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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    The Sinking of the 'Joola' Ferry

    In 2002 the 'Joola' ferry sank off Senegal with the loss of more than 1800 lives

  2. The Cuban Five

    Five Cuban spies were arrested in Miami by the FBI in September 1998

  3. Friends

    The American TV show Friends hits TV screens

  4. The World's First Hand Transplant

    On 23 September 1998, Clint Hallam received the world's first hand transplant

  5. The Overthrow of Bokassa

    On 20 September 1979 the Central African dictator Jean Bedel-Bokassa left power

  6. South Africa invades Lesotho

    South Africa sent 600 soldiers into Lesotho to quell political unrest in September 1998

  7. Los Topos - Mexico's Earthquake Rescuers

    How an earthquake in Mexico City in 1985 led to the creation of an elite rescue group

  8. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters

    In 1964, author Ken Kesey led a group of friends on a psychedelic road trip across the USA

  9. Lord of the Flies

    It is 60 years since William Golding's acclaimed novel was first published

  10. Rabin and Arafat Shake Hands

    In 1993, the Israeli prime minister and the PLO leader shook hands and made history

  11. Voting Against the War on Terror

    Three days after 9/11 Congresswoman Barbara Lee became the most hated woman in America

  12. Flower of Scotland

    How a 1968 song by the folk band, The Corries, became Scotland’s unofficial anthem

  13. Sri Lanka Massacre

    The massacre of 184 Tamils by the Sri Lankan army in 1990 during the country's civil war

  14. Remembering Chairman Mao

    Chinese leader Mao Zedong died on 9 September 1976. Sidney Rittenberg knew him well.

  15. DNA Fingerprinting

    It is 30 years since a British scientist found out how to identify people by their DNA

  16. Madame Mao

    Mao Zedong died on 9 September 1976. His widow Jiang Qing wanted power after his death.

  17. The Persecution of Pakistan's Ahmadiyya Sect

    Pakistan declared that members of the Ahmadiyya sect were not Muslims in September 1974

  18. Myanmar Currency Chaos

    The crisis following the withdrawl of most circulating banknotes in Myanmar in 1987

  19. Surviving Auschwitz

    Kitty Hart-Moxon's story of how she survived two years in the notorious Nazi death camp

  20. The Port Arthur Massacre

    The murder of 35 people by one gunman led to sweeping changes in Australia's gun laws.

  21. The Story of Dr Zhivago

    How Boris Pasternak's great novel Dr Zhivago came to be published in the West .

  22. Biba

    A ground-breaking new boutique opened in Swinging London in September, 1964

  23. World War One in Africa

    Rare recordings of African veterans of WW1 in East Africa

  24. The Last Outbreak of Smallpox

    In the summer of 1978 a British woman became the last known victim of smallpox.

  25. LSD Road Trip

    Writer Ken Kesey and friends drove across America experimenting with LSD in summer 1964

  26. Jailed for Speaking his Mind in China

    Harry Wu was a young student jailed for nearly 20 years in Communist China.

  27. Bionic Heart

    How doctors fitted a man with a permanent battery-operated heart in 1994

  28. The Death of Getulio Vargas

    In 1954 the president of Brazil chose to die rather than submit to the military

  29. Freckleton Air Disaster

    A US Air Force plane crashed into an English village, killing 61 people in August 1944

  30. The Betrayal of the Kurds

    In 1975, Iran and America abandon the Iraqi Kurds in their fight against Saddam Hussein

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