Witness History
2,017 episodes - English - Latest episode: 16 days ago - ★★★★★ - 853 ratingsHistory as told by the people who were there.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
The Eruption of Mount Pinatubo
June 15, 2016 08:00 - 9 minutes - 4.12 MBOn 15 June 1991 one of the largest volcanic eruptions of recent times occurred at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. The volcano had been dormant for over 600 years. The eruption produced high-speed avalanches of hot ash and gas, giant mudflows, and a cloud of volcanic ash hundreds of kilometres wide. Witness has been speaking to volcanologist, John Ewert, who was part of the team monitoring the volcano. (Photo: Clark Airbase Philippines. John Ewert 4th from right. Photo courtesy of John Ew...
Moral Majority
June 14, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBIn June 1979 the Moral Majority was launched and changed the course of American politics. It was set up to promote family values by religious conservatives from Catholic, Jewish and evangelical Christian communities. It urged protestants in particular to go against the tradition of separating politics and religion and register to vote, and to vote Republican. Richard Viguerie was one of the driving forces behind the movement. (Photo: Ronald Reagan with Richard Viguerie in Atlanta, Georgia,...
When TV Came to Bhutan
June 13, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBThere was a ban on television in Bhutan for decades because of fears it would ruin the country's traditional way of life. But in June 1999 the tiny Himalayan kingdom finally broadcast its first TV programme. Ashley Byrne has spoken to two people who remember the day well Photo: The capital of Bhutan,Thimpu)
The Battle for Mixed Race Marriage in the US
June 10, 2016 08:00 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBIn 1958, a mixed-race couple, Mildred and Richard Loving, were arrested and then banished from the US state of Virginia for breaking its laws against inter-racial marriage. Nine years later, Mildred and Richard Loving won a ruling at the Supreme Court declaring this sort of legislation unconstitutional. Witness speaks to the Lovings' lawyer, Bernie Cohen. PHOTO: Mildred and Richard Loving in the 1960s (Associated Press)
Iraq's Secret Nuclear Programme
June 09, 2016 11:18 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn June 1981 Israeli war planes destroyed Iraq's new, French-built nuclear reactor. Two senior Iraqi nuclear scientists, who were in Baghdad that day, tell Witness how the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant would trigger Iraq's secret programme to acquire nuclear weapons. Photograph: journalists are shown a destroyed nuclear reactor at Iraq's main nuclear research centre just south of Baghdad, ten years after the Israeli attack (Credit: Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty Images)
Karakoram Highway
June 08, 2016 09:51 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn 1979 one of the great engineering feats of the 20th Century was completed and the Karakoram highway between Pakistan and China was finally opened to the public. The highway, also known as the Friendship Highway in China, was started in 1959. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions under which it was constructed, it is also sometimes referred to as the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Witness has been speaking to Major General Parvez Akmal who worked on the construction and ma...
Restoring 'The Last Supper'
June 08, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBIn 1999 art restorers in Milan finally finished work on da Vinci's masterpiece. It had taken them 20 years to complete and had cost millions of dollars. Witness hears from Pinin Brambilla who led the ambitious project. Photo: AP Photo/Antonio Calanni
Ritalin
June 07, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBThe drug Ritalin was originally used as a stimulant for adults - until researchers discovered it could help children concentrate. It's now taken by millions of patients around the world to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. Witness speaks to Dr C Keith Conners, one of the researchers behind the first randomised clinical trial of Ritalin on children in 1964. PICTURE: Ritalin blister-packs and packet. Ritalin is a proprietary brand of Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Copyright ...
The Arrest of James Earl Ray
June 06, 2016 07:58 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBHow the man convicted for killing the civil rights leader Martin Luther King was detained in London in June 1968. After Dr King's murder, James Earl Ray had fled to Europe using a Canadian passport and a false name. Witness hears from some of those people who encountered him during his brief stay in the UK. (Photo: James Earl Ray giving evidence before the US House Committee Investigation of Assassinations in August 1978, at which he denied involvement in the murder of Martin Luther King. ...
Date Rape
June 03, 2016 08:50 - 9 minutes - 4.25 MBIn 1991 Katie Koestner went public with her experience of date rape and divided America. At the time, many regarded rape as a crime committed by strangers. Most victims of rape never revealed their names but Katie appeared on the front cover of Time magazine as well as countless talk shows as America debated when 'No' means 'No'. Katie Koestner spoke to Claire Bowes. Photo: Katie Koestner at her high school graduation in 1990 (courtesy of Katie Koestner)
Tanzania's Ujamaa policy
June 02, 2016 07:57 - 8 minutes - 4.05 MBIn the late 1960s Tanzania's first post-independence president, the charismatic Julius Nyerere, believed that endemic poverty in rural areas could only be addressed if peasant farmers relocated to larger villagers and worked collectively. It was part of a new experimental form of socialism, known as Ujamaa. Photo: Tanzanian women cultivating the soil (AFP/Getty Images)
Concordski Plane Crash
June 01, 2016 07:58 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn June 1973, the Russian rival to Concorde, the Tupolev TU144, crashed at the Paris Air Show, killing the crew of six and eight people on the ground. At the time the Soviet Union and the West were competing to produce the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft. Former British test pilot, John Farley, recalls the day of the fatal crash of the plane dubbed 'Concordski'. (Photo: The Russian TU-144 supersonic airliner shortly before it exploded and crashed at the Paris Air Show. Credit: K...
The Assassination of Trujillo
May 30, 2016 07:50 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBOn May 30th 1961 Rafael Trujillo, the dictator in the Dominican Republic, was shot dead. Tim Mansel has spoken to 3 people with different reasons for remembering the day he was killed. Photo: Antonio Imbert, one of the men who shot Trujillo. Credit:Tim Mansel.
The Thalidomide Trial
May 27, 2016 09:38 - 9 minutes - 4.17 MBOn May 27th 1968, executives of Chemie-Grunenthal, the German company that made the drug thalidomide, went on trial charged with criminal negligence. Thalidomide had caused serious often fatal birth defects in thousands of babies after their mothers took the drug during pregnancy thinking it was safe. It was one of the biggest pharmaceutical scandals of post-war Europe, and the trial would last more than two years. Photograph: A Thalidomide child undergoes rehabilitation, 1963 (Credit: Key...
Yeltsin And The Chechen Rebels
May 26, 2016 07:50 - 9 minutes - 4.34 MBIn 1996, a delegation of Chechen separatist rebels negotiated peace with Russia's President Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin. It took them just two hours to reach an agreement. Akhmed Zakayev was a member of the Chechen delegation. He spoke to Dina Newman. Photo: Akhmed Zakayev in 2004. Credit: AFP/Getty Images
The Israeli Airlift of Ethiopian Jews
May 25, 2016 06:50 - 9 minutes - 4.17 MBIn May 1991, at the end of Ethiopia's civil war, 14000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in just 36 hours during "Operation Solomon". An ancient Jewish community had lived in Ethiopia for centuries but amid war and famine, many tried to reach Israel. In 1984, Israel had rescued thousands of Ethiopian Jews from refugee camps in Sudan, Operation Solomon was meant to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel. We hear from Daniel Nadawo, an Ethiopian Israeli, about his memories of the d...
Hands Across America
May 24, 2016 08:00 - 9 minutes - 4.13 MBIn May 1986, more than five million people took part in Hands Across America - an attempt to form a nationwide human chain to raise awareness of poverty and homelessness. Hear from the organiser of the event, Hollywood promoter Ken Kragen. Photo: Santa Monica California. Credit: Associated Press.