👀 In 1978, artist Eric Hill noticed his toddler kept lifting the paper he was working on, to see what was underneath
🐶 He came up with a new format for a children's book 'lift-the-flap' & created Spot the dog
📻 bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct74…
👦 Featuring Teddy's radio debut
🚂 In 1951, a train was hijacked from Communist Czechoslovakia diverted to freedom in West Germany
🇨🇿 Most of the passengers had no idea they were going to cross the Iron Curtain that day
📻 Karel Ruml guarded the brake with a gun: @bbcworldservicebbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct74…
This summer on Witness History we have the joy of making the origin stories of two classic 80s films with big birthdays. @MegannJ brings us Making Jaws and on 3 July it’s my turn with Back to the Future @bbcworldservice bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct74…
🇺🇸 In 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in New York, after both its engines failed shortly after take off
✈️ All 155 people on board survived
🛟 I spoke to @DaveSanderson2, the last passenger to be rescued, for @bbcworldserviceyoutube.com/watch?v=KuzS8Bzd…
@Eurovision starts tomorrow. But with Russia banned, President Putin has revived the Intervision Song Contest - the USSR's answer to Eurovision.
I interviewed Marion Rung, who twice achieved top 10 Eurovision finishes before winning Intervision in 1980.
Read on for one of the stranger chapters of Cold War history.🧵
(Marion Rung, Intervision 1980)
Archaeologist Khalil Hariri risked everything - and was even shot at - when he rescued 400 artefacts from the clutches of the Islamic State group 10 years ago in Palmyra. Today’s Witness History on @bbcworldservice bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct74…
Absolutely chuffed that @jasonmohammad chose my episode about Exercise Tiger to feature on @BBCRadio4’s Pick of the Week - for the best programmes on BBC radio.
Read on to find out about Exercise Tiger - the disastrous D-Day rehearsal. 🧵
In the event of a moon landing disaster, Richard Nixon had a contingency speech ready in case the astronauts never made it home.
🎧 Hear the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there bbc.in/41QvihC
First spacewalk - on 18 March 1965, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to spacewalk.
🎧 Hear the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there bbc.in/3DQRGj9
A cracking Witness History today from @VickyFarncombe Richard Nixon’s contingency speech in case the moon landing astronauts never made it home in 1969. Written two days before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon @bbcworldservice bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5y…
This week has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had producing Pick of the Week! 🎧
Tune in today at 6:15pm (UK) on @BBCRadio4 as John Wilson curates standout BBC audio—Manchester’s night bus, Trump & transgenic mice & lots more.Listen here 👉 bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpd…
Huge thanks to Vicky and Clare for all their hard work on this. A proper eye-opener helping to make it, a y'know what, it turned out brill - 'Detectorists on a bus', apparently!
🇺🇸 In 1937, American supermarket owner Sylvan Goldman changed the way we shop
🛒 He came up with a 'folding basket carrier', later known as a trolley
🛍️ They caught on & shoppers could finally buy more than they could carry
📻 bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5y…
When you’re the most famous foreigner in China… In 1981 English lessons were watched on TV by about 500 million people there. Kathy Flower tells me what that was like @bbcworldservice bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5y…
Drinks with toxic ingredients have been linked to deaths and poisonings in countries like India, Laos and Turkey. It was announced over the weekend, Vietnam too.
I made a programme recently for the @bbcworldservice "Is fake alcohol a global threat?"
bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5xj…