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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    The Sami protest song that made Eurovision history

    In 1980, Norway’s Eurovision Song Contest entry included a traditional Sami joik song

  2. When Sweden invented the reality game show

    In 1997, Sweden launched the world's first reality-based competitive TV show

  3. Uncovering a lost burial ground in Rio

    In 1996, Merced dos Anjos unearthed the New Blacks Cemetery under her home in Brazil

  4. The fossil that revealed the first dinosaur feathers

    In 1996, a fossil in China showed the first real hint that some dinosaurs had feathers

  5. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

    A 2015 report found 'cultural genocide' was committed against Canada's Indigenous people

  6. Sir David Attenborough's first Zoo Quest

    In 1954 a new television programme launched the career of the world-famous broadcaster

  7. Africa's worst stadium disaster

    In May 2001, 127 people died after a stampede at a football match in the Ghanaian capital

  8. Finding the world’s most complete T-rex fossil

    In August 1990, a team discovered the most complete T-rex fossil in the world

  9. Norway's WWII railway sabotage plot

    In 1942, Norwegian resistance fighters set out to blow up a railway used by the Nazis

  10. Nuns killed in Algeria

    In October 1993, two nuns were shot dead near their convent in Algiers

  11. The origins of World Press Freedom Day

    In 1991, journalists created the Windhoek declaration leading to World Press Freedom Day

  12. Inside the Cuban thaw

    In 2014, secret negotiations aimed to improve relations between the US and Cuba

  13. Peter Singer’s Drowning Child thought experiment

    In 1972, Peter Singer published one of the most influential ideas in modern philosophy

  14. Car-free Sundays during the global oil crisis

    In October 1973, the Netherlands became the first country to introduce car-free Sundays

  15. The world's first perfume archive

    In 1990, L'Osmothèque opened in Versailles, France, with a collection of 400 perfumes.

  16. The Tabasco floods

    In 2007, the Mexican state of Tabasco experienced its worst flooding in 50 years

  17. The clean-up of Chernobyl

    The story of the clean-up at the world’s worst nuclear accident in Ukraine in April 1986

  18. Canada's war in the woods

    In 1993, rainforest logging plans sparked Canada’s largest act of civil disobedience

  19. Europe’s long drought of 2011

    How months of no rain dried up the Danube River

  20. Mymba Kuera: The race to save wildlife at the Itaipu dam

    In 1982, waters rose behind the Itaipu Dam, flooding the homes of thousands of animals

  21. Discovering Hans Christian Andersen's 'lost fairytale'

    In October 2012, The Tallow Candle fairytale was discovered

  22. The introduction of Sharia law in Aceh, Indonesia

    On 24 June 2005, the first Sharia law public caning took place in Indonesia

  23. The assassination of Thomas Sankara

    In October 1987, African leader Thomas Sankara was gunned down in a coup

  24. Roddy Doyle writes Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

    In 1993, the Irish writer Roddy Doyle won the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction.

  25. The creation of My Little Pony

    In 1983, American toymaker Bonnie Zacherle's pony design hit the market.

  26. The turtle freed after 41 years in captivity

    In 1984, Jorge became trapped and was moved to an aquarium in Argentina

  27. Khula Manch, the victory rally

    In 1990, people gathered in Kathmandu to celebrate multi-party democracy in Nepal

  28. Hitler's teeth

    In 1945 a search begins for Hitler's dentist to prove the Führer's corpse is genuine

  29. Marcel Duchamp and the urinal that changed art

    In 1942, the French artist featured in New York's first major surrealist exhibition

  30. Straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa

    In 2001, the Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened to the public after an 11-year closure.

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