PODCAST

The History Hour

BBC World Service

A compilation of the latest Witness History programmes.

history personal journals

All Episodes

51:39

Seventy-five years since India's Partition

The History Hour ·

2022/08/20

Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories marking 75 years since India's Partition. We'll hear the stories of people from both sides of the divide and find out about partition’s effect on the subcontinent’s diaspora.Also, the daughter of the last British Viceroy in India, Lord Mountbatten, remembers the transfer of power in 1947. Plus, we'll hear about the death of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and how one of India’s greatest poets known as the ‘Bard of Bengal’, Rabindranath

51:56

The nightclub that changed Ibiza

The History Hour ·

2022/08/13

Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the nightclub that changed Ibiza, some of the worst forest fires in history, the resignation of Richard Nixon, discovering the Hale Bopp comet and Sweden’s pronoun battle.(Photo: Sunset over the sea in Ibiza with boats in the distance. Credit: BBC and Minnow Films)

52:07

Fifty years since Asians were kicked out of Uganda

The History Hour ·

2022/08/06

Compilation of stories marking 50 years since Idi Amin expelled thousands of Asians from Uganda in 1972. We hear about why they migrated there, their expulsion, and what they did next.Jamie Govani’s grandparents always dreamed about finding a better life away from India. After getting married in the Indian state of Gujarat in the 1920s, they decided to pack their bags and move to Uganda with their young family. It was a wonderful place to grow up for Jamie, but racial segregation lingered in the

51:17

The Revolution on Granite

The History Hour ·

2022/07/30

A student protest in Ukraine, the Surkov leaks, the world’s deadliest ever earthquake, a leaflet bomber in South Africa and the invention of the nicotine patch.(Photo: Oksana Zabuzhko wearing a red jumper at the Revolution on Granite in 1990)

51:22

Stories from iconic TV shows from around the world

The History Hour ·

2022/07/23

The history of television from around the world and its enduring impact, including a look at Nigeria's sitcom Papa Ajasco and an interview with actor turned food writer and Indian TV cook Madhur Jaffrey. Also we take you behind the scenes of telenovelas- Mexican soap operas and one of the most successful drama schools in Latin America The Centro de Educación Artística.

49:46

Stories from the abortion fight frontline

The History Hour ·

2022/07/16

Stories from around the world on women's reproductive rights. Women fighting both sides of the abortion debate as well as the first Muslim country to legalise abortion. Also, the development of the Pill and why Japan took so long to make it legal for women.(Image: Speakers from Tunisia Women's Union at an event. Credit: Saida El Gueyed)

50:54

America’s first gay election candidate

The History Hour ·

2022/07/09

In 1961 the first openly gay person ran for public office in the United States. He was a drag queen called Jose Sarria, well-known for his performances at the bohemian 'Black Cat' bar in San Francisco. He was determined to stop gay people being second-class citizens. His friend and fellow drag performer Mike-Michelle spoke to Josephine McDermott about his memories of the campaign.In 1928 the smear test was invented by Dr George Papanicoloau, a Greek immigrant who had made a new life in the United

51:03

Hong Kong: 25 years since the handover from British...

The History Hour ·

2022/07/02

Stories from Hong Kong, 25 years on since the handover from British to Chinese rule. We hear from the last governor of Hong Kong, a pro democracy campaigner and about life in Kowloon Walled City.(Photo: Chris Patten at the handover ceremony of Hong Kong from Britain to China. Credit: Getty Images)

51:20

Egypt's first democratic Presidential election

The History Hour ·

2022/06/25

In June 2012, Egypt held its first ever free democratic Presidential election. Mohamed Morsi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, emerged victorious. Ben Henderson spoke to Rabab El-Mahdi, Chief Strategist to one of Morsi’s rival candidates. She described what it was like to be involved in the first election of its kind, how Morsi tried to recruit her, and the personal impact of political campaigning in such a polarised country.In June 1982 a young Chinese-American engineer was murdered with a

51:28

Cambodian genocide trials

The History Hour ·

2022/06/18

In 2009, Rob Hamill testified in the trial of Comrade Duc, who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng prison during the Cambodian genocide. Josephine McDermott spoke to him. It is 50 years since Kim Phuc's village in Vietnam was bombed with napalm. The photograph of her, running burned from the attack, became one of the iconic images of the Vietnam War. Kim Phuc talks to Christopher Wain, the man who helped save her.In 2001 a violent, sectarian dispute took place outside Holy Cross Primary School in Belfast

50:20

How Sri Lanka's president survived a suicide bombing

The History Hour ·

2022/06/11

Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the 2006 suicide bombing attack on Sri Lanka's president, the 75th anniversary of Anne Frank's diary and the 1968 assassination in the US of Bobby Kennedy. Plus, the birth of a crime fighting women's rights group in India and the moment the President of Gabon was shown the treasures of the rainforest.

55:09

The Syrian civil war

The History Hour ·

2022/06/04

Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the 2013 chemical weapons attack in Syria and the opening of a refugee camp for Syrians fleeing the civil war. Plus, how lynching was finally outlawed in America, the opening of the Sydney Opera House and the Queen's coronation.PHOTO: A UN inspector at work in Ghouta, Syria in August 2013 (Reuters)

49:44

Artists who made history

The History Hour ·

2022/05/28

Max Pearson introduces the memories of people who knew Picasso, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe; plus, how a collector in the Soviet Union managed to open a museum for Russian artists banned by Stalin, and how a festival in Senegal in the 1960s inspired artists across a newly-independent Africa.PHOTO: Pablo Picasso in 1955 (Getty Images)

50:18

The Marcos regime in the Philippines

The History Hour ·

2022/05/21

Max Pearson introduces first-hand accounts of the rule of Ferdinand Marcos Senior in the 1970s and 80s; plus, Shanghai during World War Two, and the opening of the first McDonald's in the Soviet Union. The History Hour also hears how the murder of a young West Indian called Kelso Cochrane changed race relations in Britain in the late 1950s.PHOTO: Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos in Manila in 1977 (Getty Images)

50:08

The war in Transnistria

The History Hour ·

2022/05/14

With speculation mounting that President Putin might mount an attack on Moldova, Max Pearson hears a first-hand account of the war in the 1990s between the Moldovans and Russian-backed separatists in the disputed region of Transnistria. There's also a chilling story from the Cold War about how a Soviet air defence official prevented a potential catastrophe by realising that a computer warning about a US nuclear attack was a false alarm.In the second-half of the History Hour, an Egyptian poet

49:57

Fighting for Uyghur rights in China

The History Hour ·

2022/05/07

Max Pearson gets a first-hand account of how the minority Uyghur community in China staged some of the first protests against the all-powerful Communist Party in the 1980s. Plus, the young lawyer who won the landmark Roe v Wade abortion rights case in the US, the chemistry of cannabis and the personal stories of two veterans of the 1982 Falklands War.PHOTO: A Uyghur yurt on the Xinjiang steppe (Getty Images)

53:57

Algeria's War of Independence

The History Hour ·

2022/04/30

Sixty years after Algeria's independence from France, first-hand accounts of a traumatic 'birth of a nation': a female Algerian bomber who was part of the battle for Algiers; how the French military responded with brutal tactics; a massacre on the streets of Paris; and reprisals against Algerians who fought alongside the French. Plus,the flowering of a national spirit through football.(Photo: French soldiers in the kasbah of Algiers, 1960. Credit: Getty Images)

49:59

The Falkands War

The History Hour ·

2022/04/09

On the fortieth anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, Max Pearson hears two contrasting accounts of the war with Britain. Patrick Watts was the manager of the radio station on the Falklands; he kept broadcasting calmly as Argentine troops burst into the studio. Patrick Savage was a conscript in the Argentine army; for him, the fighting was a cold, frightening and brutal experience that culminated in defeat. Max also gets analysis of the conflict from Argentine political

49:50

Protesting against Putin

The History Hour ·

2022/04/02

Starting in late 2011, tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets to try to stop what they saw as a power grab by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The movement was not successful, but analysts say it worried the Russian leader so much that he launched a crackdown on dissent that has lasted to this day. We hear from Russian rock journalist, Artemy Troitsky, who composed a song that became an anthem of what was sometimes called the "Snow Revolution".Also, the launch of the first women's

50:17

Ukrainian history special

The History Hour ·

2022/03/26

To mark the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a special edition on episodes from Ukrainian history. In April 1986 a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine. Sergii Mirnyi monitored radiation levels in the exclusion zone around the plant. How the international community - including both Russia and the USA - offered security "assurances" to Ukraine in return for giving up its share of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. A survivor's account of Ukraine's great famine in the 1930s,

481 results

The History Hour

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

The Old Front Line

Paul Reed

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai

Madonna - Biography Flash

Inception Point Ai