Witness History
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Witness History
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Agatha Christie: best-selling novelist of all time
On 12 January 1976, author Agatha Christie died peacefully, aged 85.
She created the detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
By the tim...
Exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran
In February 1979, after the Shah left Iran, religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini flew back to Tehran from Paris.
He had been in exile and was gre...
Afghan Star
In 2005, a new show was launched on television in Afghanistan to find new musical talent – it was called Afghan Star and was inspired by formats like...
Creating Cluedo
Air raids and blackouts during World War Two helped Anthony Pratt invent one of the most popular family board games: Cluedo.
But the musician's...
The creation of the modern kitchen
In 1926, Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky created the modern kitchen. It was called the Frankfurt Kitchen and was something she didn’t li...
The first PC virus
In 1986, 'Welcome to the dungeon' was the message that flashed up on computer screens.
Brain is thought to be the first virus for personal comp...
Tracey Emin’s unmade bed
In 1999, Dame Tracey Emin’s unmade bed was nominated for Britain’s prestigious Turner art prize opening up conversations about how we define art.
Isabel Allende: The House of the Spirits
In 1982, Isabel Allende published her debut novel, The House of the Spirits. The characters are based on her family, and the story reflects Chile’s 20...
The Hillsborough Disaster
On 15 April 1989, there was a crowd crush at a football match in Sheffield, England, which led to the death of 97 fans.
It was the semi-final o...
South Africa's luxury train
In 1986, South African businessman Rohan Vos was sitting in the bath when he decided to pursue his passion and launch a vintage railway business. Howe...
The American Freedom Train
In April 1975, the American Freedom Train set out on a tour across the United States to celebrate 200 years of American independence.
On-board w...
The longest musical composition
On 31 December 1999, a piece of music started playing in a lighthouse on the River Thames in east London.
It’s called Longplayer, and it’s set...
Radio Free Europe
Seventy-five years ago, Radio Free Europe started broadcasting news to audiences behind the Iron Curtain.
It initially broadcast to Bulgaria, Cz...
SMS: The invention of text messaging
In October 1984, as the market for mobile phones was just opening up, one man decided it would be useful if the new technology could be used to send a...
Tamagotchi is born
The Tamagotchi was first released in Japan in 1996 after it was developed by Akihiro Yokoi and his colleagues at his toy development company.
Me...
The invention of Jenga
It's just over 30 years since the brick game was introduced to the world at a department store in London.
Made of 54 wooden blocks stacked into...
When Laurel and Hardy spent Christmas at an English pub
In December 1953, Hollywood film stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy spent a few weeks at the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, while they performe...
When Norway introduced salmon sushi to Japan
In the late 1980s, Norway needed a new market for its growing farmed salmon production.
Fish-loving Japan and its lucrative sushi market seeme...
How NFL tickets caught fugitives
Operation Flagship was a U.S Marshals sting operation, where some of Washington DC’s most wanted fugitives, were lured to a convention centre under th...
Introducing The Bomb: Kennedy and Khrushchev
The world is on the brink of nuclear war. How can the Soviet Union and the USA prevent it? Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the su...
The Paris climate agreement
On 12 December 2015, nearly 200 countries adopted the Paris climate agreement. It legally committed countries to climate action plans, designed to sto...
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
Following the abolishment of Apartheid in the 1990s, South Africa had to find a way to confront its brutal past without endangering the chance for pea...
The discovery of the coelacanth
In 1938, South African museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered a coelacanth, a fish that was believed to have been extinct for 65 million...
Dismaland: Banksy's dystopian theme park
In 2015, Banksy turned a derelict swimming pool in Weston-super-Mare, England, into a dystopian theme park which drew huge crowds and Hollywood stars....
The Balcombe Street IRA siege
In December 1975, four members of one of the IRA’s deadliest units were chased by police through the streets of London before hiding out in a small fl...
How Lagos Fashion Week began
In 2011, Lagos Fashion Week debuted, putting Nigerian style on the map.
Omoyemi Akerele founded the event which helped to launch the careers of...
Wole Soyinka: Imprisoned during Nigeria’s Biafra war
In 1967, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka tried to stop the country’s Biafra war, in which Nigeria’s Igbo people responded to violence by seceding from th...
Escaping Nigeria's Biafra war
When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out in May 1967. More than a million peop...
West Africa fights back against Boko Haram
In 2015, West African countries fought against the jihadist militant group Boko Haram which controlled large areas of northeastern Nigeria.
The...
The Howard Hughes literary hoax
In 1971, the publishing world was rocked by one of the biggest hoaxes in literary history – a fake autobiography of the reclusive billionaire Howard H...
Colombia's Salt Cathedral
In 1995, a cathedral was built 180m underground in the Zipaquirá Salt Mine in Colombia.
The idea came from the miners building makeshift altars...
Toy Story: the first digitally-animated feature film
Released in 1995, this buddy movie about a cowboy doll and a toy astronaut was the first to use entirely computer-generated images.
The story,...
How the Bosnian war ended
The Dayton Peace Accords were signed on the 21 November 1995, ending the three-and-a-half-year war in Bosnia.
The war was part of the break-up...
The Spanish king reclaims his throne
In 1975, the death of General Francisco Franco was announced in Spain, bringing to an end 36 years of dictatorship.
Franco had already chosen hi...
The death of Franco
General Francisco Franco died in November 1975, ending 36 years of dictatorship over Spain.
The general had been in power since 1939 after winn...
Angela Merkel suspends EU asylum rules
In the summer of 2015, there was a surge in the number of people from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, seeking asylum in Europe.
Social Democrat po...
Reagan and Gorbachev: The Geneva Summit
Forty years ago, in November 1985, two of the world’s most powerful leaders met for the first time.
With Cold War tensions running high and the...
When Maldives' ministers met underwater
On 17 October 2009, the Maldives’ top government officials donned their scuba gear for the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting.
Fish float...
Bataclan attack in Paris
On 13 November 2015, 90 people were shot dead by gunmen at the Bataclan theatre in France during an Eagles of Death Metal concert.
A further 40...
Prosecuting Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials
In November 1945, the first major war crimes trial in history opened in the German city of Nuremberg.
Senior Nazis who had committed atrocities...