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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Woubis, yossis and travestis: LGBT activism in Côte d’Ivoire

    In 1992, a group of LGBT Ivoirians stormed the office of a national newspaper

  2. The Stonewall Inn

    How a protest outside New York's Stonewall Inn inspired the modern gay rights movement.

  3. China's 'Economic Miracle'

    Massive economic growth has been possible because of migrant labour, but at what cost?

  4. The Trabant

    The iconic East German car that dominated the roads of communist Central Europe

  5. The police rape interview that shocked Britain

    The documentary that changed the way British police treated women reporting rape.

  6. Mindfulness for the masses

    Scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn pioneered a meditative approach to treat pain and depression.

  7. The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race

    Why an activist removed the Confederate flag from South Carolina's state house grounds

  8. The Fall of Madrid

    How the Spanish capital fell to General Franco's forces in 1939, ending a civil war

  9. The elections that Hamas won

    Palestinians voted to elect a new government in 2006. The outcome surprised everyone.

  10. Benjamin Britten's War Requiem

    The emotional first performance at the newly-built Coventry Cathedral in 1962

  11. Tunisia’s legal brothels

    For decades, Tunisia has had a system of legal brothels.

  12. When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor

    Israeli warplanes launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981

  13. How Switzerland defeated its heroin epidemic

    In the 1990s, the Swiss tried radical new policy ideas, including heroin on prescription

  14. Afghanistan's poppy problem

    Laila Haidari set up Kabul's first independent drug rehab centre in 2010

  15. When Peru mistook missionaries for drug traffickers

    The Peruvian Air Force shot down a light plane carrying American missionaries in 2001

  16. The killing of Pablo Escobar

    The Colombian drug lord was shot dead by police in December 1993

  17. The war on drugs

    President Richard Nixon was the first US President to try to wipe out illegal drug use

  18. The Tulsa Race Massacre

    In 1921, a white mob destroyed an affluent African-American neighbourhood.

  19. Rock concert for Chernobyl

    The first charity rock concert ever held in the USSR raised money for Chernobyl survivors

  20. Amilcar Cabral: An African liberation legend

    Amilcar Cabral led the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in West Africa

  21. The first Arab woman pilot

    Egyptian Lotfia Elnadi made history when she gained her pilot licence in 1933

  22. The strike that shocked India

    The Indian railway workers’ strike of 1974 prompted mass arrests and a state of emergency

  23. Fighting forced marriage in war

    Why a court in Sierra Leone ruled that forced marriage was a crime against humanity.

  24. Saving the world's wetlands

    Iran hosted the first convention to save the world's wetlands in1971.

  25. When Egypt said 'enough'

    Years before the Arab Spring swept the Middle East Egyptians were protesting in Cairo

  26. Striking in South Korea in 1980

    Strikes and protests against South Korea's military government came to a head in May 1980

  27. When Ariel Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa compound

    The Israeli politician visited the compound containing one of Islam's holiest sites

  28. China's Democracy Wall

    How a brick wall in Beijing became a beacon for those calling for change

  29. The trial of South Africa’s 'Dr Death'

    The trial of a South African doctor accused of multiple murders under Apartheid.

  30. The Jewish exodus from Iraq

    How two thousand Jews fled persecution in the summer of 1971, helped by Iraqi Kurds

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