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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    The Romanian revolution

    In December 1989 a wave of protests finally deposed communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu

  2. Women and the Sabarimala temple

    How Indian women fought for the right to be allowed into a Hindu holy site

  3. Black GIs during World War Two

    How soldiers who had been relegated to support roles were asked to volunteer for combat

  4. The attack on India's parliament

    In December 2001 armed men attacked India's parliamentary compound in broad daylight

  5. El Salvador's stolen children

    During El Salvador's civil war, soldiers abducted children in rebel areas

  6. The killing of Amadou Diallo

    When New York police shot a young immigrant 41 times, thousands took to the streets

  7. The 'Awakenings' medical experiment

    In the 1960s a new drug briefly woke up patients who'd been catatonic for decades.

  8. The IRA siege at Balcombe Street

    In December 1975, the IRA took a middle-aged couple hostage in Central London.

  9. The battle of the Louvre pyramid

    How Paris was eventually won round to the Louvre museum's great glass pyramid

  10. The Cuban writer who defied Fidel Castro

    In 1990 Reinaldo Arenas died of Aids in New York, leaving behind a powerful autobiography

  11. Jaslyk – Uzbekistan’s infamous prison

    A prison camp in the Uzbek desert became notorious for torture and human rights abuses.

  12. The British sculptor who won over the world

    Henry Moore revolutionised sculpture by creating immense works and setting them outside.

  13. Shackleton

    How a doomed Antarctic expedition in 1914 became a legendary story of survival

  14. The killing of Pablo Escobar

    The Colombian drug trafficker was shot dead by police on December 2nd 1993

  15. The first confirmed case of HIV in America

    Robert R was a teenager who died of an undiagnosed illness in Missouri in 1969

  16. Handing back Uluru

    In 1985 Australia's famous natural landmark Uluru was returned to aboriginal ownership

  17. From cakes to computers

    How the Lyons catering company pioneered LEO, the first electronic office system

  18. India's economic revolution

    In the 1990s India began to open up its state-controlled economy

  19. The man who gave his voice to Stephen Hawking

    American scientist Dennis Klatt pioneered synthesised speech using his own voice.

  20. Exploring Arabia's Empty Quarter

    How Wilfred Thesiger travelled in one of the world's harshest environments in the 1940s.

  21. The man who got Delhi on track

    India's capital city built a Metro to tackle its traffic and air pollution problems

  22. I saw the soldiers who killed El Salvador's priests

    Lucia Cerna was the only witness to a murder that shocked El Salvador in November 1989

  23. The 'Woman in Gold'

    How one of Klimt's most famous paintings was returned to the family who'd owned it

  24. The first Tasers

    Why Los Angeles police began using a new weapon in the early 1980s.

  25. The first Indian to win Miss World

    Reita Faria was the first Indian to win the Miss World beauty competition in 1966

  26. The Love Canal disaster

    How the Love Canal neigbourhood in the US came to symbolise the dangers of toxic waste

  27. The demolition of the Babri Masjid

    How Hindu extremists demolished a mosque in India prompting months of communal violence

  28. Cap Anamur: A rescue that led to jail

    Why a captain was arrested after saving shipwrecked Africans in the Mediterranean in 2004

  29. Memories of Wilfred Owen

    The British war poet's younger brother Harold Owen spoke to the BBC in the 1960s

  30. The concert that rocked the Berlin Wall

    The 1987 rock concert that led to the first shouts in East Berlin of 'the wall must go'

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