The discovery of the San José shipwreck
In November 2015, the 'holy grail' of shipwrecks, laden with treasure worth an estimated $18 billion, was found off the coast of Colombia. T...
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Witness
History as told by the people who were there.
Episodes
20 of 2,105 episodesThe birth of India's call centre industry
In 1997, after years working abroad, Pramod Bhasin returned to India and spotted an opportunity that would help transform his country's econ...
Stardust: Ireland's deadly nightclub fire
In the early hours of 14 February 1981, a fire broke out at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin which was filled with more than 800 peo...
Connecting homes to the internet using cable TV
In 1991, a small company led by an Iranian-born engineer, Rouzbeh Yassini, created a technology which enabled millions of homes across Ameri...
Norway’s teacher resistance in World War Two
When Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, a collaborative government led by Norwegian Vidkun Quisling was put in place. Quisling beli...
Firefighter: Surviving the 9/11 North Tower collapse
On 11 September 2001, firefighter Jay Jonas and his crew were sent into New York's North Tower after a hijacked plane crashed into the World...
The weather report that changed the date of D-Day
In 1944, a young Irishwoman called Maureen Flavin drew up a weather report that helped change the course of World War Two. Maureen was worki...
Bayeux Tapestry: the lost Nazi archive
In 1994, documents from a Nazi study of the Bayeux Tapestry were rediscovered after more than 50 years. Former curator of the tapestry, Sylv...
The 'moving' statue of Ballinspittle
In 1985, reports of a moving statue of the Virgin Mary drew thousands of people to the village of Ballinspittle in County Cork, Ireland. Hel...
Surviving the Long March
In 1935, tens of thousands who had followed Mao Zedong on the Long March across China struggled to survive. They were fleeing Chiang Kai-she...
Star Trek: America's first interracial TV kiss
In 1968, American television boldly went where it had never gone before, broadcasting what's claimed to be the country's first interracial k...
The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
In 1982, audiences around the world fell in love with a gentle alien stranded on Earth and the young boy determined to help him get home. St...
‘Genius’ sci-fi writer Octavia E Butler
In 1995, Octavia E Butler became the first author to receive a MacArthur “genius” award for science fiction writing. From a young age she dr...
Making Turkish Star Wars
When the set fell apart for an ambitious cinematic space opera that was produced on a characteristically small Turkish budget, nationally fa...
'I created the Star Wars toys'
In 1976, American toy designer Jim Swearingen was working at Kenner, a mid-sized company in the American Midwest. When a script for a new fi...
The hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73
On the 5 September 1986, hijackers took over a Pan-American Airways flight during a stop-over at Karachi Airport in Pakistan. The armed Pale...
Hurricane Luis hits Antigua
On 4 September 1995, Hurricane Luis hit the Caribbean island of Antigua. Two people were killed and three-quarters of homes were destroyed....
Peace People: The Northern Ireland campaign group born from tragedy
It is 50 years since a peace movement began in Northern Ireland spawned by the killing of three children. There had been seven years of sect...
Auschwitz: An SS officer’s photo album
In 2007, an abandoned photo album revealed the chilling normality of life at the Nazis’ most notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz. The 11...
Uruguay's water referendum
On 31st October 2004, Uruguayans voted to enshrine water as a human right in their constitution, the first country in the world to do so. Th...