Witness History Episodes Episode guide
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Babi Yar
On 29 September 1941, the organised massacre of Ukrainian Jews began.
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Kidnap of US Ambassador in Brazil
In September 1969 left-wing activists kidnapped Charles Burke Elbrick in Rio de Janeiro.
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Frank Zappa
He was one of the most innovative musicians in the USA in the 1960s.
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The Cod Wars
Almost 40 years ago Britain and Iceland came to blows over fishing rights.
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The Death Of Samuel Doe
He was the President of Liberia and in September 1990 he died a very violent death.
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The Cultural Revolution in China
In the mid 1960s young people in China were encouraged to criticise their elders.
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Assassination of Orlando Letelier
The Chilean politician was killed by a bomb in Washington DC, 35 years ago.
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Arafat at the United Nations
In November 1974 the Palestinian leader was allowed to speak at the UN.
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The Death of Dag Hammarskjold
The Secretary General of the UN was killed in a plane crash 50 years ago.
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Black Wednesday
On 16 September 1992, Britain lost billions in foreign currency reserves in a single day.
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Lehman Brothers
On 15 September 2008, the US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.
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Translator at Nuremberg
The trials of senior Nazis began in the autumn of 1945.
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White Australia Policy
In the 1960s non-white immigrants were not welcome in Australia.
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The 1980 Turkey coup
On 12 September 1980, the military took control of Turkey.
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The Assassination of Ahmed Shah Massood
Two days before 9/11, al-Qaeda killed an Afghan anti-Taliban leader.
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An Azerbaijani View of the Demise of the Soviet Union
How the collapse of the Soviet Union played out in the life of a teenager in Azerbaijan.
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Great Fire of London
In 1666, a fire destroyed much of the city of London. Two diarists recorded what happened.
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Assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd
It is 45 years since the South African Prime Minister was killed in Parliament.
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The Women of Greenham Common
How an anti-nuclear march turned into a peace camp based outside a US airbase in the UK
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The Scoop of the Century
The scoop of the century on the eve of World War II.
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Libya's Coup - 1969
The coup that brought Colonel Gaddafi to power in Libya.
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Drop City
The hippy commune in Colorado in the Summer of Love, 1967.
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The Freedom Riders
The story of an extraordinary act of courage by the civil rights leader Martin Luther King
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Cameroon's Lake Nyos Disaster
How villagers awoke to find hundreds of friends and neighbours mysteriously dead
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Child evacuees from the Spanish Civil War
How thousands of Basque children were evacuated to Britain during the Spanish Civil War.
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Woodstock Festival 1969
A pivotal moment in American popular culture - the Woodstock festival of 1969.
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South African Student Sit-in Against Apartheid Injustice
White students in apartheid South Africa stage a sit-in protest against racial injustice.
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Dr Spock: Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
Dr Spock's Baby and Child Care, the book that revolutionised child care.
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Stealing the Mona Lisa
The theft of the Mona Lisa from the museum of the Louvre in Paris in August 1911
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The UN Baghdad bomb
The bomb that destroyed the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003.
