Witness History

In October 2012, a local historian stumbled upon a misplaced pamphlet in the Danish Archives. It was a story called the Tallow Candle and is believed to be Hans Christian Andersen’s first fairytale. Ejnar Askgaard, Curator and Senior Researcher at Mu... more

Aceh in Sumatra is the only Indonesian province where Sharia Law, Islamic religious law, is in force. It followed years of conflict between Aceh and the central government.In Arabic, Sharia means "the clear, well-trodden path to water". It is derived... more

In October 1987, one of Africa's most radical leaders, Captain Thomas Sankara, was gunned down in a coup in Burkina Faso. His overthrow was orchestrated by his old friend, Blaise Compaore. Thomas Sankara's brother, Paul, spoke to Alex Last in 2013.Ey... more

In 1993, the Irish writer Roddy Doyle won the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction. His novel, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, was remarkable for the way it conveyed gritty drama through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy. Roddy tells Ben Henderson about his inspi... more

My Little Pony first appeared in shops in the United States in 1983 and in that decade alone more than 100 million would be sold. But American toymaker Bonnie Zacharle tells Josephine McDermott how her idea to make a pony you could play with like a d... more

In 1984, loggerhead sea turtle Jorge became trapped in fishing nets and was moved to an aquarium in Mendoza. He was kept in captivity for more than 40 years until legal action and a campaign led to the closure of the aquarium and his release in 2025.... more

On 9 April 1990, people gathered at Khula Manch, an open stage in Kathmandu. They were celebrating the end of Nepal’s party-less Panchayat system and the beginning of multi-party democracy.Among the crowd was Durga Thapa, who had spent weeks organisi... more

On 8 May 1945, Yelena Rzhevskaya was handed a small box covered in red satin. The box had once held perfume but now inside – so she said – were Adolf Hitler’s teeth. Yelena later claimed this marked the beginning of the search for Hitler’s dental rec... more