Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway

Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway

In 1995, an obscure Japanese religion launched a chemical attack on the Tokyo metro.

Members of the doomsday cult, which called itself Aum Shinrikyo, dropped plastic bags containing sarin liquid on the floors of five different trains and then pierced them. As the liquid evaporated, passengers began inhaling the deadly fumes. Thirteen people were killed and thousands more injured.

One of the passengers affected that day was Atsushi Asakahara. He spoke to Chloe Hadjimatheou in 2012.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by 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 football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Sarin attack. Credit: Getty Images)

Episoder(2000)

2001 A Space Odyssey

2001 A Space Odyssey

In April 1968 Stanley Kubrick's ground-breaking sci-fi movie was released in the US. The film had mixed early reviews but went on to be considered one of the great classics of all-time. Keir Dullea played the starring role of astronaut David Bowman in the film. He tells Mike Lanchin about working with Kubrick and with the famous space computer H.A.L.Photo credit: MGM / EMI

5 Apr 20189min

Russia's Bitter Taste of Capitalism

Russia's Bitter Taste of Capitalism

Chaos and hardship hit Russia with the rapid market reforms in early 1992, weeks after the collapse of the USSR. Dina Newman has been speaking to one of the architects of this "shock therapy", the economy minister Andrei Nechaev. Photo: an old woman outside McDonald's in Moscow, circa 1992. Credit: Dina Newman archive.

4 Apr 20189min

The UNAbomber

The UNAbomber

On the 10th May 2023, the so-called UNAbomber was found dead in his prison cell.Ted Kaczynski carried out a campaign of attacks against universities and airlines in the USA, over seventeen years. In 1996, he was turned in by his brother David Kaczynski.In 2010, David spoke to Lucy Williamson.(Photo: Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski outside the Federal Courthouse in Sacramento, California. January 1998. Credit: Bob Galbraith/AFP/Getty Images)

3 Apr 20189min

The Invention of Semtex

The Invention of Semtex

The plastic explosive was malleable, odourless and stable. Created in communist Czechoslovakia in the town of Semtin in 1958, it was once the weapon of choice for those seeking to spread terror. Maria Jevstafjeva has been speaking to the brother of Stanislav Brebera, the chemist who invented it.Photo: Two workers display Semtex, a Czech-made industrial and military plastic explosive at Syntesia chemical plant in Semtin, Credit: Lubomir Kotek/AFP/Getty Images

2 Apr 20188min

The Good Friday Agreement

The Good Friday Agreement

In 1998, the political parties in Northern Ireland reached a peace agreement that ended decades of war. But the Good Friday Agreement, as it became known, was only reached after days of frantic last-minute negotiations. In 2012, Louise Hidalgo spoke to Paul Murphy, the junior minister for Northern Ireland at the time.PHOTO: Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern (L) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) pose with the mediator of the agreement, Senator George Mitchell. (AFP/Getty Images)

30 Mar 20188min

Mapping the Ocean's Secrets

Mapping the Ocean's Secrets

The publication of a map of the floor of the Atlantic ocean in 1957 by an American female cartographer, Marie Tharp, helped to change forever the way we view our world. Her discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was eventually taken as evidence of the theory of plate tectonics. Yet her work was initially dismissed as 'girls' talk', her colleague geologist Bill Ryan tells Louise Hidalgo.Picture: Marie Tharp working on a map of the ocean floor at Columbia University in the 1960s. (Credit: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory courtesy of the Marie Tharp estate)

29 Mar 20189min

The 'Oasis of Peace'

The 'Oasis of Peace'

In 1978 a small community called Wahat al-Salam, Neve Shalom, was founded by four families, Jews and Arabs, on a hill-top between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It was a pioneering experiment in peaceful co-existence in the long Middle East conflict. Four decades on, it is now home to more than 60 families. Mike Lanchin travels to the community and speaks to two of its long-standing residents, Nava Sonnenschein and Daoud Boulus about life in this "oasis of peace."(Photo courtesy of Daoud Boulus)

28 Mar 20189min

Sarajevo: Singing for Peace

Sarajevo: Singing for Peace

After the bitter Bosnian war in the 1990's, Catholic Monk, Friar Ivo Markovic, launched a multi-faith choir to bring survivors of the violence together and promote understanding between different ethnic groups. The choir is called "Pontanima", an invented word based on Latin that means, "bridge among souls". Rebecca Kesby spoke to Friar Ivo and saw the choir perform. (PHOTO: Members of the Pontanima Choir of Sarajevo: Courtesy of The Woolf Institute)

27 Mar 201811min

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