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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Festac ’77: Nigeria’s largest festival of African arts and culture

    The 1977 celebration of African culture that attracted half a million visitors

  2. ‘How I sold my clothes and created a $5 billion Vinted empire’

    In 2008, Lithuanian student Milda Mitkutė realised she had too many clothes

  3. World's first womb transplant baby

    In 2014, the world's first baby born to a mother with a transplanted womb was delivered

  4. The Chindits

    The Chindits, an unconventional special force was formed during World War Two

  5. The founding of USAID

    One woman’s influence on USAID during the 1960s 'Decade of Development’

  6. Discovering the Titanic

    In September 1985, the wreck of the lost ship was discovered during a joint expedition

  7. John Lennon's final headline concerts

    In 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed at the One to One benefit concerts in the US

  8. The making of the Third Man: A film noir classic

    In 1948, filming began in Austria on one of the greatest British films of all time

  9. Washington DC’s Mount Pleasant riot

    In 1991, rioting broke out in the US capital after a police officer shot a Salvadoran man

  10. Creating CAPTCHA

    In 2000, the Completely Automated Public Turing test was introduced as a security tool

  11. The creation of the International Criminal Court

    The world's first permanent International Criminal Court was created in 1998

  12. Geneva Conventions

    In 1864, Henry Dunant came up with a treaty to protect those injured in wartime

  13. The rise and fall of BlackBerry

    In the early 2000s, BlackBerry was the phone that ruled the world

  14. The book that changed Norway’s view of immigrants

    Maria Amelie's 2010 book triggered a change to Norway's immigration regulations

  15. One man’s escape from McCarthyism

    In 1951, a US soldier defected to the Soviet Union during the anti-communist crackdown

  16. Spot the Dog

    In 1978, British artist Eric Hill designed a book about a puppy for his two-year-old son

  17. Pramoedya Ananta Toer: The banned author of Indonesia

    Indonesian writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer wrote novels whilst imprisoned on an island

  18. Jakarta’s ban on dancing monkeys

    In 2013, Jakarta's governor banned the use of dancing monkeys in Indonesia's capital

  19. Discovery of the 'Hobbit'

    In 2003, archaeologists in Indonesia discovered the skeleton of a new species of human

  20. Borobudur Temple

    Borobudur Temple in Indonesia reopened in 1983, following a restoration project

  21. The Santa Cruz Massacre

    In 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on independence activists in East Timor's capital

  22. 1965 Singaporean independence

    The 60th anniversary of Singaporean independence

  23. Brazil’s biggest bank heist

    In 2005, theives tunnelled into a Brazilian bank in a heist straight out of the movie

  24. The Assam-Tibet earthquake

    In 1950, an earthquake in the Himalayas devastated parts of Tibet and India

  25. When Stalin silenced Shostakovich

    In 1936, Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was denounced

  26. Nagasaki bomb

    On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan

  27. Japan's record-breaking rollercoaster

    On 1 August 2000, Steel Dragon 2000 opened as the world’s longest rollercoaster

  28. Chuquicamata: Chile's abandoned mining town

    By 2007, the town lay abandoned after its 25,000 residents left due to pollution concerns

  29. Cleveland Balloonfest '86

    In 1986, one and a half million balloons were released as part of a world record attempt

  30. Eta’s assassination of Juan Mari Jáuregui

    On 29 July 2000, Basque separatists Eta killed the retired Spanish politician

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