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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal

    In 1933, President Roosevelt enacted the New Deal to drag the US out of depression

  2. The Bosphorus boat spotter tracking Russian military trucks

    In 2015, ship spotter Yörük Işık saw Russian military trucks on a ship going to Syria

  3. The mystery of Raoul Wallenberg

    The Swedish diplomat saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War Two

  4. The invention of the hotel key card

    In the 1970s, Norwegian Tor Sornes invented the hotel key card

  5. Charlie Hebdo attack

    On 7 January 2015, 12 people were shot dead at a satirical magazine in France

  6. Marie Kondo

    In 2011, Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo's first book was published.

  7. Creating Alexa

    In 2000, two Polish students started creating a smart speaker which sounded human

  8. Klaus Fuchs: Oppenheimer’s atomic spy

    In 1950, Klaus Fuchs admitted passing top secret nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union

  9. Robert Ripley and the ‘Believe It or Not’ empire

    During the Great Depression, cartoonist Robert Ripley made millions from freaky facts

  10. Indian Ocean tsunami - Aceh

    In 2004, a deadly tsunami swept away entire communities around the Indian Ocean

  11. Indian Ocean tsunami - Tamil Nadu

    On 26 December 2004, communities around the Indian Ocean were swept away by a tsunami

  12. Dinner for One: How an English comedy became a German tradition

    The sitcom Dinner for One, recorded in 1963, has become a German New Year's Eve tradition

  13. 'Kimchi war'

    In the 1990s, a diplomatic dispute broke out between Japan and South Korea over kimchi

  14. Chef to five presidents

    Cristeta Comerford was the first woman and person of colour to the White House's top chef

  15. When instant noodles came to India

    A turning point in Indian culinary history

  16. 'I created MasterChef'

    In 1990, the cookery programme MasterChef launched on BBC TV

  17. Australian republic referendum

    On 6 November 1999, voters in Australia were asked if they wanted to become a republic

  18. Poland's bleak Christmas

    In 1981, the communist government of Poland declared martial law to suppress civil unrest

  19. Ceefax: the start of interactive television

    In 1974, the BBC launched the world's first teletext service

  20. Surviving Andes plane crash

    In 1972, 16 people survived for two months in the Andes mountains after a plane crash

  21. Peshawar school massacre

    In 2014, one of Pakistan’s worst terror attacks took place at Peshawar Army School

  22. The birth of reggaeton

    In the 1980s, Leonardo Renato Aulder pioneered a movement in Panama with his friends

  23. The handover of the Panama Canal

    In 1999 the Panama Canal was handed over from US to Panamanian rule.

  24. The Purple Heart Warriors

    In WW2, a Japanese American troop was one of the most decorated army units in US history

  25. 'I organised the Cuban thaw'

    On 17 December 2014, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro normalised Cuba and US relations

  26. Castro's Cuban revolution attempt

    In 1953, Fidel Castro attempted to revolutionise Cuba by attacking military barracks

  27. India’s 1998 nuclear tests

    Nalini Malani made an artwork protesting against India's nuclear tests

  28. Julia Gillard speaks out on sexism

    In 2012, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard made a landmark speech on misogyny

  29. The ‘Three Marias’

    In 1974, a judge decided if three Portuguese women should be jailed for writing a book

  30. The discovery that led to Covid vaccines

    In 2005, Dr Katalin Karikó published research that eventually won her the Nobel Prize

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