Main content

Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Indonesia’s indigenous people take a stand

    The first ever Congress of Indigenous People of the Archipelago of Indonesia in 1999

  2. Founder of the Cuban National Ballet

    In 1959, Cuba’s most famous ballet dancer formed Cuba’s National Ballet Company

  3. Cuba's boxing ban

    In 1962, Fidel Castro banned professional boxing in Cuba, causing some amateurs to defect

  4. The ‘army’ that taught Cuba to read and write

    In 1961, Fidel Castro launched a campaign aimed to eradicate illiteracy in Cuba.

  5. Cuban Missile Crisis: The showdown

    The final days of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in the Pentagon and the Kremlin

  6. Cuban Missile Crisis: The photos

    The CIA expert whose job was to interpret photographs of missiles in Cuba

  7. Cesar Chavez’s campaign for farm workers

    How the leader of a labour movement became a US civil rights hero

  8. Geisha mountain top strike

    In 1937, geisha from Osaka sat on a mountain for a week until their union was recognised

  9. Torturing strikers in South Korea

    A strike for better work conditions became a divisive moment in South Korea's history

  10. Disney animators' strike

    In 1941, the animators at Walt Disney's studios went on strike for nine weeks over pay

  11. UK’s ‘Winter of Discontent’

    In 1979, British gravediggers went on strike over pay

  12. The beginnings of Notting Hill Carnival

    In 1959, Claudia Jones held a Caribbean party, planting the seeds for the famous carnival

  13. The Harder They Come

    Jimmy Cliff spoke about the film that brought reggae music to the world in 1972

  14. The fall of Slobodan Milosevic

    How the Yugoslavian president was forced from office in October 2000

  15. The release of Gilad Shalit

    Israeli solider Gilad Shalit was freed after being held hostage for more than five years

  16. The funk and soul club that changed Manchester

    Manchester’s first racially inclusive nightclub

  17. Dassler brothers’ rift

    Brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler would go on to create global firms Adidas and Puma.

  18. The raising of the Mary Rose

    King Henry VIII's warship, The Mary Rose, was raised from the seabed in October 1982

  19. Castrating Pablo Escobar's hippos

    Pablo Escobar's pet hippos were found roaming Colombian waterways in 2007

  20. Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Schindler

    In 1940, Chiune Sugihara saved the lives of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis

  21. The power of Jomo Kenyatta

    Death pardons and chasing diplomats with sticks

  22. Festival of Light

    The Nationwide Festival of Light held by Christians protested against societal changes

  23. Iran-Iraq War begins

    On 22 September 1980 the Iran-Iraq war began, one of the bloodiest in recent history

  24. The first Pope to visit Africa

    Popes rarely left the Vatican City in the 1960s, but in 1969, Pope Paul VI visited Uganda

  25. Ancient fossils give new insight

    A student discovered fossils in 1967 helping our understanding of the world's evolution

  26. World War Two child evacuees in Britain

    The thousands of children moved out of UK cities away from the risk of German bombs

  27. The last days of Queen Victoria

    Witness History looks back on Queen Victoria's last days in 1901

  28. When the Queen opened Buckingham Palace

    Queen Elizabeth II first opened her home to the paying public on 7 August 1993

  29. Windsor Castle fire

    How a fire devastated Queen Elizabeth II's weekend home in 1992

  30. Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Derby

    The Coronation Derby of 1953

  2. 1
  3. …
  4. 33
  5. 34
  6. 35
  7. 36
  8. 37
  9. …
  10. 155