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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    The Hunger Winter

    How millions of Dutch faced starvation at the end of World War Two

  2. The death of Bassel al Assad

    It is 19 years since the heir to the Syrian presidency died in a car crash.

  3. The Biafran war

    The Biafran war lasted for almost three years and split Nigeria. Hear one child's story.

  4. The Arrest of Klaus Barbie

    Thirty years ago, the former Gestapo chief, Klaus Barbie, was arrested in Bolivia.

  5. Black Stars of Ghana

    Striker Osei Kofi on how the Ghanaian football team dominated Africa in the 1960s.

  6. Roe v Wade

    In 1973 the landmark decision was made in the US Supreme Court which made abortion legal

  7. Chaim Soutine

    It is 120 years since the birth of the great Expressionist painter.

  8. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

    The US government's experiment on a group of African-American men without their knowledge

  9. Baby Fae and the baboon's heart

    In 1984 doctors tried to save a baby girl's life by giving her a heart transplant.

  10. The Boxing Day tsunami and Aceh

    When the earthquake and tsunami of December 2004 hit Indonesia, over 130,000 people died.

  11. Festival in the Desert

    In 2001 a festival held in the Sahara desert launched Tuareg music on the world scene

  12. Tito on Vis

    In 1944 the Yugoslav partisan leader found sanctuary on a tiny island in the Adriatic.

  13. Johnny Cash plays Folsom Prison

    It is 45 years since the Country and Western star played his first gig in a jail.

  14. Operation No Living Thing

    In January 1999, a combined rebel force invaded the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown.

  15. Fighting in the Iran-Iraq War.

    An Iraqi doctor remembers serving in one of the longest wars of the 20th Century.

  16. Donald Campbell's Fatal Crash

    In January 1967 the record-breaking driver was killed at the helm of his jetboat Bluebird

  17. Waiting for Godot

    How Samuel Beckett's existentialist masterpiece revolutionised the theatre 60 years ago.

  18. The Keeling Curve

    Meticulously recorded levels of CO2 in the atmosphere show how our climate is changing

  19. Donald Woods flees South Africa

    It is 35 years since the South African newspaper editor was forced into exile.

  20. Pong and the birth of the computer game

    It is 40 years since a video game was invented which would change the way we play.

  21. Big Brother - the beginning of reality TV

    In December 1999 a young Dutch man won the first ever Big Brother reality TV show.

  22. Maitatsine

    In 1980 thousands died in the Nigerian city of Kano in an uprising by an Islamic sect.

  23. Vietnam War - Christmas bombing campaign

    40 years ago the US launched its heaviest aerial bombardment of the Vietnam War.

  24. The Execution of the Ceauşescus

    On December 25th 1989, Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu were executed by firing squad.

  25. Dusty Plays South Africa

    The British popstar Dusty Springfield went on tour in apartheid South Africa in 1964

  26. Mad cow disease - CJD

    In the 1990s it became clear that a brain disease could be passed from cows to humans.

  27. Libya and Weapons of Mass Destruction

    In December 2003 Colonel Gaddafi announced Libya was giving up trying to make WMD

  28. The last men on the moon

    The story of the last US space mission to the moon 40 years ago

  29. Piltdown Man

    In 1912, Britain's top palaeontologists were hoaxed by a "missing link" in human evolution

  30. The M Room

    How exiles from the Nazis helped British intelligence listen in on German prisoners-of-war

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