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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    How Cancún became a tourist destination

    In 1969, Antonio Enríquez Savignac started building Cancún

  2. The first budget transatlantic flights

    In 1955, an Icelandic airline slashed the cost of flying across the Atlantic

  3. Orelhão: Brazil's iconic egg-shaped telephone booth

    In 1971, a Chinese architect called Chu Ming Silveira created Orelhão

  4. Kielland disaster

    In 1980, 123 men died when a platform capsized in Norway's biggest industrial disaster

  5. The Irish shopworkers strike against apartheid

    In 1984, 11 Dunnes store workers walked out after refusing to handle South African goods

  6. Boko Haram massacre in Gwoza

    In 2014, Boko Haram drove into Gwoza in Nigeria and began an assault that killed hundreds

  7. Nato bombs Serbian state television headquarters

    It's 25 years since Nato bombed the Serbian television headquarters in Belgrade

  8. The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at George Bush

    Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at the President of the United States.

  9. Saving lives on D-Day

    Charles Norman Shay was honoured for saving men from drowning on Omaha Beach on D-Day

  10. The woman whose weather report changed the date of D-Day

    Maureen Flavin’s weather report forecast a storm and changed the course of WW2 history

  11. Tetris: The birth of an all-time favourite

    The game was created by a Russian and marketed by an American during the Cold War

  12. ‘Panda diplomacy’: China gifts pandas to Taiwan

    Giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, were sent to Taiwan from China as a gift in 2008

  13. The commercial that changed advertising: 1984

    Forty years ago, a revolutionary advert played at America’s Super Bowl

  14. The Flint water crisis

    In 2014, a city in Michigan was exposed to dangerous levels of lead in its water supply

  15. The first Aboriginal MP

    In August 1971, the first Aboriginal MP took his place in the Australian Senate.

  16. The first ever quintuplets

    Ninety years ago, five girls were born and exhibited to the world

  17. Carlos Lamarca: From army captain to Brazil's 'most wanted'

    Hero or traitor? Carlos Lamarca deserted the Brazilian army to fight the military regime

  18. How Air Jordans were created

    The story of how Nike signed basketballer Michael Jordan and launched Air Jordans

  19. Imelda Marcos's famous shoe collection

    In 2001, more than 700 pairs of Imelda Marcos’ shoes became museum exhibits in Marikina

  20. Adi Dassler's sports shoe obsession

    How an argument between the Dassler brothers led to the creation of Adidas and Puma

  21. How a Brazilian flip-flop took over the world

    Havaianas has become one of the country's most successful and best-known exports

  22. Bata: Pioneering shoemakers

    A Czech company called Bata pioneered assembly line shoemaking

  23. When Cuban spy Ana Montes was caught

    The story of Cuban spy Ana Montes who was arrested in 2001

  24. Baghdad heavy metal

    The story of heavy metal in Iraq during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein

  25. How nuclear testing changed politics in French Polynesia

    In 2004, protests against nuclear testing saw a change in how French Polynesia was ruled

  26. The creation of the state of Israel

    In 1948, the state of Israel was declared

  27. The ‘Catastrophe’ for Palestinians

    In 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes

  28. Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal

    The story of a princess, an Indian palace and a photograph which gained worldwide fame

  29. How a billion Indians got a digital ID

    The 2009 attempt to give all Indian citizens a unique digital ID

  30. The pioneering eye surgery that led to Lasik

    In 1963, Dr Jose Barraquer Moner performed the first eye surgery to fix short-sightedness.

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