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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Devil's Island

    A convict's experience of the notorious French penal colony in South America.

  2. The World's Most Valuable T-Rex

    Peter Larson tells us how his team discovered the most complete T-Rex fossil in the world

  3. The Great Iraqi Defection

    In 1995 two of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's son-in-laws defected to Jordan.

  4. Singapore Independence

    Singapore leaves the Federation of Malaysia and becomes an independent sovereign state

  5. The Fall of Saigon

    In 1975 US troops airlifted hundreds of people out of Saigon as the Vietnam War ended.

  6. The Bombing of Hiroshima

    A Japanese schoolgirl tells her story of surviving the US nuclear attack on Hiroshima

  7. The Plot to Kill Iranian Writers

    In August 1996 in Iran, there was a plot to kill 21 writers on a bus jouney to Armenia

  8. First Cochlear Implant

    In August 1978 an Australian doctor successfully fitted a multi-channel cochlear implant.

  9. Afghanistan's First Coup

    In July 1973 military officers staged a coup which toppled the monarchy in Afghanistan

  10. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

    In August 1960 the controversial Oscar-nominated psychological thriller was released

  11. Eichmann in Argentina

    In 1960, leading Nazi Adolf Eichmann was abducted in Argentina and smuggled to Israel.

  12. First Inter-racial Kiss on TV

    In July 1964, a white actor and a black actress, kissed, live, on a British TV show

  13. Scouts in the Warsaw Uprising

    On 1 August 1944, the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation of Poland began

  14. Chilean Students Set on Fire

    Chilean soldiers attacked and burnt two students during protests in July 1986.

  15. Britain's Landslide 1945 Election

    In July 1945 Labour won a surprise victory, defeating war-time leader Winston Churchill

  16. The Tulia Drug Bust

    A drug sting in a small Texas town in 1999 went badly wrong and caused a national scandal

  17. The Death of Walter Rodney

    In 1980, the Guyanese opposition leader Dr Walter Rodney was killed in a bomb explosion.

  18. Tehran's Red Light District

    In July 1979 Iran's new Islamic government closed down Tehran's red-light district.

  19. The Aswan High Dam

    Egypt's Aswan dam was completed in 1970, at a huge cost to local people and antiquities

  20. CIA Mind Control Experiments

    In the 1950s the CIA began attempts to brainwash psychiatric patients.

  21. Ghiggia: Uruguay’s World Cup Hero

    Alcides Ghiggia scored a famous goal for Uruguay in a match at Brazil’s Maracana stadium

  22. The Manhattan Project

    The first ever nuclear weapon was detonated by scientists in the USA on 16 July 1945

  23. James Salter: Writer and Pilot

    The acclaimed American author recalls his time as a US fighter pilot during the Korean War

  24. Poison Gas in WW1

    Soldiers who witnessed gas attacks recount their experiences in archive recordings

  25. Marie Curie

    Winner of two Nobel prizes for her pioneering research into radioactivity

  26. The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

    In July 1945, the American warship was torpedoed in the shark-infested Pacific Ocean.

  27. The Death of MKO Abiola

    Nigerian opposition leader died suddenly days before his expected release from prison

  28. One Hundred Years of Solitude

    In 1967 the best-selling Latin American novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez was published.

  29. Tamil Doctors and the Sri Lankan War

    In July 2009 doctors were forced to re-assess the number of casualties in the war.

  30. The Death of General Sani Abacha

    The Doctor who tried to save Nigeria's Military Ruler.

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