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The History Hour
Chile’s Penguin Revolution and the 5,000-year-old frozen mummy
The History Hour
Jan 31, 2026

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We travel back to Chile in 2006 where more than 600,000 schoolchildren are marching through the streets to protest about their schools. The nationwide demonstrations will become known as the "Penguin Revolution".

Our guest Dr Laura Tisdall, a historian from Newcastle University, explains why this isn’t the first time children have challenged authority.

And we examine another protest in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1979 which became a seminal moment in the country’s transition to democracy.

Plus, one of the most defining moments of World War Two – the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazis’ largest death camp in 1945.

And the remarkable story of the 5,000-year-old mummy found frozen and perfectly preserved in Europe’s Ötzal Alps in 1991.

In sport, we explore the inspiring story of how rugby union came to thrive in Syria - despite mass protests and violent government crackdowns during 2011...

Finally, we celebrate 100 years since a technological breakthrough that would change the world. The start of television.

Contributors:

Karina Delfino – one of the leaders of the Penguin Revolution.

Dr Laura Tisdall - lecturer in Modern British History, Newcastle University.

Yao Chia-wen – protester in the Kaohsiung Incident.

General Vasily Petrenko – Soviet army commander who helped liberate Auschwitz.

Konrad Spindler – archaeologist.

Rainer Henn - forensic pathologist.

Mohamad Jarkou – Syrian rugby union player.

Iain Logie Baird – grandson of John Logie Baird, the inventor of television.

(Photo: High school students in Santiago, 2006. Credit: Claudio Pozo/AFP via Getty Images)

More Episodes
Aug 15, 2026
The Mau Mau uprising and man-eating lions

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya.

We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms.

Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the conflict between Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army, the British and Kenyan loyalists.

Next, when Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park.

In 1997, scientists travelled to Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898.

Plus, we hear how Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed an unprecedented power-sharing deal to end a wave of violence that left more than 1,200 people dead.

And the heartwarming story of the friendship between a baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise.

Finally for our Sporting Witness story, we head to the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1983.

Contributors: Caroline Elkins - Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Muthoni Kirima - Field Marshall in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. Frank Gillard - BBC correspondent. Thomas Gnoske - Scientist. Alan Patterson - British Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson's grandson. Maina Kiai - Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in 2008. Maini Schildt - Swedish Ultimate Frisbee player.

(Photo: Mau Mau suspects are rounded up by police outside the camp in Manyani, Kenya, 1955. Credit: Getty Images/Authenticated News)


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Chile’s Penguin Revolution and the 5,000-year-old frozen mummy

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