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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Smoking and Lung Cancer

    It took until the 1950s for researchers to connect smoking with lung cancer

  2. War Requiem by Benjamin Britten

    It is regarded as one of the most important pieces in 20th Century English music.

  3. Ultrasound

    It's 55 years since a picture of a foetus inside the womb was first published.

  4. The first woman in space

    In June 1963 Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova went into orbit.

  5. Murder in Managua

    In June 1979 an American TV reporter was shot dead by government forces in Nicaragua

  6. Rocky Horror Show

    It is 40 years since the opening of a comedy musical which would become a cult phenomenon

  7. The Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

    It is 60 years since the American couple were executed for spying

  8. Gay Marriage

    The first gay marriage in America took place more than 40 years ago in Minnesota.

  9. The Pentagon Papers

    In 1971 one man leaked thousands of pages of secret US government documents to the press.

  10. Post-war Berlin

    A child's eye view of life in Berlin in the aftermath of World War II

  11. Nigeria's Lost Election

    The election of Chief MKO Abiola 20 years ago, which was annulled by the military

  12. Escape from Alcatraz

    In June 1962 three prisoners escaped from the maximum security US jail.

  13. The Mau Mau Rebellion

    Britain's disturbing abuses against the Mau Mau in colonial Kenya

  14. Robert Kennedy's Funeral Train

    How huge crowds of Americans mourned Bobby Kennedy after his 1968 assassination.

  15. Stalin's Gulag

    Millions of people were sent to brutal labour camps in the USSR under Joseph Stalin

  16. The Oklahoma Bomber

    Twelve years ago, Timothy McVeigh was executed for carrying out the 1995 Oklahoma bombing

  17. Bristol Bus Boycott

    How a protest by black activists in 1963 led to the UK's first anti-racism laws

  18. The Nepali Royal Massacre

    Twelve years ago, the Crown Prince of Nepal massacred his family at the royal palace

  19. The Queen's Coronation

    Two Maids of Honour remember the crowning of Queen Elizabeth the Second in London in 1953.

  20. The New Deal

    Eighty years ago, Franklin D Roosevelt promised to rescue the US from the Great Depression

  21. The Ascent of Everest

    How Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing conquered the world's highest mountain in 1953.

  22. The Rite of Spring

    100 years ago, the premiere of a Stravinsky ballet caused a riot in Paris.

  23. Liberace

    A film-maker remembers the flamboyant pianist and entertainer immortalised in a new film.

  24. Israel withdraws from Lebanon

    A senior UN official recalls Israel's hasty withdrawl from southern Lebanon in 2000.

  25. Africa United

    The leaders of 32 newly-independent African countries met to discuss uniting the continent

  26. The Watergate Hearings

    The scandal which lead to President Richard Nixon standing down 40 years ago

  27. The Murder of Aldo Moro

    It is 35 years since the Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro was found dead in a car in Rome

  28. Protect and Survive

    In May 1980 the British government published a booklet on how to survive nuclear war

  29. Dambusters

    A crewman's account of the famous British raid on Hitler's dams in 1943.

  30. The Death of Marlene Dietrich

    It is 21 years since screen star Marlene Dietrich died in Paris at the age of 90

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