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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    La Pasionaria: Heroine of the Spanish Civil War

    Dolores Ibárruri was dubbed La Pasionaria for her fiery speeches in the Spanish civil war

  2. Heathers: The making of a cult classic

    In 1989, dark comedy Heathers was released and changed the teen movie genre

  3. The first global case of coral bleaching

    In 1998, a strange phenomenon turned the world’s most colourful coral reefs deathly white

  4. Cuban blindness

    In the early 1990s, around 50,000 Cubans were struck down with sight loss

  5. Oradour massacre

    In June 1944, 642 people were killed in Oradour, France

  6. Jacques Derrida: ‘Rock star’ philosopher

    In 1966, the Frenchman upended philosophy with his theory of "deconstruction"

  7. English TV lessons in China go primetime

    An estimated 500 million people in China watched English lessons on television in 1981

  8. 1968 New York City teachers' strike

    In 1968, more than 50,000 teachers went on strike in New York City, in the USA

  9. Lithuania's 'wolf children'

    In the aftermath of World War Two, children fled East Prussia in order to survive

  10. The Baltic chain protest

    On 23 August 1989, approximately two million people joined hands to form a human chain

  11. The Milltown Cemetery attack

    In 1988, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, three people were killed at a funeral

  12. The launch of Windows 95

    In 1995 Microsoft released a new operating system after a $300 million marketing campaign

  13. Replacing the Panchen Lama

    On 29 November 1995, China exerted its influence over Tibetan Buddhism's leadership

  14. The murder of Maurizio Gucci

    On 27 March 1995, the former head of the fashion house was shot dead in Milan, Italy

  15. Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway

    In 1995, the doomsday cult, Aum Shinrikyo, launched a chemical attack on the Tokyo metro

  16. Hunting the Unabomber

    In September 1995, US newspapers controversially published a terrorist's manifesto.

  17. Drum: Africa’s revolutionary magazine

    The first African lifestyle magazine Drum, was first printed in 1951

  18. 'I wrote Schindler's List'

    Thomas Keneally stumbled across the story of Oskar Schindler while buying a briefcase

  19. Kobe earthquake

    On 17 January 1995, an earthquake devastated the city of Kobe, in Japan

  20. Confronting Betty Ford’s addiction

    In 1978, former first lady Betty Ford sought help for addiction

  21. Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal

    In 1933, President Roosevelt enacted the New Deal to drag the US out of depression

  22. The Bosphorus boat spotter tracking Russian military trucks

    In 2015, ship spotter Yörük Işık saw Russian military trucks on a ship going to Syria

  23. The mystery of Raoul Wallenberg

    The Swedish diplomat saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War Two

  24. The invention of the hotel key card

    In the 1970s, Norwegian Tor Sornes invented the hotel key card

  25. Charlie Hebdo attack

    On 7 January 2015, 12 people were shot dead at a satirical magazine in France

  26. Marie Kondo

    In 2011, Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo's first book was published.

  27. Creating Alexa

    In 2000, two Polish students started creating a smart speaker which sounded human

  28. Klaus Fuchs: Oppenheimer’s atomic spy

    In 1950, Klaus Fuchs admitted passing top secret nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union

  29. Robert Ripley and the ‘Believe It or Not’ empire

    During the Great Depression, cartoonist Robert Ripley made millions from freaky facts

  30. Indian Ocean tsunami - Aceh

    In 2004, a deadly tsunami swept away entire communities around the Indian Ocean

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