Witness History

In 1952, Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya. But she wouldn't make the discovery until hours later.
The 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth and her husband were on five-month royal tour of the Commonwealth, and their first stop was Kenya.
The overnight trip to Treetops, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park, was supposed to be a relaxing break. But the princess didn’t yet know that, back in Britain, her father King George VI, had died in his sleep.
BBC correspondent Frank Gillard was following the trip and sent back a report after the news broke on February 6th. Jane Wilkinson has been through the BBC archives to find out what happened.
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: Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in Kenya, 1952. Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In 1997, scientists travelled to Tsavo, Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898.
The two lions stalked Indian and African men building the Uganda Railway, dragging victims from their tents at night. It was nine months before the officer in charge of the railway project, British Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, could kill them.
Nearly a century later, a team including scientists from Chicago's Field Museum, where the now taxidermied lions are kept, returned to Tsavo to search for the cave Patterson believed had been the lions' den.
Thomas Gnoske, one of the scientists on the expedition, and Alan Patterson, John Henry Patterson's grandson, speaks to Stefania Gozzer about the hunt for the cave and the enduring legend of the Tsavo lions.
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: Tsavo lions in Chicago. Credit: Field Museum of Natural History)

Holidaymakers arrived at the first Club Med resort on the Spanish island of Majorca in the summer of 1950.
Founded by the Belgian water polo player Gérard Blitz, Club Méditerranée offered a new kind of post-war holiday built around the idea that leisure should be simple, sociable and accessible.
The facilities were basic at first. Guests slept in huts and shared communal meals. But the company's all-inclusive approach proved enormously popular and helped change the way millions of people holiday around the world.
In 2020, Lucy Burns spoke to Pierre-Xavier Bécret whose parents worked at that first resort and remained part of the Club Med story for many years.
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: Holidaymakers relaxing at Guadeloupe's Club Med in Canada. Credit: Boris Spremo/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

In 1987, Taiwan finally lifted martial law after nearly four decades of authoritarian rule.
The moment marked a profound shift for a society long shaped by censorship, surveillance and political fear.
For many who had lived through the ‘White Terror’, it opened the possibility of speaking openly for the first time.
Among them was Malaysian student Fred Chin, who had arrived in Taiwan in the late 1960s with little sense of the political tensions around him.
What followed would draw him into a world of secret policing and military justice that operated far from public view, leaving lasting effects on his life and identity.
Ashley Byrne speaks to Fred Chin about his story and what the lifting of martial law meant for him. A Made in Manchester production.
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: Former Jingmei Military Detention Center, where political dissidents were imprisoned during the White Terror. Credit: Craig Ferguson/LightRocket via Getty Images)

In the 1980s, townships in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town became an unexpected hotbed of activity against South Africa's apartheid government.
One charismatic young activist emerged as a leader of the struggle against white minority rule, becoming known as the Che Guevara of the Cape Flats.
Former anti-apartheid activist Adiel 'Gorie' November tells Sumaya Bakhsh about his memories of his friend and fellow resistance fighter, Ashley Kriel.
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: Ashley Kriel. Credit: Rashid Lombard Archive)