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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    Finding the longest set of footprints left by the first vertebrate

    In 1992 a student found a set of fossilised footprints from the earliest vertebrate

  2. 11M: The day Madrid was bombed

    Nearly 200 died when Spanish commuter trains were bombed in 2004

  3. MH370: The plane that vanished

    Ghyslain Wattrelos' wife and two children were on MH370, the plane that disappeared.

  4. Rehabilitating Kony's child soldiers in Uganda

    In 2002, a nun was sent to northern Uganda to help those suffering from a bloody conflict

  5. The Carnation Revolution in Portugal

    In 1974, a 41-year regime was overthrown in a day

  6. French child evacuees of World War Two

    In World War Two, tens of thousands of children left Paris to escape the threat of bombs

  7. Uruguay v the tobacco giant

    In 2010, Uruguay was taken to court by a tobacco company for its trailblazing smoking ban

  8. The Whisky War: Denmark v Canada

    Beginning in 1984, a dispute over an island was marked by geniality, and bottles of booze

  9. The discovery of the Lord of Sipan in Peru

    In 1987, the looting of an ancient pyramid led to an extraordinary golden discovery

  10. The lost Czech scrolls

    The Torah scrolls stolen by the Nazis, rescued by an London Jewish community.

  11. Crimea's Soviet holiday camp

    The hugely popular Soviet holiday camp, Artek

  12. Russia annexes Crimea

    In 2014, Russia took over the Crimean peninsula

  13. Whistler: Creating one of the world’s biggest ski resorts

    In 2003, Whistler Blackcomb won its bid to host the Winter Olympics

  14. Columbus Lighthouse

    A memorial for the ashes of Christopher Columbus opened in the Dominican Republic in 1992

  15. Trans murder in Honduras

    The 2009 murder of Vicky Hernandez forced recognition of transgender rights in Honduras

  16. Icelandic women's strike

    In 1975, 90% of all women in Iceland took part in a massive nationwide protest

  17. The Soviet scientist who made two-headed dogs

    Soviet scientist Vladimir Demikhov shocked the world with his two-headed dog experiments

  18. Supermalt: The malt drink created after the Nigerian civil war

    In 1972, a Danish brewery created Supermalt

  19. The small Irish town known as ‘Little Brazil’

    How Gort in the west of Ireland became home to so many Brazilians

  20. The Juliet letters

    Since the 1990s the Juliet Club has answered letters to the Shakespearian heroine

  21. Patty Hearst: Rebel heiress

    In 1974, a kidnapped socialite joined forces with her captors

  22. The WW2 escape line that fooled the Nazis

    In 1940 a rescue operation helped Allied servicemen escape from Nazi-occupied France

  23. The Battle of Versailles: Catwalk clash of American and French fashion

    In 1973 a fashion show was held in France which the media dubbed the Battle of Versailles

  24. How Rosa Parks took a stand against racism

    Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat helped end segregation in the United States

  25. Lucha Reyes: Peruvian music star

    She overcame poverty, health problems and racism to become one of Peru’s greatest singers

  26. A young mother saved from death by stoning

    In 2003, human rights lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim defended Amina Lawal from death by stoning

  27. Queen of the 'fro

    In 1986, Charlotte Mensah went to work in the UK's first luxury Afro-Caribbean hair salon

  28. Inventing the Covid N95 mask

    In 1992, Peter Tsai invented the N95 mask filter

  29. First internet cafe

    Cyberia, billed as the World's first internet cafe opened in London in 1994

  30. The Arctic’s doomsday seed vault

    In 2008, seeds began arriving at a frozen vault designed to save the world’s food supply

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