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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    The UN retreat from Somalia

    In 1995, a United Nations mission to restore peace in Somalia ended in disaster

  2. Resusci Anne: the world’s first life-saving resuscitation dummy

    In May 1960 a Norwegian toy-maker unveiled a life-sized, life-like training manikin

  3. JFK’s 1963 Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech

    The US President spoke at the newly constructed Berlin Wall at the height of the Cold War

  4. The Wonder Woman of DC Comics

    In 1976 Jenette Kahn became the first female head of DC Comics, home of the superheroes

  5. The invention of superglue

    In 1951, Harry Coover noticed a chemical he was working with was sticking to everything

  6. The 'ghost town' of Namibia

    In 1908, the first Kolmanskop diamond was found. It's now abandoned, buried in the desert

  7. The father of Ethio-Jazz

    In 1966, Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke recorded a new genre of music, Ethio-jazz

  8. Harold Riley’s 'one of a kind' portrait of Nelson Mandela

    A specially commissioned portrait of Nelson Mandela by Harold Riley was unveiled in 2005

  9. The suspicious death of Rear Admiral Durović

    In 1991, a Yugoslav People’s Army commander died in mysterious circumstances

  10. Goodluck Jonathan’s phone call that changed Nigeria

    President Goodluck Jonathan's call to Muhammadu Buhari to concede election defeat in 2015

  11. The Germanwings plane crash

    General David Galtier who led the search operation recalls the 2015 crash

  12. The visionary behind the European Space Agency

    In October 2012, a visionary letter about the European Space Agency was sent into space

  13. The historic handshake in space

    In July 1975, Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts met in space and shook hands

  14. In event of moon disaster: 'The speech that never was'

    Richard Nixon's contingency speech in case the moon landing astronauts never made it home

  15. First spacewalk

    On 18 March 1965, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to spacewalk

  16. The rocket that revived Brazil’s space programme

    On 23 October 2004, Brazil launched its first rocket following a devastating accident

  17. Bardo Museum attack in Tunisia

    In March 2015, 22 people were killed when two gunmen stormed the building

  18. The Gambia’s ‘Queen of Recycling’

    In 1997, a Gambian woman started an environmental initiative

  19. The Capitol Crawl

    On 12 March 1990, hundreds of wheelchair users crawled up the steps of the US Capitol

  20. King Kong: South Africa's first all-black musical

    South Africa’s first musical with an all-black cast opened to critical acclaim in 1959

  21. The invention of GPS

    The Global Positioning System, also known as GPS, was created in the late 1970s

  22. How bloodshed in Selma led to the US Voting Rights Act 1965

    In 1965, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was brought in to end racial discrimination

  23. The Great Toyota War

    In 1987, rugged pickup trucks provided a turning point in the decades-long war in Chad

  24. The US invasion of Panama

    In 1989, more than 20,000 US soldiers descended on the tiny Central American country

  25. The invention of the shopping trolley

    In 1937, American supermarket owner Sylvan Goldman wanted his customers to spend more.

  26. The Calais 'Jungle' migrant camp

    In 2015, thousands of migrants lived in a squalid camp in France known as the "Jungle"

  27. Africa’s stolen Metis children

    In 1953, Marie-José Loshi was forcibly taken from her family because of her skin colour

  28. Surviving Chile's tsunami

    In 2010, an earthquake struck the coast of Chile triggering a tsunami

  29. Denmark’s Inuit children experiment

    In 1951, 22 Inuit children from Greenland were sent to live with families in Denmark

  30. The Nellie massacre

    In 1983, an estimated 3,000 people were massacred in Assam, India

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