The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Dr. April Nowell, a paleolithic archaeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Victoria in Canada.

We start by hearing how in 2012, archaeologists on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi made a discovery that changed our understanding of early human history.

Next, we're in the UK in 1957, as the final touches are made to what was then the largest radio telescope in the world: Jodrell Bank.

Plus, how the contraceptive pill was...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We dedicate this edition to Manchester, in England. We hear about the man who opened the city's first racially inclusive nightclub in 1962. This programme contains descriptions of racial discrimination. Our guest Kath McDermott, a Mancunian DJ and producer at BBC 6 Music, tells us about Manchester's musical scene and how it helped shape the town’s culture and identity.

The acclaimed artist Harold Riley was a local to Greater Manchester and also the only one granted access to paint Nelson Ma...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear how Norwegian teachers resisted peddling Nazi propaganda during the German occupation of the Second World War and our guest, Dr Rachel Pistol, talks us through other examples of resistance around Europe.

Plus, the Stardust nightclub fire in Dublin in 1981, the Iranian engineer who connected homes to the internet using cable TV and the birth of India's call centre industry.

Finally, this week's Sporting Witness - the most successful Paralympian and the discovery of the 'holy...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We hear how a French curator uncovered lost documents showing that the Nazis researched the Bayeux Tapestry during World War Two.

Our guest, Professor Catherine Clarke, takes us through the finer details of the famous medieval tapestry.

Plus, communist fighters struggling to survive while following Mao Zedong during the Chinese Civil War in 1935.

The firefighter who survived the collapse of the North Tower with his crew during the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

The Irish woman...

Max Pearson presents a collection of science fiction themed Witness History stories from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Lisa Yaszek, Regents' Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech in the USA.

Actor Peter Coyote looks back on the making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, sharing memories from the set and reflecting on the film's enduring appeal.

We hear the story of Octavia E. Butler, who overcame poverty, racism and sexism to become one of the most influential voices in science fiction.

Plus, how American television boldly went where...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.

We learn why, in 2004, Uruguayans voted to enshrine water as a human right in their constitution - the first country in the world to do so. And environmental historian Ellen Arnold reveals how water has shaped human history.

Also, we tell the story of the fatal hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Pakistan, 40 years ago. And how the island of Antigua was devastated when Hurricane Luis hit the Caribbean in 1995.

We find out more about the abandoned Nazi photo album revealing the...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Dr Elisabeth Fondren, Associate Professor of Journalism at St John's University in New York, USA.

We start by hearing some groundbreaking frontline reporting from the Battle of Mandalay in World War Two.

Then, we hear how in 1950s Canada, a controversial government scheme saw the relocation of nearly 30 thousand people.

Next, a pioneering scientist on his role in the fight against a flesh-eating parasite, the New World screwworm in the 1950s.

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya.

We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms.

Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the conflict between Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army, the British and Kenyan loyalists.

Next, when Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park.

In 1997, scientists travelled to Kenya, in search of a cave be...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.

This week, we hear about the end of decades-long martial law in Taiwan and discuss its impact on the country's literature with Ti-han Chang, the Deputy Director of Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS University of London.

Next, the making of City of God, the film that showed the raw reality of children's gangs in Brazil's favelas.

Plus, we remember Ashley Kriel, the young activist who became an anti-apartheid icon on the Cape Flats.

We also hear about the first...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We hear how a comic book fan and his friends began the very first comic convention in New York in 1964.

Our guest is comic book expert Dr Barbara Postema, from the University Groningen in the Netherlands.

Next, we hear how Oasis 1995 hit Wonderwall was made with the man who was the sound engineer on the record.

Plus, the memories of the cellist of Auschwitz in World War Two and the final use of a barbaric...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.

This week, we hear about the first solar-powered flight around the world, and discuss other moments in the history of solar power with Prof Laura Herz, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, in the UK.

Plus, the start of the largest mountain carving in the world in honour of Native American warrior Crazy Horse, Mexico's 'little old lady killer' and the birth of the 'African Oscars', FESPACO.

Finally, when American football came to Europe and how a Peruvian instrument, the...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

This week, we mark 90 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War. Our guest is historian Professor Sir Paul Preston, who explains how the conflict transformed Spain and paved the way for the rise of General Francisco Franco. We hear the story of a young refugee who fled the fighting but later returned home while the war was still under way.

We then travel to the Canadian Arctic, where the Inuit fought for greater control over their land...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Mateja Kurir, associate professor at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and the editor of the book, On Power in Architecture.

We start with Jackie Kennedy's 1962 renovation of the United States' White House and the immigrant workers who protested against rent hikes and living conditions in 1970s France.

Next, the toxic explosion in a chemical factory in northern Italy in 1975 and South Sudan's celebration of independence in 2011.

Plus, the art movement Da...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Jan English from the American Museum and Gardens in Bath in the UK.

We start with the moment the remains of a Native American chief were returned to the US, more than a century after his death in England in 1892.

Next we head to 1959 when Hawaii was brought into the United States of America as the 50th state with the passing of the Hawaiian Admission Act.

And we go back to th...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh in the UK.

We start with the birth of an Australian campaign to get people to take care in the sun and Ireland's response to the UK Brexit vote.

Next, the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and the Hong Kong bookseller detained for selling material critical of China's leaders.

Finally, Brazilian footballer Ronaldo's knee injury in 2000 an...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Rachel E. Johnson, Professor of Modern African History at Durham University in the UK.

We begin with the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, which became a defining symbol of youth resistance to apartheid. We hear from one of the students who took part in the protest, which was violently suppressed by South African security forces in June 1976.

Then we have the harrowing account of an ethnic Georgian poet who fled his home in Ab...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. And today, we’re celebrating international archives week, set up to highlight the importance of protecting the world's historical records.

Our guest is BBC curator Joe Schultz who talks about some of the jewels in the BBC radio collections. We find out why cellist Mstislav Rostropovich was stripped of his Soviet citizenship in 1978.

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela reveals how he survived prison in South Africa. Plus, Pablo Picasso and his fellow artists enjoy a Surrealist summer in 1930s France. An...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Giuliana Pieri, an expert in Italian noir from Royal Holloway, University of London.

We start with the author Andrea Camilleri on the creation of his fictional detective Inspector Montalbano in 1994, and his influence on Italian noir.

Then we explore the tapes recorded in the 1950s with Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

We hear about the Chinese protests in 1989 that led up to the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Plus, the launch of Ireland's f...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Michelle Meinhart, a reader in musicology and cultural history at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. We start by hearing about a Mexican song that captivated lovers in World War Two. Then, a marketing strategist recalls how he worked on a Mexican election campaign in 2000 that saw a change of government for the first time in 71 years. We hear how millions of indigenous women in Mexico won the right to vote and stand in elections in 2014. Plus, a woman...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

First, the story of the Belgian teenager who exposed a scandal within the country’s Royal Family in 1999.

Our guest, Professor Kate Williams takes us through some other royal scandals from history.

We hear how a group of women set up an underground newspaper in communist Poland and how an E-Coli outbreak caused one of Canada’s worst public health emergencies.

Plus, how Montenegro achieved independence from Serbia through a 2006 referendum.

Our sporting stor...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We start with the launch of Expedition Robinson in Sweden in 1997 and discuss how reality TV began around the world with our guest Misha Kavka, Professor of Cross-Media Culture at the University of Amsterdam.

Plus, a Norwegian Sami protest song that made history in 1980, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission which investigated residential schools and the uncovering a lost burial ground in Brazil in 1996.

Also, the 'sporting miracle' of 5,000-to-one outsiders Leicester City FC winning the English Pr...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We start with the broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. To mark his 100th birthday, we go back to the mid 1950s and the television programme that launched his career. Our guest is Dr Paula Kahumbu, a Kenyan conservationist and head of the conservation organisation, Wildlife Direct.

Then, the story of a World War Two sabotage plot carried out by a team of Norwegian resistance fighters.

We hear about Africa's worst stadium disaster, at the Accra Sports...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, we hear from a perfumer who in 1990 helped create the world’s first perfume archive in Versailles France. Our guest is Dr William Tullett, a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of York and author of Sniff, History of Smells.

Then, we hear how in 1991 African journalists created the Windhoek declaration - a set of free press principles. It led to World Press Freedom Day marked annually on 3 May.

Next, the global oil crisis of 1973. A fo...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

On the 40th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, we hear from one man involved in the clean-up operation.

Our guest is Jordan Dunbar, presenter of the BBC documentary ‘The Last Dance Floor in Chernobyl’.

Next, we hear about the worst floods in 50 years that the Mexican state of Tabasco experienced and the race to save thousands of animals in Paraguay and Brazil in 1982.

Plus, the unexpected drought in the Danube River in 2011 and when...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

This week, the moment when Irish writer Roddy Doyle discovered he'd won one of the most prestigious honours in fiction: The Booker Prize.

And our guest, Merritt Moseley, emeritus professor of English at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, discusses the history of the award.

Plus, we look back at the assassination of radical African leader Thomas Sankara in 1987, and find out more about the Indonesian province that introduced Sharia law.

Also, how Hans...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Sahar Saleem, an Egyptian paleoradiologist specialising in using medical imaging technology to study mummies and ancient artefacts.

We start with the story a Jewish interpreter who helped guard Adolf Hitler's teeth in the final days of the Second World War.

Then, the engineering efforts to reduce the tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa - which kept it closed to the public for 11 years.

We hear a Nepalese activist recall the massive protests that...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Sarah Ward, a maritime archaeologist from the Australian National University.

We start with the discovery of the sunken Terra Nova, Scott of the Antartic's ship.

We hear from the Danish food entrepeneur Claus Meyer - a driving force behind New Nordic Cuisine.

Then, the long journey that finally took Picasso's Guernica to Spain.

Plus, the Chinese pharmacist who invented the e-cigarette.

And, the life of Echo the elephant...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Paulina Guzik, International editor with the Catholic wire service, OSV News.

We start in 1986 when Pope John Paul II visited New Zealand.

Then, we hear about the reunification of Germany in 1989 from a key political advisor.

How one Maasai community overcame a devastating drought in 2013.

The recollections of one of the first people to walk the entire length of the Great Wall of China in 1984.

Next, the first official penalty...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We hear from a Cypriot lawyer, imprisoned by the British for almost two years during the "Cyprus Emergency” of 1955-1959.

Our guest, Professor Rebecca Bryant, explains how this period impacted life in Cyprus in the following years.

Plus, the story of India’s controversial nuclear deal with the USA in 2006 and when thousands of people rallied against a racially motivated killing in Norway.

We also learn about the questionable conviction of four men in Mauritius, who...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is media, culture and creative industries lecturer Sarah Jilani. We start in 1954 with the Japanese film Seven Samurai which is widely considered to be one of world cinema's most influential films. Then, we hear about the 2006 Hindi film Rang de Basanti which broke box-office records and inspired thousands of young Indians to march for justice. We delve into the BBC Archives to hear from director Leni Riefenstahl about one of the most controversial propaganda movies ever made, Triumph of the Will...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We hear how a speech by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, in 1972, caused a break down in relations with the USA.

Our guest is an expert in the historic relations between Sweden and the US, Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui from the University of El Paso in Texas.

Plus, the story of India’s secret first nuclear test in 1974, and Portugal’s worst train crash which killed 150 people.

We also learn about the invention of the mobi...

We begin with the trial of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. It was claimed that he traded in arms and ammunition in return for so-called blood diamonds.

Our guest, gemmologist James Evans discusses the creation of synthetic diamonds.

Next we head to Syria where a group of young men in the besieged town of Darayya came together to build a secret library during the civil war.

Plus the start of the Second World War in the Pacific when Japanese troops landed in what was then northern Malaya.

We hear...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Guri Hjeltnes, an author and World War Two historian.

We start with Nazi Germany’s occupation of Norway during World War Two by hearing about a secret resistance operation known as “The Shetland Bus”.

Then, we learn about a playboy spy who, during the 1940s, became one of wartime’s most successful double agents and the reported inspiration behind James Bond.

We hear how a black and white photograph taken in 1982, of a mother a...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Scottish writer, editor and music programmer Arusa Qureshi.

We start in 1989 when the British rock band Pink Floyd played a highly controversial concert in Venice.

Then, we cover Dr Rita Levi-Montalcini whose bedroom experiments won her the Nobel Prize.

We hear from a man who worked on the Mont Blanc Tunnel, which opened in 1965.

A survivor describes Florence's devastating flood in 1966.

Finally, the story of how the actress Gina Lollobrigida...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes from the BBC World Service. What does a tickle look like? That was the question eight-year-old Adam Hargreaves asked in 1971. He explains how it led his father Roger Hargreaves, to create the children's book series Mr Men. Our guest Professor Nina Christensen, head of the Centre for Children's Literature and Media at Aarhus University, on the wider history of children's literature. We hear a remarkable account from Captain Chris Fraser-Perry, who took part in the Jugroom Fort rescue mission, during the war in Afghanistan. Pl...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We travel back to Chile in 2006 where more than 600,000 schoolchildren are marching through the streets to protest about their schools. The nationwide demonstrations will become known as the "Penguin Revolution".

Our guest Dr Laura Tisdall, a historian from Newcastle University, explains why this isn’t the first time children have challenged authority.

And we examine another protest in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1979 which became a seminal moment in the country’s transition to democracy.

Plus, one of t...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest Sugandhi Jayaraman, lecturer in air transport management at the University of Westminster, discusses the changes in airports over time. We hear about the Irish priest whose dream of air travel in a remote part of West Ireland became a reality.

And we travel back to 1943 to one of the most audacious hoaxes of World War Two. Plus the Challenger Shuttle disaster where a member of the public had been chosen to join the experienced astronaut crew.

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is food historian Dr Annie Gray.

She discusses the impact of the first modern, fitted kitchen - the Frankfurt Kitchen - on the kitchens of today. It all goes back to 1926 and the reluctant Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky who said she wanted to be remembered for more than designing a "damned" kitchen. Sorry Margarete.

Next is the invention of the board game Cluedo, or Clue in the United States, which stemmed from playing the p...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This programme contains distressing details.

Our guest is Bárbara Fernández Melleda, Assistant Professor in Latin American Studies at the University of Hong Kong.

We start with Chilean author Isabel Allende on her debut novel, The House of the Spirits, in 1982 which reflects Chile’s 20th century history.

Then, we hear the memories of a soldier injured in the Battle of Gallipoli.

The recollections of a mother who lost both her daughters in a crow...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Professor Barbara Keys, a specialist in US history at Durham University.

We start with a celebration of the American Freedom Train, as the US prepares to mark 250 years of independence.

Then, the South African railway enthusiast who created one of the most luxurious train services in the world.

We hear about the invention of text messaging and how it changed the way we communicate.

Plus, 75 years of Radio Free Europe...