how a Rwandan Paralympic volleyball team made...

The world's first woman premier from 2020-11-21T15:00

Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected prime minster of Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was known then, in 1960 following the assassination of her husband, Solomon Bandaranaike and became the first female pr...

The Guerrilla Girls from 2020-11-14T14:32

In 1985 a group of anonymous female artists in New York began dressing up with gorilla masks on their heads and putting up fly-posters around the city's museums and galleries. We hear from two of t...

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin from 2020-11-07T14:00

In 1995, the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was murdered at a peace rally in Tel Aviv. We hear how his death scuppered hopes of peace in the Middle East. Plus, the racism endured by childre...

US presidential history special from 2020-10-31T14:06

Eyewitness accounts of moments in US presidential history: Inside JFK's election victory, remembering Shirley Chisholm - the first African American from a major party to make a presidential run, pl...

Why Portugal decriminalised all drugs from 2020-10-24T13:00

In the grips of a drug crisis, why Portugal took a radical approach in 2001 and became the first country in the world to decriminalise all drugs. Also searching for those who disappeared during apa...

CNN and the 24-hour news revolution from 2020-10-17T13:00

In June 1980, US media mogul Ted Turner launched the first TV station dedicated to 24 hour news, Cable News Network or CNN. We get a first-hand account of the early days of a channel that transform...

British black history special from 2020-10-10T14:06

We present five eyewitness accounts of moments in British black history. Including the late Sam King remembering the voyage of the Empire Windrush, plus Britain's first black headteacher Yvonne Con...

The Mafia and Italian politics from 2020-10-03T13:18

The trial which linked a senior Italian politician to the Mafia, the death of the charismatic Egyptian President - Gamal Abdel Nasser, a whale rescue which brought together cold war enemies, the Ge...

Blackwater killed my son from 2020-09-26T13:09

An Iraqi father remembers the day in September 2007 when US private security guards opened fire on civilians in central Baghdad killing 17 people, including his 9-year-old son. Plus, former preside...

Stories of resistance and protest from around the world from 2020-09-19T13:15

Max Pearson brings you a roundup of this week’s Witness History stories of resistance from the last 70 years. From the early days of opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, throug...

Prohibition in India from 2020-09-12T13:00

How Indian women in the 1990s campaigned to stop the sale of alcohol in the state of Andhra Pradesh to protect women from domestic violence and safeguard family finances. The history of America's ...

Inventing James Bond from 2020-09-05T13:00

How author and former intelligence officer Ian Fleming created the British super-spy, James Bond plus, how the British government shifted social care for the disabled away from large institutions a...

Margaret Ekpo - Nigeria's feminist pioneer from 2020-08-28T14:16

Margaret Ekpo helped establish Nigerian independence and became one of the country's first female MPs. We hear from her grandson and speak to a Nigerian feminist about why Nigeria has so few women ...

The siege at Ruby Ridge from 2020-08-22T13:00

Randy Weaver was a white separatist in Idaho in the north-west United States who was wanted by the government on firearms charges. When government agents approached his remote cabin on Ruby Ridge i...

Beirut's hotel war from 2020-08-15T12:06

At the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, Beirut’s luxury hotel district was turned into a battlefield, with rival groups of gunmen holed up in some of the most expensive accommodation in the...

The Second World War in Japan from 2020-08-08T14:00

It’s 75 years this week since the dropping of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to Japan’s surrender to Allied forces and the end of the Second World War. We hear first-hand account...

Adrift for 76 Days from 2020-08-01T14:06

Surviving the Atlantic alone in a liferaft, Spain's historic 1960s tourism boom, the death of the infamous Nazi Heinrich Himmler, plus fighting Australia's bushfires and we remember a groundbreaki...

The Million Man March from 2020-07-25T17:01

On 16th October 1995 hundreds of thousands of black American men marched on Washington D.C. in an attempt to put black issues back on the government agenda. We hear from one woman who went on the m...

South Korea's 1980s prison camps from 2020-07-18T14:00

The horrors of South Korea's so-called Social Purification project, the vanished Chinese sailors who left their mark on Liverpool after the Second World War and the return of a huge ancient monumen...

Quarantined in a TB sanatorium from 2020-07-04T14:06

Extreme lockdown half a century ago: the TB children forced to endure years of isolation in a sanatorium; the unveiling of looted Nazi art works, the Rolling Stones in the dock, calls for democracy...

Dealing with economic crisis from 2020-06-27T08:00

As the world begins to consider how to emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic, we look back at economic crises of the past and how countries have responded to them. Max Pearson hears about America's ...

Sex trafficking and peacekeepers from 2020-06-20T11:00

How whistle-blowers implicated UN peacekeepers and international police in the forced prostitution and trafficking of Eastern European women into Bosnia in the late 1990s. Plus, how Swiss psychiat...

Black American History Special from 2020-06-13T13:00

Eyewitness accounts of important moments in recent African American history. We hear from the daughter of the man named in the court case which became a turning point in the battle for civil rights...

The Zanzibar revolution from 2020-06-06T14:06

How a bloody 1960s revolution changed East Africa. We hear an eyewitness account and talk to Professor Emma Hunter of Edinburgh University. Plus the birth of ecotourism in Costa Rica, the post-war...

The Gwangju massacre from 2020-05-30T13:00

Forty years on from the Gwangju uprising in South Korea, the book that changed the way we eat, plus the dangers of being a Congolese conservationist. Also, revealing accounts of British wartime lea...

Britain's World War Two crime wave from 2020-05-23T13:03

During times of crisis in the UK, World War Two is often remembered as a period when the country rallied together to fight a common enemy. But as Simon Watts finds out from the BBC archives, there ...

Fighting for the pill in Japan from 2020-05-16T09:13

Why Japanese women had to wait until 1999 to be allowed to take the pill, the Dutch 'Prince of scandal', plus the flatulent fish that prompted a Cold War scare, the first helpline for children and ...

VE Day Special from 2020-05-09T14:06

Eyewitness accounts of the fall of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe. Using unique interviews from the BBC's archives we bring you men and women who fought in the battle fo...

The 1957 flu pandemic from 2020-05-02T11:30

A new strain of flu emerged in East Asia in 1957 and spread all over the world. Known at the time as “Asian flu”, it killed more than a million people. We hear from a woman who survived the virus a...

The last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade from 2020-04-25T13:00

The grandson of the last surviving African-born US slave, plus the story behind the portable hospital breathing ventilator that was a precursor to those helping save coronavirus lives; also on the ...

Apollo 13: The drama that gripped the world from 2020-04-18T13:00

50 years since the Apollo 13 mission, how millions of TV viewers followed the famous rescue of the three NASA astronauts. Also, the women who led the way in America’s space programme by spending tw...

How technology revolutionised our lives from 2020-04-11T13:00

In a special edition of the History Hour, Max Pearson looks back at some of the major technological milestones of recent years. We hear about the Californian computer club where the founders of App...

Women in the law from 2020-04-04T11:00

Trailblazing British lawyer Rose Heilbron was the first female judge at London's famous Old Bailey criminal court. Her daughter Hillary Heilbron QC remembers how hard she had to fight to be accepte...

The AIDS memorial quilt - a patchwork of loss from 2020-03-28T14:00

How an LGBTQ+ activist decided to commemorate friends who had died of AIDS with a quilt, plus sequencing the 1918 flu virus, five years of war in Yemen, the story of a child abandoned in Hong Kong,...

The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope from 2020-03-21T09:00

In 1990, NASA launched the historic mission which put into orbit the Hubble Space Telescope. The orbiting observatory has revolutionized astronomy and allowed us to peer deeper than ever before int...

The 1918 'Spanish' flu pandemic from 2020-03-14T15:06

A special edition looking at how the world has battled deadly viruses over the past 100 years, We have eyewitness accounts of the 1918 flu, and the recent struggle against SARS, we hear how a vacci...

The history of the Volkswagen Beetle from 2020-03-07T15:06

How the British army helped rebuild the German car industry after WW2, plus the fight to ban leaded petrol, psychiatry as punishment in the USSR, striking South Asian women in 1970s Britain and 'Wo...

Freeing American prisoners from Iran from 2020-02-29T15:06

How a former prisoner in Iran fought to free her friends, a 200-year-old Antarctic mystery, eradicating small pox, the first mobile phone and rebel nuns in the US. PHOTO: Sarah Shourd in 2010 (Ge...

Saving Antarctica from 2020-02-22T15:02

In October 1991, an international protocol to protect the world’s last wilderness, Antarctica, from commercial exploitation was agreed at a summit in Madrid. Louise Hidalgo talks to one of the envi...

The publication of Harry Potter from 2020-02-15T12:00

A look back at some of the most influential books of modern times, including an interview with the publisher who first spotted Harry Potter's potential. Plus, Chairman Mao's Little Red Book, Erica ...

London's first black policeman from 2020-02-08T15:06

The prejudice faced by London's first black policeman, how a new sign language emerged in 1980s Nicaragua, the Native American casino boom, plus the release of Nelson Mandela and China's much malig...

The early days of the European Union from 2020-02-01T16:02

The hurried signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957 which led to greater European unity, plus 1992 - when the British royal family started to reform its role after a year of scandal and disaster. Als...

The mystery of the disappearing frogs from 2020-01-25T15:10

This week we're looking at extinction. The deadly fungus that's killing amphibians, the story of the Dodo, plus why discovering that whales 'sing' helped to save them. Also, the book that changed ...

Storming the Stasi HQ from 2020-01-18T15:06

The fall of East Germany's secret police; racism, injustice and a child execution in the US, plus the killing of Osama Bin Laden; the woman who negotiated peace in the Philippines, and the man who ...

The Computers for Schools revolution from 2020-01-11T13:50

In 2009, Uruguay became the first country in the world to give a laptop computer to every child in state primary schools. We hear from the man whose initiative is credited with transforming the liv...

The book that warned of an end to civilisation from 2020-01-04T15:00

In 1972 a book which outlined the possible future of the world became a best-seller. 'The Limits to Growth' was based on computer modelling which suggested that if economic growth remained unfetter...

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan from 2019-12-28T12:00

On 24th December 1979 Soviet troops poured into Afghanistan in support of an anti-government coup. The Soviet occupation would last for nine years. Plus, the hidden history of the board game Mono...

The Romanian revolution from 2019-12-21T10:00

In this edition the fall of the Ceau?escus in Romania in December 1989, a global panic over bees in the early 2000s and WW2 black GIs finally recognised decades after the war. Plus the building of...

The Cuban writer who defied Castro from 2019-12-07T16:08

On 7 December 1990 the dissident Cuban novelist and poet Reinaldo Arenas killed himself in New York after years of suffering from AIDS. Before fleeing Cuba, Arenas had been jailed for his homosexua...

The man who gave his voice to Stephen Hawking from 2019-11-30T14:30

The story of the American scientist Dennis Klatt who pioneered synthesised speech. He used recordings of himself to make the sounds that gave physicist Stephen Hawking a voice. Plus India:strugglin...

I saw the soldiers who killed El Salvador's priests from 2019-11-23T15:56

The woman who risked her life to reveal that the army, not left-wing rebels, were responsible for the murder of six Jesuit priests in 1980s El Salvador; the moment when the Taser first hit the stre...

Rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean from 2019-11-16T09:00

In 2004, a German aid agency ship, Cap Anamur, was sailing to the Suez Canal, when it came across 37 Africans on a sinking rubber boat. The captain, Stefan Schmidt, rescued the men and headed for a...

Britain's secret propaganda war from 2019-11-09T15:05

Subversive warfare and 'fake news' in World War Two, the scandal which exposed horrific Indian police violence in the 1980s, two sides of the Iran hostages crisis in 1979, the woman who transformed...

'Jane' - the underground abortion service from 2019-11-02T15:06

The feminist network that performed illegal abortions in the 1960s in Chicago, the Algerian nationals who fought alongside the French in Algeria’s war of independence and when Margaret Thatcher fir...

The fall of the Berlin Wall from 2019-10-26T09:35

1989 was a seismic year in world history and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the clearest symbol of the Cold War. But it was a series of events across Europe that added to the momentum. W...

An environmental history special from 2019-10-19T14:06

A pioneer of climate change science, UK's Windscale nuclear accident, Kenya's Green Belt heroine who won the Nobel Peace Prize, the man "who fed the world", and banning cars in Mexico City. (Photo...

Black British history from 2019-10-12T11:00

To mark Black History Month in the UK we look back at some landmark moments in British Black History. We hear how the famous cricketer Learie Constantine broke the colour bar, and about the Notting...

The birth of the People's Republic of China from 2019-10-05T14:00

To mark 70 years of communist China we hear from a soldier at the founding ceremony on October 1st 1949. Also, the memories of an American friend and comrade of Mao Zedong, a Red Guard who regrets ...

Fighting the Islamic State group online from 2019-09-28T14:26

When the Islamic State group took over Mosul in Iraq in 2014 they flooded the internet with propaganda, claiming life under IS was fantastic. One historian living in the city decided to post a coun...

The Cambridge spy network from 2019-09-21T11:00

The distinguished British art historian Anthony Blunt was exposed as a former Soviet spy in 1979. He was one of a group of double agents recruited at Cambridge University who passed vital informati...

Conflict timber in Liberia's civil war from 2019-09-14T09:29

How the timber industry fuelled a brutal civil war in West Africa, the Honduran coup that left the president holed up in an embassy plus the Indian affirmative action controversy, the first ever vo...

The outbreak of World War Two from 2019-09-07T13:00

On September 1st 1939 German forces invaded Poland. Douglas Slocombe, a British cameraman, was there at the time and filmed the build-up to the war. Also the man who resisted the Sicilian Mafia in...

The Kindertransport children from 2019-08-31T14:05

Around 10,000 children were sent by their parents to safety in the UK out of Nazi-dominated Europe in the run-up to the outbreak of WW2 in 1939. Many of the so-called Kindertransport children never...

The return of the wolf from 2019-08-24T14:06

Why the wolf was brought back to the US in the 1990s and the history of "rewilding", plus the liberation of Paris 75 years on, the missing children from El Salvador's civil war, the life and death ...

The division of Kashmir from 2019-08-17T15:06

The origins of the crisis in Kashmir, the warnings ignored about 9/11 and the arrest of the notorious terror suspect Carlos the Jackal. Plus the invention in a British back garden of the daily disp...

The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs' from 2019-08-10T15:00

The French colonialists who returned to France after decades in Algeria, the Catholic welcome when the British army was first deployed to Northern Ireland, plus the US nuclear submarine that went u...

The anti-nuclear protesters who won from 2019-08-03T13:00

The eight year protest campaign which stopped the construction of a nuclear reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf in Germany, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and from more than a decade later, the...

When Tunisia led on women's rights from 2019-07-27T14:06

Liberation for Tunisia's women in the 1950s; gay and lesbian fake marriages in China; the Chappaquiddick incident in the US; the birth of Mamma Mia! the musical, and the discovery of the fossilised...

Exploring space from 2019-07-20T08:00

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing in July 1969, five personal accounts of landmarks in space exploration. We hear from an Apollo flight controller about the moment Neil Armstrong ste...

Kenya's ivory inferno from 2019-07-13T14:37

Twelve tonnes of ivory was set alight by President Daniel Arap Moi in Nairobi National Park in July 1989, to highlight the threat from poaching. The ivory burn was organised by conservationists who...

Surviving Cambodia's 'Killing Fields' from 2019-07-06T11:30

Life under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, the Germans kidnapped by the Contras in Nicaragua in the 80s, plus how Aboriginal women took on the Australian government against nuclear waste, Anita Hill'...

The Stonewall riot from 2019-06-29T14:06

The riot that inspired the modern gay rights movement; Saddam Hussein's 1980s genocidal campaign against Iraq's Kurds; notorious British serial killers, Fred and Rose West; 50 years of fighting for...

The assassination of Medgar Evers from 2019-06-22T13:00

An African-American civil rights hero, a Chinese online star, the tragic icon of Iran's reform movement and archive recordings of the psychoanalyst CG Jung. Plus the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin'...

The first anti-psychotic drug from 2019-06-14T23:10

How a 1950s drug helped revolutionise the treatment of mental illness. Also, how hundreds of thousands of Kosovans fled when NATO bombed former Yugoslavia. Plus, a monumental public artwork in post...

D-Day from 2019-06-08T14:06

Eyewitness accounts of the Allied invasion of Nazi occupied Europe on D-day, 6th June 1944. We also hear how the BBC reported events on that momentous day. Plus Vikings in England, the Gurkhas figh...

Tiananmen Square from 2019-06-01T14:06

A student protester's perspective on the Tiananmen Square massacre, the first social network on the internet, the surprisingly controversial early years of Sesame Street, the overthrow of Emperor B...

Fighting Uganda's anti-gay laws from 2019-05-25T14:00

In 2009 Ugandan MPs tried to introduce new laws against homosexuality that would include life imprisonment and even the death penalty. We speak to Victor Mukasa about his story of fighting for LGBT...

The final days of Sri Lanka's civil war from 2019-05-18T14:16

In May 2009 the Sri Lankan army defeated the Tamil Tigers, ending a brutal 25-year civil war; also, the economists who predicted the 2008 global economic crash, plus the Nazis' stolen children, a v...

The war on drugs from 2019-05-13T09:15

US President Richard Nixon's efforts to deal with illegal drugs in 1971, the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam plus the rise of Jack Ma and his Alibaba empire in China. Also the Bauhaus mo...

The Malayan Emergency from 2019-05-04T14:20

Battling a communist insurgency in 1950s Malaya, the sinking of the Belgrano during the UK Argentine conflict, plus how Ellen DeGeneres came out to millions on US TV, also the African who made the ...

The al Yamamah arms deals from 2019-04-27T14:07

The huge but controversial Anglo-Saudi deal, the Sri Lankan journalist who predicted his own murder, plus remembering South Africa's historic election 25 years ago, the day NATO bombed Serbian TV, ...

The Columbine school shooting from 2019-04-18T15:53

The memories of the brother of one of the victims of the Columbine mass school shooting; plus the story behind 'A Raisin in the Sun' - the first play on Broadway by a black woman; the world's first...

The rise of Hindu nationalism from 2019-04-13T15:08

How an Indian religious rally in 1990 sparked the rise of Hindu nationalism, 100 years since the Amritsar Massacre plus the first wing-suit for base jumping, a US food scare in the 1960s and teachi...

Abolishing the army from 2019-04-06T13:00

After a brief civil war in March-April 1948, the new president of Costa Rica, Jose Figueres, took the audacious step of dissolving the Armed Forces. The Central American country is now one of just ...

Drama in the British parliament from 2019-03-30T14:40

Prime Minister Jim Callaghan's desperate attempts to survive a no-confidence motion in 1979, the record-breaking 20-day balloon flight around the world; plus the Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim, mindful...

Autism and the MMR vaccine from 2019-03-23T14:00

How a British doctor misled the world by linking the MMR vaccine to autism; the early rise of Hungary’s Viktor Orban also what it was like to contest the Soviet Union’s first multi-party elections ...

China's breakthrough malaria cure from 2019-03-16T15:06

How an ancient Chinese remedy provided a 1970s breakthrough in the fight against malaria; the bombing of Dresden in the Second World War that inspired Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war novel Slaughterhouse ...

I was abused by a President from 2019-03-09T15:06

How allegations of child abuse engulfed Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, the campaign to return the Elgin marbles to Greece, Britain's first black headteacher, the origins of the Barbie doll and...

Venezuela's oil bonanza from 2019-03-02T15:06

When Venezuela was rich; surviving a mid-air airline disaster; Japan's Red Army militants of the 1970s, the origin of the swine flu epidemic and Iceland's Beer Day. Photo: Seidel/United Archives/UI...

The curse of Agent Orange from 2019-02-23T15:36

Millions left dead or deformed because of chemicals used in the Vietnam war, UK cigarette smoking warnings ignored, remains of the Nazi 'Angel of Death' discovered in Brazil, the Columbia Shuttle d...

Iceland jails its bankers from 2019-02-16T15:06

Why Iceland jailed 40 bankers after the 2008 financial crisis, how the Maastricht Treaty gave birth to the EU, plus America's first female airline pilots, Cameroon's historic referendum and homeles...

The last days of Hitler from 2019-02-09T15:06

Hitler's secretary on the last days in the bunker; a CIA operative on the killing of Che Guevara, remembering the US invasion of Iraq, a child of the Soweto Uprising and the tricky task of bringing...

The Iranian Revolution from 2019-02-02T16:10

In February 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to Iran in the defining moment of a revolution that would change his country and the whole Middle East. In a special edition of the programm...

Vatican II: Reforming the Catholic Church from 2019-01-26T15:10

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. Plus Carmen Callil recalls setting up Virago, the most suc...

Strikers in Saris from 2019-01-19T15:33

How South Asian women led thousands of UK workers in an industrial dispute in the late 1970s, plus Dr Crippen's alleged gruesome crime, Judy Garland's emotional last performances, the 'miracle wate...

When Stalin Rounded Up Soviet Doctors from 2019-01-14T10:45

Stalin's last terror campaign against the best Soviet doctors, Castro's triumphant entry into Havana, the extraordinary story of how a destitute single mother produced a best selling memoir about h...

Vikings in North America from 2019-01-05T15:06

The discovery that proved the Vikings got to North America, a former Marxist rebel describes how his group overran an army base in El Salvador's bitter civil war in the 1980s, the enormous palace b...

UFO Sightings: The Rendlesham Forest Incident from 2018-12-29T14:00

The most striking and well documented UFO "sightings" there have ever been plus the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the theft of the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in 1950 also one o...

Stopping The 'Shoe Bomber' from 2018-12-22T12:06

Passenger Kwame James recalls how he helped overcome the British-born Richard Reid on American Airlines flight 63. Reid had hidden explosives in his shoe which failed to go off. Plus, the US apolo...

Apollo 8 from 2018-12-15T09:00

At Christmas 1968, the biggest audience in TV history watched NASA's Apollo 8 mission beam back the first pictures from an orbit around the Moon. The broadcast captured the world's imagination and ...

Adopted By The Man Who Killed My Family from 2018-12-08T15:00

A child survivor of a Guatemalan army massacre during the country's brutal civil war, the women who cleared up post war Berlin, plus Armenia's 1988 earthquake, how Bokassa became Emperor of the Cen...

The Man Who Inspired Britain's First Aids Charity from 2018-12-01T16:24

The first man in Britain to die of AIDS, whale hunting in the South Atlantic in the 1950s, how Norway voted not to join the EU, the American adventurer who inspired the Indiana Jones stories, and S...

The 'Braceros' - America's Mexican Guest Workers from 2018-11-24T12:20

From 1942 to 1964 the US actively encouraged American farmers to hire tens of thousands of migrant workers to come to work legally from Mexico - they were known as 'braceros'; also, when Moscow inv...

Japanese Murders in Brazil from 2018-11-17T14:00

How Japanese immigrants in Brazil fell out with each other after the end of the WW2, how Britain helped to get disabled people on the road in the 1940s plus life for Jews under Imperial Russia, the...

The End of World War One from 2018-11-10T14:00

11th November 1918 saw the end of a four year war that had killed an estimated 20 million soldiers and civilians around the world. We hear eyewitness accounts of the conflict which was fought by ma...

When Russia's Richest Man Was Jailed from 2018-10-26T16:55

Russia's struggles with big business, when Nigeria struck oil, why Maximilian Kolbe was made a saint, the London arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Desmond Tutu. Photo: former head ...

The Nazi Black Book from 2018-10-26T11:45

The Nazi black book, a list of those to be arrested and dealt with if Germany occupied Britain, privation in wartime and Allied-occupied Austria, racial tension in 1940s Sweden, plus how Britain's ...

When Belgium Banned Coca Cola from 2018-10-20T13:00

A strange illness strikes Belgian teenagers, Brazil's forgotten Amazon war, diverting Mount Etna's lava, arguments over aid and trade in the UK, and the 1973 oil crisis. (Photo: A poster saying ...

The Street Battle That Rocked Brazil from 2018-10-06T13:00

In October 1968, students from two neighbouring universities in the centre of São Paulo clashed in a battle which left one dead and many injured. We hear how the so-called 'Battle of Maria Antônia'...

The Arnhem Parachute Drop from 2018-09-22T14:26

Operation Market Garden - the failed attempt to end the war against Hitler; plus, a deadly nuclear accident in Brazil, the film of the Battle of Algiers, the last regular steam train to run in Brit...

How I Survived a Fire on a Plane from 2018-09-15T13:00

A lucky escape from a jet plane fire in the 1970s, Chamberlain's talks with Hitler in 1938 plus the killing of the South African anti-apartheid campaigner, Steve Biko. Also toxic waste being shippe...

Living under Gaddafi from 2018-09-08T14:00

Award-winning writer Hisham Matar on life in Gaddafi's Libya, plus how British Bengalis faced the far-right in 1970s east London, the last battles of WW1, the struggle to name St.Petersburg and the...

Surviving the "Death Railway" from 2018-09-01T14:06

A former prisoner of the Japanese in WW2, plus Hitler's girl guides, how Benidorm became a tourist hotspot, Italian migrant tragedy in post-war Belgium, and the Lake Nyos disaster. Photo: Allie...

Albert Speer - Hitler's Architect from 2018-08-25T08:00

Hitler's architect and minister of war, Albert Speer, was one of the few top Nazis to live on into old age. In the late 1970s, following his release from Spandau prison, he gave an interview to the...

Vera Brittain: Anti-Bombing Campaigner from 2018-08-18T14:06

Baroness Shirley Williams recalls her mother, WW2 anti-bombing protestor; 20 years since a mass killing in Omagh, the African-American photographer whose coverage of Martin Luther King's funeral wo...

WW1: Britain's Conscientious Objectors from 2018-08-04T13:00

The treatment of Britain's First World War conscientious objectors, Iran bends the nuclear rules, the CIA's first coup in Latin America, what happened to Eastern Europe's dancing bears, and the cul...

The Whitewashing of Zimbabwe's Ancient History from 2018-07-27T23:10

The true history of the Great Zimbabwe ruins uncovered after independence, why Churchill lost the post-war election also the first women at the US military academy West Point and the crack down on ...

The Killing of the Russian Tsar from 2018-07-21T13:00

The murder of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, four daughters and young son in 1918, plus how the Soviet Union struggled to feed its people in the 1950s; also the IRA attacks on mounted t...

Smiling Buddha: India's First Nuclear Test from 2018-07-14T14:57

The scientist at the forefront of India's first successful nuclear test in 1974, plus how an undersea mission finally found the remains of nearly 300 migrants drowned off Italy in the 1990s; also, ...

When The US Shot Down An Iranian Airliner from 2018-07-07T14:06

How a US warship downed a passenger jet killing 290 people, plus the story behind The Toilet, the controversial 1990s Russian 'masterpiece', Madeleine Albright on Kosovo, the history of adventure...

The Ex-President and the Gun Lobby from 2018-06-30T08:00

This week, how former US President George Bush Senior took on the all-powerful National Rifle Association; the murder of the campaigning Irish journalist, Veronica Guerin; and how a Soviet submarin...

Korea Divided: A Bitter History from 2018-06-16T13:00

From the 1945 division of the peninsula, to the Korean war and the death of Kim II-sung, we have first-hand accounts from the turbulent recent history of North and South Korea. Plus, expert analysi...

The 1968 Belgrade Student Revolt from 2018-06-09T11:30

The 1968 student revolt in Communist Yugoslavia, an assassination attempt that sparked Lebanon's war, Adolf Eichmann's execution, plus the sudden death of Nigeria's strong man in less than clear ci...

Free Health Care for All from 2018-06-03T21:56

The birth of the British health service in 1948; the battle for compensation over Thalidomide; the world's first bicycle-sharing scheme; discovering a perfectly-formed frozen baby mammoth in Siberi...

The Fall of Suharto in Indonesia from 2018-05-26T08:00

In 1998, the Indonesian dictator, President Suharto, resigned after 31 years in power. He stood down in the wake of nationwide demonstrations sparked by the killing of four student protestors. We h...

May 1968 Paris Riots from 2018-05-19T14:01

A French riot policeman's view of the violence that swept through France in May 1968; plus the man who led a team that made safe two nuclear weapons that had crashed to ground in the US. Also, the ...

The Last King of Bulgaria from 2018-05-12T13:00

From child king in the Second World War to post-communist prime minister, the story of Bulgaria's King Simeon II; the first ever surgery performed on a foetus in the womb, an American family sellin...

When Margaret Thatcher Came to Power from 2018-05-05T14:00

Working for Britain's first female PM, the rare story of prisoners on the high seas in WW2, plus the Children's Crusade for civil right in 60s Alabama, the origin of the Royal Shakespeare Company a...

The Oslo Peace Talks from 2018-04-28T13:00

The story behind the secret Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Oslo in 1993, the woman who swam from the USA to the Soviet Union, plus remembering Pablo Picasso, how art transformed notorious Scott...

Earth Day from 2018-04-21T13:00

The birth of the modern environmental movement, Germany's 1918 Spring Offensive, the discovery of the concentration camp horrors of Bergen-Belsen plus the rebuilding of the World Trade Centre sit...

The Zimbabwe Massacres from 2018-04-14T11:30

In this week's episode, Robert Mugabe's brutal crack down on the opposition in the 1980s, a mass expulsion of Soviet spies from Britain in the 1970's and the working class film revolution of the 19...

The Good Friday Agreement from 2018-03-31T08:00

In 1998, the political parties in Northern Ireland reached a peace agreement that ended decades of war. We hear from Paul Murphy, the junior minister for Northern Ireland at the time. Plus, a cross...

The Battle of the Airwaves in Latin America from 2018-03-17T14:00

Why the BBC started broadcasting to South and Central America, plus the My Lai Massacre, Brazil's careful transition to democracy, and Moscow's show trials in the 1930s. Photo: Members of the BB...

Deaf Rights Protest from 2018-03-10T11:33

A landmark protest by deaf students in the US; the early fight for women's reproductive rights; the life and times of political thinker, Hannah Arendt; language and history in Azerbaijan, and Wonde...

China's Barefoot Doctors from 2018-03-03T14:00

How China's barefoot doctor scheme revolutionised rural healthcare; plus M*A*S*H, the ground-breaking American TV show that taught a generation about war; the assassination of the Swedish prime min...

The Boy in the Bubble from 2018-02-24T14:00

How a young boy lived with a rare genetic disorder; plus "Ghana Must Go" - when 1 million Africans were expelled from Nigeria, battling the last major smallpox epidemic in India, reporting the Jimm...

Women's Rights In Iran from 2018-02-17T15:25

We hear from Mahnaz Afkhami, Iran's first ever minister for Women's Affairs, appointed in 1975. Plus, the so-called "headscarf revolutionaries" who fought for improvements in Britain's notoriously ...

The Munich Air Disaster from 2018-02-10T00:30

The plane crash that killed eight of Manchester United's top players, the courage of the British Suffragettes, uncovering South Africa's nuclear secrets, plus tracking down Nazis in South America a...

The Tet Offensive from 2018-02-03T12:30

In January 1968, North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong guerrillas launched a huge surprise attack on towns, cities and military bases across South Vietnam. The events of the Tet offensive had a pro...

The Capture of the USS Pueblo from 2018-01-27T15:06

When North Korea and the US came close to war in 1968; plus Salvador Dali, re-creating Francis Bacon's studio, the first veggie burger and the origins of Lego Photo: Members of the USS Pueblo's c...

Truth And Reconciliation in South Africa from 2018-01-20T13:00

After Apartheid was abolished in the 1990s, South Africa set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to try to confront the legacy of its brutal past. We speak to Justice Sisi Khampepe, who served...

When France Said 'Non' to Britain Joining Europe from 2018-01-13T13:00

When France stopped Britain joining Europe in the 1960s, the boy who set a record for continuously staying awake, the launch of the first iPhone, hands reaching out in friendship between Britain an...

Boris Yeltsin's Surprise Resignation from 2018-01-06T15:06

Mrs Yeltsin, on the day her husband shocked the world, half a century since the Mafia's grip on America was exposed, the 1999 protests in Iran - the biggest since the revolution - a student tells ...

Kwanzaa - The African-American Holiday from 2017-12-30T14:00

How Black activists invented a new holiday, flying around the world without refuelling, what not to do if you win a fortune, and the mountaineers who risked their lives climbing the spires of Leni...

To Kill A Mockingbird from 2017-12-23T12:00

One of the most successful American films of all time was released on Christmas Day 1962. Based on the best-selling book by author Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird starred Gregory Peck as a lawyer...

The Unsung Hero of Heart Surgery from 2017-12-16T00:15

The African-American lab technician, Vivien Thomas, who pioneered surgery that saved millions of babies, Otis Redding remembered 50 years on from his tragic death, the killer smog of the 1950's Lon...

British Withdrawal from South Yemen from 2017-12-09T12:00

Fifty years since Aden gained independence from Britain, plus an amazing discovery under the oceans, a celebration of Finnish independence, Russian art punished by the Bolsheviks and the building o...

The Poisoning of Litvinenko from 2017-12-02T14:51

In November 2006, the world was shocked by the murder in London of former Russian intelligence officer, Alexander Litvinenko. We hear from his widow Marina about his life and agonising death, and g...

The Siege of Mecca from 2017-11-25T14:00

The secret battle for the holiest site in Islam in 1979; the coup that changed the Vietnam war, plus an East German musical icon, prosecuting Charles Manson and Toy Story's digital revolution. Ph...

The 'Disappeared' of Lebanon from 2017-11-18T14:00

The women searching for their loved-ones who went missing during the Lebanese civil war, plus the man who first discovered diamonds in Botswana, a pioneer of the Indian restaurant business in the U...

The Russian Revolution: The Bolsheviks Take Control from 2017-11-11T13:00

Eye-witness accounts from the Russian Revolution of October 1917; the first dog in space; Sabah, one of the biggest 20th-century stars of the Middle East; the last journalist to interview Osama Bi...

Martin Luther's 95 Theses from 2017-11-04T14:00

The German monk who began a religious uprising; the book that made us think of humans as animals; how the murder of a Brazilian journalist by the secret police became a symbol of Brazil's military ...

The Fake IDs That Saved Jewish Lives from 2017-10-29T03:00

How tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews escaped the Nazis by using false papers; what happened when abortion became illegal overnight in 1960s Romania; the murder of campaigning Nigerian journalist...

The 43 Group: Battling British Fascists from 2017-10-21T13:06

How Jewish veterans fought fascism in post war Britain; plus investigating the death of Mozambique's president Samora Machel, we hear from a survivor of the Moscow theatre siege, inside the Cuba M...

The Death of Che Guevara from 2017-10-14T13:06

In October 1967 the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was captured and killed in Bolivia - we hear from the CIA operative who was one of the last people to speak to him. Plus, the plan to rescue It...

The Hate Crime That Changed American Law from 2017-10-07T13:00

Why the brutal killing of a young gay man in Wyoming prompted change, how white people came to terms with their past after segregation in deep south America, living alongside Israeli soldiers in Ga...

Walking the Great Wall of China from 2017-09-29T16:07

Walking the Great Wall of China; the death of Pope John Paul 1 after just a month in the job; turning against a colonial power - how Guinea gained independence from France; the life and times of an...

When Animals Make History from 2017-09-24T13:00

Five remarkable stories of animals in recent history - from the guide dog who led her owner out of the World Trade Center on 9/11 to a ferocious shark attack to the locust swarm that flew more than...

The Collapse of Northern Rock from 2017-09-16T13:05

The run on a British bank which signalled the coming global financial crisis, a schoolboy arrested in East Germany for writing a letter, a doctor remembers the Sabra Shatila massacre in Beirut, and...

The Fairy Photos from 2017-09-09T13:00

The search for a spirit world after WW1 that led people to believe that photographs of fairies were real. Plus Jamaica's worst train crash, France's last execution by guillotine, the man who saved ...

The Death of Princess Diana from 2017-09-02T13:00

Princess Diana's brother remembers the passionate speech he gave at her funeral, and one of the doctors who treated her at the scene of her fatal car crash remembers her death. Plus, how George ...

Medicine in World War One from 2017-08-26T13:43

In BBC archive recordings, veterans tell the story of how medical care dealt with the horrors of WW1. Plus when Germany put Nazis on trial, race riots in London's Notting Hill in 1958, and in East ...

Nike and the Sweatshop Problem from 2017-08-19T08:00

On this week's programme, how campaigners took on Nike in the 1990s, plus the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the newspaper which defied Argentine's military dictatorship. We also find out more abou...

Reagan's Bombing Joke from 2017-08-11T17:28

Ronald Reagan's joke about bombing Russia in the 1980s, the murder of a Palestinian cartoonist in London, communal violence in India a year before partition, the man who discovered the Great Pacifi...

When Homosexuality Was a Crime from 2017-07-29T13:04

Comedian and broadcaster Pete Price speaks about being subjected to horrific aversion therapy to "cure" him of his homosexuality in 1960s Britain. Plus the 99-year-old former aide to the Chinese na...

Psychological Warfare from 2017-07-22T13:06

Spooking fighters during the Vietnam War, building the Mont Blanc Tunnel, designing a Nintendo legend, the murder of Gianni Versace and archive voices from the 'Bonus Army' a protest movement of WW...

The Oka Crisis from 2017-07-15T13:00

A watershed moment for Canada's indigenous people as Mohawks take on the developers, the birth of UKIP in Britain, memories of the poet Irina Ratushinskaya who died earlier this month - plus dance ...

The Roswell Incident from 2017-07-08T14:00

In July 1947 a US rancher found some debris in the New Mexico desert - did it come from an alien spacecraft? Witness hears from the son of one of the US servicemen who investigated the incident, an...

The History of Modern Tourism from 2017-07-02T11:00

In a tourism special we look at the original low-cost transatlantic airline, based in Iceland, the 1960s Hippie trail. Also the journey that led to the best selling Lonely Planet travel guides, po...

Italy's Secret "State-within-a-State" from 2017-06-24T13:00

Murder and conspiracy among Italy's elite, an Italian atrocity in 1930s Ethiopia, Christians in the Korean War, Japan hosts the first Body Worlds, and Asian Americans struggle against racism and vi...

The Woman Who Stopped Equal Rights in America from 2017-06-17T13:05

Phlyllis Schalfly, the woman who defeated a law to guarantee gender equality in the US; plus, the first performance of the Beatles hit "All You Need Is Love", a forgotten WW2 disaster, Berber righ...

The Six Day War 1967 from 2017-06-10T13:00

Soldiers from both sides on the battle for Jerusalem; plus Robert Kennedy's assassination, the child who fought slavery in Pakistan, and the cousin of Anne Frank Photo:Israeli forces advancing in ...

Operation Lifeline: Canada's Refugee Revolution from 2017-06-03T13:00

How private citizens in Canada sponsored Vietnamese boat-people. Plus the first ever charity rock concert for Chernobyl, the actor who stared in a Hitchcock murder movie, America's first ever femal...

Brown v The Board of Education from 2017-05-20T13:00

The 1954 US Supreme Court ruling that led to the end of racial segregation in US schools, the Iranian woman protestor whose death on film shocked the world; the start of the worldwide dieting franc...

The Trial of Maurice Papon from 2017-05-13T13:10

The French minister tried for colluding with the Nazis, the USSR's version of James Bond, the beginning of China's economic boom, plus the first time Americans were told they were too fat - but tha...

The Invention of Liposuction from 2017-05-06T13:00

In the 1970s, Italian cosmetic surgeons Arpad and Giorgio Fischer developed the modern technique of liposuction, which involves sucking out fat from under the skin. The global cosmetic surgery indu...

Searching For Argentina's Disappeared from 2017-04-29T13:00

In April 1977 a group of women in Argentina held the first ever public demonstration to demand the release of thousands of opponents of the military regime. It was the start of a long campaign by t...

Charlie Chaplin Returns to America from Exile from 2017-04-22T13:00

Charlie Chaplin's son on his father's political views and his rocky relationship with his one-time adopted home, America. Plus the Hubble telescope produces the first clear pictures of the furthest...

The Takeover of Russia's NTV from 2017-04-15T13:00

NTV was Russia's only nationwide independent TV station until it was taken over in April 2001. We hear from the head of the station at the time. Plus, Ethiopia's Red Terror; the Katyn massacre duri...

How Princess Diana changed the perception of AIDS from 2017-04-10T07:45

The royal handshake that changed attitudes to AIDS, America enters WW1, plus Egypt's Facebook girl, Nagorno Karabakh and remembering Jane Fonda's workout (Photo: Princess Diana with an AIDS patien...

The Flavr Savr Tomato - The World's First Genetically Engineered Food from 2017-04-01T08:00

In 1994 the world's first genetically-engineered food went on sale in the US. It was a tomato, called the 'Flavr Savr' which stayed fresh for up to 30 days. Plus, a mysterious anthrax outbreak in t...

The First Russian Revolution of 1917 from 2017-03-18T05:06

100 years since the Russian Revolution, Imperial Russia in colour, AIDS and the mystery of 'Patient Zero', when Indian sex workers marched for employment rights and the British Lord who fled the Na...

Kuwaiti Women Secure the Vote from 2017-03-10T17:06

Women in Kuwait win the right to vote, and the only women on the front line on the Western Front in World War One; battling smog in Mexico City in the 1980s, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and Americ...

Mother Teresa - The Nun Who Became A Saint from 2017-03-04T09:00

Life with Mother Teresa among the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, how the World Health Organisation came to realise that obesity was a global problem and Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House. Plu...

The German American Bund from 2017-02-25T09:00

In the 1930s, a group of German-American Nazi sympathisers known as the German American Bund held rallies and summer camps across the US. Also, the lawyers who helped Serbian leader Slobodan Milose...

Love and Marriage from 2017-02-18T17:00

From speed-dating to gay romance, from divorce to bigamy we look at recent changes in the way society perceives love and marriage. Plus - an expert view on how to make sure your love endures. ...

Sanctuary Cities in the USA from 2017-02-11T00:10

This week how American cities like San Francisco became safe havens for undocumented immigrants, the story of Tilikum and first recorded killing of a human by an orca whale, discovering DNA, the s...

The End of Apartheid from 2017-02-04T09:00

Former South African police minister on ending apartheid, eyewitness to Black Hawk Down, landmark sexual harassment case in India, the last South American war and a record breaking solo trek acros...

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy from 2017-01-28T12:00

On 26 January 1972 four Aboriginal men began a protest outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. They erected a beach umbrella on the grass and called it an 'embassy'. Plus, the murder of...

Roots - The TV Series from 2017-01-21T16:09

The epic mini-series about slavery in the US hit TV screens in January 1977. We hear from actor Leslie Uggams, who played the character Kizzy, recalling how "Roots" revolutionised perceptions abou...

Princess Diana's Minefield Walk from 2017-01-14T16:40

In 1997, the Princess of Wales made a high-profile visit to a landmine clearance programme in Angola. Her trip is credited with boosting the campaign for a global landmine treaty signed later that ...

American Communists from 2017-01-07T09:00

The early American Communists, a North Vietnamese tunneler who helped outsmart the Americans and win the war in Vietnam, plus the pyramid scheme failure in Albania which left gun-toting children on...

The Break-Up of the Soviet Union from 2016-12-31T16:29

December 1991 saw the end of 70 years of communist rule and the collapse of the Soviet Union. We hear from two of the key signatories of the dissolution treaty, a witness to the ensuing crisis in o...

Death of an Anarchist from 2016-12-24T10:00

The controversial death in police custody of Italian anarchist, Giuseppe Pinelli, the Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett how Greece and Turkey almost came to war over a tiny rocky island ...

Yoyes, ETA's female icon from 2016-12-16T17:34

The life and untimely death of a Basque separatist fighter, resisting the Nazis in Lithuania, a medical breakthrough that prevented babies from dying in their cots, the grand old lady of Brazilian ...

100 Women History Hour from 2016-12-10T09:00

A special edition of the programme remembering some of the women that history has overlooked. From women warriors to women scientists. From rural women, to factory workers we bring you the stories ...

Bob Marley Survives Assassination Attempt from 2016-12-03T09:00

The shooting of Bob Marley in 1976, the resistance of the Mirabal Sisters, how Ralph Nader made Americans safer, discovering Colombia's ancient Lost City and when Le Corbusier built Chandigarh - ...

The 1948 French Miners' Strike from 2016-11-25T17:48

This week, the French Miners' strike of 1948, 50 years since the launch of the Cabaret musical, the Silk Letters Movement of British India, the plane-spotters jailed for spying and how to save baby...

The Dili Massacre from 2016-11-19T16:25

It is 25 years since Indonesian troops attacked protestors in the East Timorese capital, plus the impact of The Satanic Verses on British society, smuggling endangered birds out of the jungles of S...

The Pitcairn Sex Abuse Trial from 2016-11-13T04:30

A mass child sex abuse trial on a remote island in the Pacific that shocked the world, a controversial Kurdish song, the birth of Rolling Stone magazine, men versus computers, and street fighting i...

Dickey Chapelle - War Reporter from 2016-11-05T09:00

On this week's programme, how pioneering American woman war reporter, Dickey Chapelle, was killed in Vietnam; plus two very different perspectives on Mao's China, Mexican writer Octavio Paz and the...

Shell Shock from 2016-10-29T07:00

World War One veterans describe Shell Shock and Prof. Edgar Jones of Kings College on the psychiatric cost of war; plus Hungary's 1956 uprising, how French intelligence was rocked by the abduction ...

The Mayak Nuclear Disaster from 2016-09-30T20:47

One of the world's worst nuclear disasters, the most notorious prison riot in America, Second World War internment in Australia, resistance in apartheid South Africa, and one of Britain's most cele...

The University of Texas Shooting from 2016-08-08T10:05

On 1 August 1966, student Charles Whitman shot dead 14 people and injured another 32 in America's first mass shooting at a university. Plus, the oldest arts festival in the Middle East; how Preside...

First CIA coup in Latin America from 2016-07-30T08:00

In this week's programme, we hear personal accounts of two fronts in America's Cold War fight against communism: Guatemala and Russia itself. Plus, the earthquake in China that killed a quarter of ...

Tanzania's Ujamaa from 2016-06-04T07:06

Socialism in Tanzania, the man who assassinated the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, the crash of the Soviet supersonic jet Concordski, 20 years to build a road and Date Rape (Photo: Tanzania...

The Thalidomide Trial from 2016-05-28T08:00

Executives of the German company that made the drug Thalodomide go on trial. Plus, Chechen rebels negotiate peace with President Yeltsin; the Israeli airlift of 14,000 Ethiopian Jews; Hands Across ...

Remembering Chernobyl from 2016-04-30T07:53

Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear disaster; the funeral of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution changed the world; plus, the impact of being accused during the McCarthy era in America, and ...

The Original Revolutionary Feminist from 2016-03-12T10:22

Russia's revolutionary feminist, British women after the First World War, poisoning in the Balkans, a miscarriage of justice in Britain, and the world's worst aviation disaster

The Battle of Verdun from 2016-02-20T14:00

The World War One battle that traumatised France; the Austrian mountaineer who wrote Seven Years in Tibet; how Christian Dior revolutionised fashion with the 'New Look'. Plus, how Foot-and-Mouth di...

Prozac from 2016-02-06T10:14

The birth of the Prozac generation, the battle to save Afghanistan's ancient artworks and death and violence in the Spanish embassy in Guatemala. Plus we hear about an American political corruption...

The Challenger Disaster from 2016-01-30T10:00

The launch of space shuttle Challenger goes horribly wrong, Rupert Murdoch goes to war with his print unions, Australia's 18th century penal colonies, Sharia law in Nigeria, and Batman comes to TV....

Michael Jackson's Thriller from 2015-12-31T16:08

The 1982 release of the world's best selling album; plus the untimely death of General George S Patton; the former child star Karolyn Grimes on the film It's A Wonderful Life, the Beagle 2 mission ...

The Battle of Tora Bora from 2015-12-12T09:00

The hunt for Bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan; a Ku Klux Klan trial in 1965; the siege of Kut in World War 1; an unexpected alliance in 1980s Britain with Lesbians and Gays Support the Min...

The Amman Bombings from 2015-11-14T17:19

Suicide bombings in Amman; a massacre in East Timor that was a turning point on the road to independence; the fall of the Taliban; anti-Sikh riots in India; and the BBC's first wildlife broadcaster

The Death of Rock Hudson from 2015-10-03T08:06

Angie Dickinson remembers her friend, the Hollywood superstar who became the most high profile celebrity to acknowledge he was suffering from Aids; plus one of the founding members of Cuba's Buena ...

Korea Divided from 2015-08-15T09:00

In this programme: Korea split along the 38th parallel, child prisoners of the Japanese during World War Two, the notorious Devil's Island penal colony, the man who published Harry Potter and Sue t...