Witness HistoryEpisodes Episode guide
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19/11/2026 GMT
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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18/11/2026 GMT
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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17/11/2026 GMT
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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16/11/2026 GMT
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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Denmark’s lost Viking ships
In 1962, five Viking ships were excavated in a Danish fjord
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The founding of Malaysia’s National Space Agency
In 2002, Malaysia launched an open programme to find the country’s first astronaut
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11/11/2026 GMT
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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10/11/2026 GMT
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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09/11/2026 GMT
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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Robert Prevost in Peru: The Pope's 'compadre'
In 1985, a small town welcomed missionaries unaware one of them would one day become Pope
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Witness History
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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Brazil's Mariana dam disaster
In 2015, the Fundão dam collapsed near Mariana, causing a major environmental disaster
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'I survived Typhoon Haiyan'
In November 2013, Joanna Sustento was hit by a devastating storm in the Philippines
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Family's daring steam train escape from East Berlin
On 5 Dec 1961, driver Harry Deterling ploughed through the East German state iron curtain
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Harry Houdini
1904. A performance in London's West End made Harry Houdini world famous....
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George Michael's Outside: The story behind the video
George Michael turned his 1998 Beverly Hills scandal into the hit video Outside
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Mexico's life-saving warning system
How Mexico created the world's first public earthquake warning system
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Britain's real ale revolution
In 1971 the Campaign for Real Ale was set up becoming a hugely influential movement
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Bonn v Berlin: how Germany chose its capital
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany had to choose its new capital
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The Siege of Paris
In 1870, the city of Paris was encircled by the Prussian army
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The Hungarian Revolution
In 1956, students and workers took to the streets of Budapest to protest at Soviet rule
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Keith Haring’s Berlin Wall mural
In October 1986, American artist Keith Haring painted a huge mural on the Berlin Wall
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Malta’s divorce referendum
In 2011, Maltese voters went to the polls to decide if divorce should be legalised
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How Ten Canoes made cinema history
In 2006, Australia's first feature film in Aboriginal languages was created
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Gerald Durrell's mission to save species from extinction
In 1959, the writer Gerald Durrell opened the gates to a new kind of zoo
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Declaring chimpanzees an endangered species
In 1990, human’s closest living relatives were declared endangered for the first time
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When Dian Fossey was murdered
American gorilla expert Dian Fossey was murdered in 1985 in the mountains of Rwanda(R)
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Washoe: The chimp who learnt to sign
By 1970 Washoe the chimp was thought to be the first non-human to learn a human language
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Harry Harlow's monkey attachment studies
Harry Harlow's controversial monkey tests in the 1950s transformed ideas on attachment
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The first monkeys to survive space travel
On 28 May 1959, the USA sent two monkeys into space and brought them back alive.
