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Witness History

BBC

History as told by the people who were there.

Location:

United Kingdom

Networks:

BBC

Description:

History as told by the people who were there.

Language:

English


Episodes

Pinyin: The man who helped China to read and write

3/18/2024
In 1958, a brand new writing system was introduced in China called Pinyin. It used the Roman alphabet to help simplify Chinese characters into words. The mastermind behind Pinyin was a professor called Zhou Youguang who'd previously worked in the United States as a banker. Pinyin helped to rapidly increase literacy levels in China. When it was introduced, 80% of the population couldn't read or write. It's now only a couple of percent. Despite being responsible for such an important tool in China's development, Zhou was subjected to re-education as part of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. He was forced to work on a farm in rural China. In 2017 Zhou Youguang died aged 111. Matt Pintus has been going through archive interviews to piece together Zhou's life. This programme contains archive material from NPR and the BBC. (Photo: Zhou Youguang. Credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Duration:00:09:50

The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius

3/15/2024
The Mount Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii in 79AD is well known, but far fewer people know about the last time the volcano erupted in 1944. It was World War Two, and families in southern Italy had already lived through a German invasion, air bombardment, and surrender to the Allies. And then at 16:30 on 18 March, Vesuvius erupted. The sky filled with violent explosions of rock and ash, and burning lava flowed down the slopes, devastating villages. By the time it was over, 11 days later, 26 people had died and about 12,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Angelina Formisano, who was nine, was among those evacuated from the village of San Sebastiano. She’s been speaking to Jane Wilkinson about being in the path of an erupting volcano. (Photo: Vesuvius erupting in March 1944. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

Duration:00:09:15

Winifred Atwell: The honky-tonk star who was Sir Elton John’s hero

3/14/2024
Winifred Atwell was a classically-trained pianist from Trinidad who became one of the best-selling artists of the 1950s in the UK. She played pub tunes on her battered, out-of-tune piano which travelled everywhere with her. Her fans included Sir Elton John and Queen Elizabeth II. She was the first instrumentalist to go to number one in the UK. This programme, produced and presented by Vicky Farncombe, tells her story using archive interviews. (Photo: Winifred Atwell. Credit: BBC)

Duration:00:09:07

Paraguay adopts its second language

3/13/2024
In 1992, Guarani was designated an official language in Paraguay’s new constitution, alongside Spanish. It is the only indigenous language of South America to have achieved such recognition and ended years of rejection and discrimination against Paraguay’s majority Guarani speakers. Mike Lanchin hears from the Paraguayan linguist and anthropologist David Olivera, and even tries to speak a bit of the language. A CTVC production for the BBC World Service. (Photo: A man reads a book in Guarani. Credit: Norberto Duarte/AFP/Getty Images)

Duration:00:08:58

Finding the longest set of footprints left by the first vertebrate

3/12/2024
In 1992 off the coast of Ireland, a Swiss geology student accidentally discovered the longest set of footprints made by the first four-legged animals to walk on earth. They pointed to a new date for the key milestone in evolution when the first amphibians left the water 385 million years ago. The salamander-type animal which was the size of a basset hound lived when County Kerry was semi-arid, long before dinosaurs, as Iwan Stössel explains to Josephine McDermott. (Picture: Artwork of a primitive tetrapod. Credit: Christian Jegou/ Science Photo Library)

Duration:00:09:46

11M: The day Madrid was bombed

3/11/2024
A regular morning turned into a day of nightmares for Spanish commuters on 11 March 2004. In the space of minutes, 10 bombs detonated on trains around Madrid, killing nearly 200 people and injuring more than 1,800. With a general election three days away, the political fall-out was dramatic. In 2014, two politicians from opposite sides told Mike Lanchin about that terrible day – and what happened next. (Photo: The wreckage of a commuter train. Credit: Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)

Duration:00:08:52

MH370: The plane that vanished

3/8/2024
On 8 March 2014, a plane carrying 239 passengers and crew disappeared. What happened to missing flight MH370 remains one of the world's biggest aviation mysteries. Ghyslain Wattrelos’ wife Laurence and teenage children Ambre and Hadrien were on the plane, which was on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. He was on a different flight at the time and only found out the plane was missing when he landed. A decade on, Ghyslain tells Vicky Farncombe how he’s no closer to knowing what happened to his family. “I am exactly at the same point that I was 10 years ago. We don't know anything at all.” (Photo: Ghyslain Wattrelos. Credit: Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Duration:00:10:00

Rehabilitating Kony's child soldiers in Uganda

3/7/2024
In 2002, a Catholic nun arrived in Gulu, a town in northern Uganda, to help set up a sewing school for locals. For years, the town had been the target of brutal attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army, led by the warlord Joseph Kony. The rebel group was known for kidnapping children and forcing them into becoming soldiers. As the LRA was being chased out of Uganda, those who were captured arrived at the school seeking refuge. Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe shares the shocking stories of those who escaped captivity with George Crafer. (Photo: Sister Rosemary at St Monica's. Credit: Sewing Hope Foundation)

Duration:00:09:56

The Carnation Revolution in Portugal

3/6/2024
25 April is Freedom Day in Portugal. Five decades ago on that date, flowers filled the streets of the capital Lisbon as a dictatorship was overthrown. Europe’s longest-surviving authoritarian regime was toppled in a day, with barely a drop of blood spilled. In 2010, Adelino Gomes told Louise Hidalgo what he witnessed of the Carnation Revolution. (Photo: A young boy hugs a soldier in the street. Credit: Jean-Claude Francolon/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images)

Duration:00:09:09

French child evacuees of World War Two

3/5/2024
In August and September 1939, tens of thousands of children began to be evacuated from Paris. The move, part of France's 'passive defence' tactic, aimed to protect children from the threat of German bombardment. Colette Martel was just nine when she was taken from Paris to Savigny-Poil-Fol, a small town more than 300km from her home. She’s been speaking to her granddaughter, Carolyn Lamboley, about how her life changed. She particularly remembers how she struggled to fit in with her host family, and how it all changed because of a pair of clogs. (Photo: Colette (left) with her sister Solange in 1939. Credit: family photo)

Duration:00:10:15

Uruguay v the tobacco giant

3/4/2024
Uruguay was one of the first countries in the world to introduce anti-smoking laws. But in 2010, the tobacco giant Philip Morris took the country to court claiming the measures devalued its investments. The case pitted the right of a country to introduce health policies against the commercial freedoms of a cigarette company. Uruguay’s former Public Health Minister María Julia Muñoz tells Grace Livingstone about the significance of the ban and its fallout. (Photo: An anti-tobacco installation in Montevideo, Uruguay. Credit: Pablo La Rosa/Reuters)

Duration:00:10:12

The Whisky War: Denmark v Canada

3/1/2024
In 1984, a diplomatic dispute broke out between Canada and Denmark over the ownership of a tiny island in the Arctic. The fight for Hans Island off the coast of Greenland became known as the Whisky War. Both sides would leave a bottle of alcohol for the enemies after raising their national flag. What could be the friendliest territorial dispute in history came to an end in 2022, with the agreement held up as an example of how diplomacy should work. Janice Fryett hears from Tom Hoyem and Alan Kessel, politicians on either side of the bloodless war. A Made in Manchester Production for the BBC World Service. (Photo: Tom Hoyem with a Danish flag on Hans Island. Credit: Niels Henriksen)

Duration:00:09:00

The discovery of the Lord of Sipan in Peru

2/29/2024
In 1987, Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva received a call from the police urging him to look at ancient artefacts confiscated from looters. The seized objects were so precious that Walter decided to set up camp in Sipan, the site where they were found. There, he dug and researched what turned out to be the richest tomb found intact in the Americas: the resting place of an ancient ruler, the Lord of Sipan. Walter tells Stefania Gozzer about the challenges and threats he and his team faced to preserve the grave. The music from this programme was composed by Daniel Hernández Díaz and performed by Jarana & Son. (Photo: Walter beside the discovery. Credit: Walter Alva)

Duration:00:08:59

The lost Czech scrolls

2/28/2024
On 7 February 1964, an unusual delivery was made to a synagogue in London. More than 1,500 Torah scrolls, lost since the end of World War Two, were arriving from Czechoslovakia. The sacred Jewish texts had belonged to communities destroyed by the Nazis. Alex Strangwayes-Booth talks to 91-year-old Philippa Bernard about the emotional charge of that day. A CTVC production for the BBC World Service. (Photo: Philippa beside the scrolls in Westminster Synagogue. Credit: BBC)

Duration:00:09:10

Crimea's Soviet holiday camp

2/27/2024
Artek, on the shores of the Black Sea in Crimea, was a hugely popular Soviet holiday camp. Maria Kim Espeland was one of the thousands of children who visited every year. In 2014, she told Lucy Burns about life in the camp in the 1980s. (Photo: A group of children attending Artek. Credit: Irina Vlasova)

Duration:00:09:02

Russia annexes Crimea

2/26/2024
In 2014, Russia annexed the strategic Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, a move seen by Kyiv and many other countries as illegal. The crisis it caused was so acute the world seemed on the brink of a new cold war. In 2022, one Crimean woman told Louise Hidalgo what it was like to live through. (Photo: A soldier outside the Crimean parliament in 2014. Credit: Getty Images)

Duration:00:09:00

Whistler: Creating one of the world’s biggest ski resorts

2/23/2024
In 2003, Whistler Blackcomb won its bid to host the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. It was sixth time lucky for the Canadian ski resort which had been opened to the public in 1966. The mountain – which is named after the high-pitched whistle of the native marmot – has been through a lot of iterations and one man has been there to see nearly all of them. Hugh Smythe, known as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Whistler, has been sharing his memories of the mountain with Matt Pintus. (Photo: Whistler mountain. Credit: Getty Images)

Duration:00:09:00

Columbus Lighthouse

2/22/2024
In 1992, Columbus Lighthouse opened in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It was designed to house the ashes of explorer, Christopher Columbus. The huge memorial is built in the form of a horizontal cross and has 157 searchlight beams that when turned on project a gigantic cross into the sky. The light is so powerful it can be seen from over 300km away in Puerto Rico. Tour guide and historian, Samuel Bisono tells Gill Kearsley about the struggle to get the monument built. (Photo: Columbus Lighthouse. Credit: Gill Kearsley)

Duration:00:10:08

Trans murder in Honduras

2/21/2024
In June 2009, transgender sex worker and activist Vicky Hernandez was murdered in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula. The killers were never identified or punished, but in 2021 the Inter-American Human Rights Court found the Honduran state responsible for the crime. It ordered the government to enact new laws to prevent discrimination and violence against LGBT people. Mike Lanchin hears from Claudia Spelman, a trans activist and friend of Vicky, and the American human rights lawyer Angelita Baeyens. A CTVC production for the BBC World Service. (Photo: A protestor holds a sign saying “Late Justice is not Justice”. Credit: Wendell Escoto/AFP/Getty Images)

Duration:00:09:07

Icelandic women's strike

2/20/2024
In October 1975, 90% of women in Iceland took part in a nationwide protest over inequality. Factories and banks were forced to close and men were left holding the children as 25,000 women took to the streets. In 2015, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, later Iceland's first female president, told Kirstie Brewer about the impact of that day. (Photo: Women take to the streets. Credit: The Icelandic Women's History Archives)

Duration:00:09:11