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 Witness
  



Category: Talk - News
Last Update: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:56:41 -0700
History as told by the people who were there. Witness talks to people who lived through moments of history to bring you a personal perspective on world events.


Previews of Witness
(All Active Shows)

    Witness: Dambusters
Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
A crewman recalls the famous 1943 British attack on Hitler's dams.

    Witness: The Death of Marlene Dietrich
Thu, 16 May 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
It is 21 years since screen star Marlene Dietrich died in Paris at the age of 90.

    Witness: Announcing an Ethiopian coup
Wed, 15 May 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
The story of a journalist who was caught up in an attempt to overthrow Ethiopia’s hardline ruler, Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1989

    Witness: Polish protests in 1968
Tue, 14 May 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.3 Mb)
How students in Poland tried to force changes on the communist authorities, but were met with arrests and repression.

    Witness: The Great Gatsby
Mon, 13 May 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
As a new film of the great American novel premieres this week, we hear about its author, F Scott Fitzgerald.

    Witness: The Arctic Convoys
Fri, 10 May 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
The story of a sailor, Jack Humble, whose ship was torpedoed while escorting a convoy to Russia in WW2.

    Witness: FA Cup - The Matthews final
Thu, 09 May 2013 09:28:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
It is 60 years since Stanley Matthews secured his place as a legend in British football.

    Witness: The secret US bombing of Cambodia
Wed, 08 May 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
How the New York Times revealed the secret and illegal bombing of Cambodia by American war planes during the Viet Nam war.

    Witness: IRA Hunger Strikers
Mon, 06 May 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
In 1981 the British government was faced with Irish republican prisoners starving themselves to death.

    Witness: The White Collar Art Collectors
Fri, 03 May 2013 09:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
In 1992, a retired postal worker from New York and his wife donated a priceless art collection to the US National Gallery of Art.

    Witness: Pavarotti's British debut
Fri, 03 May 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
On May 7th 1963 the great Italian opera singer first appeared on a UK stage - in Northern Ireland.

    Witness: The children's crusade
Thu, 02 May 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.5 Mb)
How thousands of black American schoolchildren took to the streets to protest against racial segregation.

    Witness: Australia's Aboriginal referendum
Wed, 01 May 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
In May 1967 campaigning began across Australia to consolidate Aboriginal rights in the country.

    Witness: The death of Hitler
Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
Hear from one of Hitler's former secretaries who was in the bunker during the dictator's last hours.

    Witness: The Shooting of Rudi Dutschke
Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:50:00 +0100 (4.3 Mb)
In 1968 German students were calling for a revolution when their leader Rudi Dutschke was shot.

    Witness: The ballerina and the coup
Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
How a world famous ballet dancer became embroiled in a plot to overthrow the government of Panama.

    Witness: Muhammad Ali and the military draft
Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.5 Mb)
How the American boxing champion's refusal to serve in Vietnam made him a hero to 1960s radicals.

    Witness: The Hitler diaries hoax
Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
30 years ago a German magazine and an English newspaper believed they had found the dictator's private diaries.

    Witness: Pau Casals
Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
The acclaimed musician who became a symbol of resistance to Spanish dictator, General Franco.

    Witness: Haile Selassie lands in Jamaica
Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.5 Mb)
In April 1966, Ethiopia's ruler made a spectacular arrival in Jamaica, the birthplace of the Rastafarian movement which revered him.

    Witness: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:50:00 +0100 (4.5 Mb)
Hear from one of the very few survivors of the WW2 Jewish uprising.

    Witness: The Khmer Rouge
Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:50:00 +0100 (4.3 Mb)
Hear one boy's story of living through Year Zero.

    Witness: The Funeral of Winston Churchill
Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
In 1965, Great Britain came to a standstill for the state funeral of its wartime prime minister.

    Witness: The discovery of LSD
Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:49:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
It is 70 years since a Swiss scientist discovered the controversial hallucinogenic drug-LSD.

    Witness: The First War in the Air
Mon, 15 Apr 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.5 Mb)
The story of a young British pilot who fought in the First World War.

    Witness: First black golfer at the Masters
Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.3 Mb)
How Lee Elder broke the colour barrier at one of the world's top golf tournaments in 1975.

    Witness: The Guinea Pig club
Wed, 10 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
How severely burnt Second World War airmen learnt to overcome their terrible injuries.

    Witness: The Great Famine in China
Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:10:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
This programme contains disturbing scenes. Tens of millions of people died of starvation during the late 50s and early 60s in China.

    Witness: Matabeleland Massacres
Mon, 08 Apr 2013 07:50:00 +0100 (4.5 Mb)
This programme contains graphic descriptions of violence which are very disturbing. In the early 1980s, thousands of Zimbabweans were killed by government security forces in a campaign againsst dissidents.

    Witness: James Brown at the Boston Gardens
Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
The day after Martin Luther King was killed, the famous soul singer held a concert in Boston.

    Witness: Howard Hughes
Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:00:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
One of the few reporters to meet the famously reclusive American billionaire remembers their 20-year relationship.

    Witness: Operation Babylift
Wed, 03 Apr 2013 08:50:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
In the spring of 1975 the USA began to airlift people out of Vietnam including hundreds of orphans.

    Witness: The real Peter Pan
Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:56:00 +0100 (4.5 Mb)
The tragic story of the real-life family that inspired the writing of Peter Pan.

    Witness: Women and the law
Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:37:00 +0100 (4.4 Mb)
It is over 175 years since Caroline Norton fought to change the law on mother's rights in Britain.

    Witness: The Killing of Archbishop Romero
Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How El Salvador's outspoken Roman Catholic Archbishop was shot dead while saying mass.

    Witness: Vietnam POWs
Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In 1973, American prisoners of war first told how they had been tortured by the Vietcong.

    Witness: The Terracotta Warrior
Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:26:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
It is almost 40 years since a vast army of life-size statues of soldiers was found buried in China.

    Witness: Life under Ceausescu
Tue, 26 Mar 2013 09:58:00 +0000 (4.5 Mb)
The Romanian dictator ran one of the most feared secret police forces in communist Eastern Europe.

    Witness: The Profumo Affair
Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
Fifty years ago, a sex scandal threatened to engulf the British government.

    Witness: Meeting Saddam
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:40:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
An Iraqi official remembers formally identifying Saddam Hussein after his capture by American forces in December 2003. This programme was first broadcast in 2010.

    Witness: Working for the Americans
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How one young Iraqi, who took a job with the US military, was threatened with death as a traitor.

    Witness: Looting in Iraq
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
When US troops first rolled into Baghdad in 2003 there was chaos and looting in much of the city.

    Witness: The US invasion force
Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
Hear one American soldier's story of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003

    Witness: The bombardment of Baghdad
Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
10 years on from the invasion of Iraq we listen back to memories of that time.

    Witness: The Syrian uprising in Daraa
Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:05:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
It is 2 years since anti-government demonstrations in Syria sparked off the current conflict.

    Witness: Lebanese hostage crisis
Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:51:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
Giandomenico Picco went to Beirut to try to free western hostages - hear his story.

    Witness: Marie Stopes, Birth Control Pioneer
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:49:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In 1921 Marie Stopes opened Britain's first birth control clinic in London.

    Witness: The theft of Chaplin's body
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How thieves stole the body of Charlie Chaplin from a Swiss cemetery

    Witness: Tibet uprising
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:11:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In March 1959 the people of Tibet turned against Chinese occupying forces.

    Witness: Gay in the US military
Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:11:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
Airman Leonard Matlovich fought the ban on gays in the US military way back in 1975.

    Witness: Viagra
Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
15 years ago a new "wonder" drug was approved for use on the American market.

    Skiing in Pakistan
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:51:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
One man's mission to bring the fun back to the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

    Witness: Armenia and Azerbaijan
Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:21:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
It is 25 years since rioting broke out in the city of Sumgait in Azerbaijan.

    Witness: The Bethnal Green tube disaster
Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
It's seventy years since 173 people were crushed to death in an air-raid shelter in London.

    Witness: Choosing a Pope
Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.5 Mb)
A Cardinal tells the story of the Papal Conclave that elected Pope Benedict in 2005.

    Witness: The standoff at Wounded Knee
Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:46:00 +0000 (4.5 Mb)
40 years ago American Indian activists took on the US authorities at the site of massacre.

    Witness: The first World Trade Center attack
Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
A member of the security staff recalls the huge bomb blast at the World Trade Center nearly a decade before 9/11

    Witness: The Theft of the Scream
Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
In 1994 Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream" was stolen from a Norwegian art gallery.

    Witness: The White Rose
Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
It is seventy years since three German students were executed in Munich for trying to start a revolt against Hitler.

    Witness: Wales Dam Attack
Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In 1963, three young Welsh nationalists took up arms against the construction of a controversial dam.

    Witness: People Power in the Philippines
Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
How four days of protests swept President Ferdinand Marcos from power in 1986.

    Witness: The Feminine Mystique
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
It's 50 years since a frustrated American housewife published a text that helped inspire the women's liberation movement.

    Witness: The Lost Egyptian Tomb
Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In 1995, archaeologists in Egypt's Valley of the Kings made a remarkable discovery.

    Witness: Human Shields in Iraq
Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:40:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How peace activists travelled to Baghdad in 2003 to try to protect civilians during the war in Iraq.

    Witness: The fall of Singapore
Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:38:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In February 1942 tens of thousands of Commonwealth soldiers were taken prisoner by the Japanese.

    Witness: The Algerian Massacres
Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In the 1990s, more than 150,000 died in a conflict between the Algerian military and radical Islamists.

    Witness: James Bulger
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How two child killers shocked Britain 20 years ago.

    Witness: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath
Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:59:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
It is fifty years since the suicide of American poet Sylvia Plath.

    Witness: Shergar
Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:36:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
It is 30 years since the Derby winning racehorse was stolen at gunpoint.

    Witness: Marcel Proust
Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:05:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
The great French writer remembered by one of his aristocratic friends and by his faithful maid, Celeste.

    Witness: "Ghana Must Go"
Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
Thirty years ago Nigeria expelled up to 2 million African migrants in just a few weeks. Most were Ghanaian.

    Witness: Hugo Chavez and the failed coup
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In February 1992 a group of army officers tried to overthrow the government in Venezuela.

    Witness: The battle of Stalingrad
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How German forces, close to starvation and running out of ammunition, surrendered to the Soviet Red Army.

    Witness: Funeral of Gandhi
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How India came to a standstill in 1948 to mourn the Father of the Nation.

    Witness: Peter the Great in London
Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How the young tsar was inspired by a hell-raising visit to London in 1698.

    Witness: The Eiffel Tower
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:15:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
The inside story of the construction of one of the world's great monuments in 1887.

    Witness: Lagos Armoury Explosion
Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
In 2002 a weapons store exploded in Lagos, Nigeria. It was one of the largest civil disasters in the country's history.

    Witness: Jimi Hendrix
Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
The legendary guitarist's girlfriend recalls his early days in 60s London.

    Witness: Adolf Hitler's Will
Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:19:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
Before Adolf Hitler killed himself towards the end of WW2, he dictated his last will and testament.

    Witness: The Capture of USS Pueblo
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
How an American naval intelligence ship and its crew were captured by the North Koreans.

    Witness: The Hunger Winter
Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
How millions of Dutch faced starvation at the end of World War 2.

    Witness: Bassel al Assad
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:15:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
19 years ago, the heir to the Syrian presidency died in a car crash. Hear his tutor's memories.

    Witness: Hunting for Klaus Barbie
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
Two Nazi hunters tracked down the former Gestapo leader. He was living comfortably in Bolivia.

    Witness: The Black Stars of Ghana
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
Legendary striker, Osei Kofi, remembers the golden days of Ghanaian football in 1960.

    Witness: Roe v Wade
Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
In 1973 a landmark case legalised abortion across the USA.

    Witness: Chaim Soutine
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:26:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
It is 120 years since the birth of the hugely influential Expressionist painter.

    Witness: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
For nearly 40 years, the US government conducted a secret experiment on 600 African-American men.

    Witness: Tsunami
Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
A survivor from the Indonesian province of Aceh recalls the devastating 2004 Tsunami.

    Witness: Festival in the Desert
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.5 Mb)
Islamist rebels have recently banned music in Northern Mali. Today, we go back to the event in 2001 which launched Tuareg music on the world scene.

    Witness: Tito on Vis
Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
In 1944 the Yugoslav partisan leader found sanctuary on a tiny island in the Adriatic.

    Witness: Johnny Cash in Folsom prison
Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:08:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
It is 45 years since the Country star first played a gig in a high-security jail.

    Witness: Operation No Living Thing
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:50:00 +0000 (4.5 Mb)
A former rebel describes the invasion of the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, in Jan 1999. Listeners may find his account disturbing

    Witness: Donald Campbell's Fatal Crash
Fri, 04 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.3 Mb)
In January 1967 the world famous speed driver died in his jet-boat Bluebird.

    Witness: Waiting for Godot
Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
How a play in which nothing happens revolutionised 20th century theatre.

    Witness: The Keeling curve
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:12:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
55 years ago Charles Keeling began the detailed and long-term measurement of CO2 in the atmosphere.

    Witness: Donald Woods flees South Africa
Tue, 01 Jan 2013 09:29:00 +0000 (4.4 Mb)
It is 35 years since the white newspaper editor was forced into exile.


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