Surviving Chile's tsunami
Witness History27 Feb 2025

Surviving Chile's tsunami

In 2010, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Chile.

It shook the central and southern parts of the country for more than three minutes, causing widespread damage which destroyed buildings, bridges and roads.

The earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, which travelled 600 kilometres west to the remote island of Juan Fernandez where Alison Campbell and her family were on holiday.

Hundreds of people died, and thousands were left injured and homeless.

Alison Campbell tells Jane Chambers what it was like when the tsunami struck.

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: Rescue workers in Juan Fernandez. Credit: JORGE AMENGUAL/AFP via Getty Images).

Episoder(2000)

The creation of Miffy

The creation of Miffy

It's 70 years since Miffy was created.The little rabbit with two dots for eyes and an X for a mouth went on to feature in 32 books translated into more than 50 languages.The Dutch author and illustrat...

5 Nov 202510min

President Clinton is impeached

President Clinton is impeached

In 1999, the US Senate chamber in Washington DC was turned into a court to put President Bill Clinton on trial, after he admitted lying about an affair with an intern called Monica Lewinsky. In 2011, ...

4 Nov 202510min

The brains behind Thunderbirds

The brains behind Thunderbirds

In 1965, a groundbreaking children's show using cutting-edge puppets first blast onto television screens. Thunderbirds was set in 2065 and followed the antics of secret organisation ‘International Res...

3 Nov 202510min

Emerante de Pradines: Haiti’s musical trailblazer

Emerante de Pradines: Haiti’s musical trailblazer

Emerante de Pradines was a Haitian singer, dancer and folklorist who became the first person from her country to sign a record deal. She was dedicated to de-demonising vodou music and folklore and wen...

31 Okt 202510min

Orson Welles broadcasts The War of the Worlds

Orson Welles broadcasts The War of the Worlds

The night before Halloween in 1938, 23-year-old Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air performed a radio adaptation of HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds.It would become one of the most notorio...

30 Okt 202510min

Srebrenica massacre

Srebrenica massacre

It's 30 years since a massacre of Bosnian Muslims during the war in the former Yugoslavia. The Srebrenica massacre, recognised by the United Nations as a genocide, was the shocking climax of the war i...

29 Okt 202510min

The invention of the balloon-expandable stent

The invention of the balloon-expandable stent

An estimated 2 million stents are implanted into people’s hearts around the world each year – making it one of the key treatments for heart disease. The treatment was invented by Argentinian doctor J...

28 Okt 202510min

Death of a priest

Death of a priest

The 1977 murder of Father Rutilio Grande sent shockwaves through El Salvador. The 48-year-old Jesuit priest was an outspoken champion of the poor in the deeply divided central American nation. In the ...

27 Okt 202510min

Populært innen Samfunn

alt-fortalt
rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
aftenpodden-usa
konspirasjonspodden
popradet
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
wolfgang-wee-uncut
grenselos
frokostshowet-pa-p5
synnve-og-vanessa
rss-dannet-uten-piano
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
min-barneoppdragelse
fladseth
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
den-politiske-situasjonen
vitnemal