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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    The National Health Service begins

    The UK’s National Health Service started on 5 July 1948

  2. Longest-serving democratically elected communist government

    A democratically elected communist government came to power in eastern India in 1977

  3. The trial of John Demjanjuk

    In 1986, John Demjanjuk was accused of being ‘Ivan the Terrible’

  4. I made Lady Gaga's meat dress

    In 2010 Lady Gaga attended the MTV Video Music Awards in a dress made out of beef

  5. The 'graveyard' for communist statues

    Communist statues in Hungary's capital Budapest were moved to Memento Park in 1993

  6. Sampoong department store disaster

    On 29 June 1995 the Sampoong Department Store in South Korea collapsed killing 502 people

  7. First reports of Ebola

    Ebola's first documented outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976

  8. JFK’s Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech

    On 26 June 1963, United States President John F Kennedy gave a speech in Berlin

  9. My dad played golf on the moon

    In 1971 Alan Shepard played golf on the moon

  10. The Empire Windrush arrives

    On 22 June 1948, the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in England

  11. Anti-gay police raid at Tasty nightclub

    On 7 August 1994, police raided Tasty, a gay nightclub in downtown Melbourne, Australia

  12. The Somali pilot ordered to bomb his own country

    Somali fighter pilot Ahmed Mohamed Hassan faced a terrible choice in 1988

  13. Uprising in East Germany

    On 16 June 1953 East German workers went on strike in protest at Soviet rule

  14. Ming Smith makes history at MoMA

    MoMA bought photos from an African-American woman for the first time in 1979.

  15. Sir Don McCullin’s photo of a US marine

    In 1968, British photographer travelled to Vietnam for his second ever war assignment

  16. Malick Sidibé: Mali’s star photographer

    Malick Sidibé photographed life in Mali after its independence from France in 1960.

  17. A Great Day in Harlem: The story behind the iconic jazz photo

    In 1958, aspiring photographer Art Kane captured 57 jazz legends in one immortal image

  18. Lee Miller in Hitler's bath

    In 1945 the war correspondent Lee Miller was photographed in Adolf Hitler's bath

  19. 1955 Le Mans disaster

    In June 1955, more than 80 people were killed and 100 injured at the Le Mans 24-hour race

  20. Last communist march before Hitler

    On 25 January 1933 the last legal communist march was held in Berlin

  21. Fighting slavery in Niger

    In 2005, Ilguilas Weila organised a ceremony to free 7,000 enslaved people in Niger

  22. Facial reconstruction: From mummy to murder

    In 1975, Richard Neave invented a method to rebuild the face of an Egyptian mummy

  23. Inuit children taken from families

    In 1960s, the Canadian government took academically gifted Inuit children from the homes

  24. The first Indian woman to conquer Everest

    In May 1984, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to stand on top of the world

  25. Tragedy on Everest

    Michael Groom is one of the survivors of a tragic climbing expedition to Mount Everest

  26. Tenzing Norgay conquers Everest

    In 1953, Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest

  27. Edmund Hillary conquers Everest

    In 1953 Edmund Hillary became the first human to reach the top of Mount Everest

  28. The deadliest glacial avalanche in the world

    On 31 May 1970, the Huascarán avalanche destroyed the town of Yungay, in Peru

  29. Trying to unite Africa

    On 25 May 1963, leaders of 32 newly-independent African nations came together

  30. Chasing the world’s biggest tornado

    In May 2013, the widest tornado ever recorded hit the US state of Oklahoma

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