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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Haile Selassie visits Jamaica

    In 1966, the Emperor of Ethiopia made a state visit to the Caribbean island of Jamaica.

  2. Escape from the KGB

    How Soviet double agent Oleg Gordievsky escaped from under the noses of the KGB in 1985

  3. The Birth of Second Life

    It is ten years since the launch of Philip Rosedale's online virtual world Second Life

  4. Freeze

    In 1988 a group of students put on an exhibition called Freeze. It changed British art.

  5. The Hong Kong Handover

    Former Governor General, Chris Patten, remembers the day the territory returned to China.

  6. Women's Baseball in WWII

    In 1943, the first and only professional women's baseball league was launched in the US

  7. The Soviet Gulag

    Hear one man's story of life in a Soviet labour camp during Stalin's rule.

  8. Disco Demolition Night

    How a disgruntled Chicago DJ hosted an anti-disco event which turned into a riot in 1979

  9. Skylab Falls to Earth

    The day when fragments of the US space station Skylab hit an Australian town in 1979

  10. The Death of Thich Quang Duc

    In June 1963, a Buddhist monk set himself on fire in central Saigon

  11. Iran Student Protest

    The Iranian student who became an unwitting symbol of the anti-government protests in 1999

  12. The Death of Jean Moulin

    The day the leader of the French Resistance was killed by German forces on July 08, 1943

  13. The Crate Escape

    In the summer of 1984 a Nigerian exile living in London was kidnapped in a crate.

  14. Yasser Arafat Arrives in Gaza

    When the Palestinian leader was allowed to return from exile to the Gaza strip in 1994

  15. Ludwig Wittgenstein

    How the publication of Philosophical Investigations in 1953 revolutionised philosophy

  16. Penguin Rescue

    The mission to save thousands of African penguins from an oil spill in July, 2000

  17. Chilean Students Set on Fire

    In July 1986 two students were set on fire by Chilean government soldiers

  18. The Battle of Gettysburg

    It is 150 years since the Battle of Gettysburg, a turning point in the American Civil War

  19. Iraq's Sectarian Violence

    The recent surge in violence in Iraq has echoes of the sectarian conflict in 2006-07

  20. JFK in Ireland

    Novelist Colm Toibin recalls US President John F Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 1963

  21. Smoking and Lung Cancer

    It took until the 1950s for researchers to connect smoking with lung cancer

  22. War Requiem by Benjamin Britten

    It is regarded as one of the most important pieces in 20th Century English music.

  23. Ultrasound

    It's 55 years since a picture of a foetus inside the womb was first published.

  24. The first woman in space

    In June 1963 Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova went into orbit.

  25. Murder in Managua

    In June 1979 an American TV reporter was shot dead by government forces in Nicaragua

  26. Rocky Horror Show

    It is 40 years since the opening of a comedy musical which would become a cult phenomenon

  27. The Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

    It is 60 years since the American couple were executed for spying

  28. Gay Marriage

    The first gay marriage in America took place more than 40 years ago in Minnesota.

  29. The Pentagon Papers

    In 1971 one man leaked thousands of pages of secret US government documents to the press.

  30. Post-war Berlin

    A child's eye view of life in Berlin in the aftermath of World War II

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