Witness History

In May 1942, a team of Norwegian resistance fighters in occupied Norway were getting ready to blow up a railway carrying materials crucial to the German war machine.
Led by Lieutenant Peter Deinboll, a local from the area, they set out to execute what the Allied forces saw as the top priority sabotage operation in Norway at that stage in the war. Should they fail, allied planes would carpet bomb the village, including Deinboll’s hometown.
Lars Bevanger speaks to Lieutenant Deinboll’s nephew, Gunnar Deinboll Jenssen.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: Lieutenant Peter Deinboll Jr. Credit: Gunnar Deinboll Jenssen)

In the early 1990s, Algeria was engulfed by a brutal civil conflict, as armed Islamist groups fought the state and civilians lived in fear. Foreigners were urged to leave, and many did. But Sister Lourdes Migueles, a Spanish Augustinian nun who had already spent decades serving in Algeria, chose to stay.
As the violence worsened, religious figures also became targets. In October 1994, two of Sister Lourdes’s fellow nuns, Caridad Alvarez and Esther Paniagua, were shot dead near their convent as they returned from work. Sister Lourdes remembers hearing the gunshots, the panic in the street, and realising immediately that it was her fellow Sisters who had been attacked. Soon afterwards, she was ordered by her superiors to leave Algeria, something she says caused her deep pain, as though she had abandoned the country she loved.
Years later, she returned to Algiers, where she still lives and works today, helping women and children. Sister Lourdes Migueles tells her story to Colm Flynn.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: Nuns attend a ceremony at the Chapel of our Lady of Santa Cruz in Algeria in 2018. Credit: Ryad Kramdi/via Getty)

In April 1991, journalists from 38 African countries came together in Namibia for a week-long seminar to discuss the need for a free, independent and pluralistic press on the continent.
When discussions ended after five days on 3 May, they had created the Windhoek declaration - a declaration of free press principles.
Later that year, Unesco’s general conference endorsed the declaration.
In 1993, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 3 May as World Press Freedom Day.
It is marked annually around the world.
Gwen Lister was a newspaper editor at the time and chaired the seminar.
She tells Jen Dale about the conference and the personal costs of standing up for press freedom.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Picture: Gwen Lister with former Namibian Prime Minister Hage Geingob at the Windhoek seminar. Credit: The Namibian)

On 17 December 2014, United States president Barack Obama and the leader of Cuba, Raúl Castro, announced the normalisation of their countries' relations, ending 54 years of hostility.
The announcement was a shock to most except a few trusted aides who had worked for 18 months to make it happen.
Alejandro Castro, Raúl Castro's son, represented the Cuban side, while Ben Rhodes, Obama’s speech writer, was sent by the US.
Speaking to Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty in 2024, Ben explains how he and Alejandro found common ground whilst hashing out decades of bad blood.
They eventually flew to Vatican City to officially commit to a new co-operative future.
In 2017, President Donald Trump partially rolled back on the deal, tightening rules affecting travel and on sending funds to the Caribbean island nation.
Ben says: “The US government made a liar out of me. I felt betrayed.”
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: Barack Obama shakes hands with Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela's memorial service in 2013. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In 1971, the region that is now Bangladesh fought for independence from Pakistan. At the time, Peter Singer was a philosophy lecturer at the University of Oxford.
Horrified by the suffering in Bangladesh, Singer wrote an essay in which he put forward his Drowning Child thought experiment, one of the most influential ideas in modern philosophy.
The thought experiment, published in 1972, inspired the Effective Altruism movement, which has led donors to commit billions of dollars to charities. Peter Singer speaks to Ben Henderson.
This programme contains views on disability that some people may find offensive.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: Peter Singer in 2001. Credit: Najlah Feanny/Getty Images)