Witness History Episodes Episode guide
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The Pergau Dam Affair
In 1993 news broke about development aid linked to a British arms deal.
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Brazil's Hidden War in the Amazon
How a small guerrilla group tried to start a revolution in the Brazilian jungle.
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The 1973 Oil Crisis
In October 1973 an Arab oil embargo caused prices to rocket.
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Fighting Mount Etna
How the Italian authorities diverted the stream of molten lava from the Etna volcano.
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Archbishop Oscar Romero
Murdered while head of the Roman Catholic church in El Salvador, he is being made a saint
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Austria at War
The story of a young Austrian woman who survived World War Two and the allied occupation
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The Nazi Black Book
During WW2 Germany listed the people it wanted to arrest should Britain fall to the Nazis
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Anti-traveller Riots in Sweden
In 1948 violence broke out against Romany-speaking traveller people in Sweden
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Reform of the House of Lords
How Britain's Labour government tried to kick the aristocrats out of Parliament
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Howl: The Poem That Revolutionised US Writing
How Allan Ginsberg's reading in San Francisco in 1955 started the "Beat Generation".
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The Soviet Union's Fashion Revolutionary
Slava Zaitsev created the first high fashion collections in the USSR.
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The Invention of Artificial Skin
How a chemist and a surgeon found a way of helping burns to heal.
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The Street Battle That Rocked Brazil
A clash between students in 1968 paved the way for a hardening of military rule.
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Racial Equality in Britain - Learie Constantine
The former West Indies cricketer took a London hotel to court in 1943
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The Bridge Which United Sweden and Denmark
The bridge which connected neighbours across the water and inspired a TV hit worldwide.
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Fighting in the Iran-Iraq War
The war lasted for 8 years and is thought to have left over a million people dead.
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The Creation of the Cervical Cancer Vaccine
The scientific breakthrough that saved the lives of thousands of women
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Isadora Duncan - Dance Pioneer
Sometimes called the 'Mother of Modern Dance'
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The South African Army In Lesotho
South Africa sent 600 soldiers into Lesotho to quell political unrest in September 1998
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Brazil's Nuclear Accident
Hundreds of people were contaminated when a disused radiotherapy machine was scrapped.
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The Battle of Algiers
The film that tells the true story of the Algerians' fight for their capital Algiers
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The Arnhem Parachute Drop
In 'Operation Market Garden' thousands of Allied troops parachuted into Nazi-held Holland
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The Cuban Five
The case of five Cuban spies arrested in Miami in September 1998
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The Fifteen Guinea Special
The train signaled the end of the steam age on Britain's main-line rail network in 1968
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The Truth About Crop Circles
Thought to be left by UFOs the phenomena was resolved when two men came forward in 1991.
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How I Survived a Fire on a Plane
One young man was the only passenger to survive a fire on a plane - find out how.
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The Killing of Steve Biko
The brutal death in custody of the anti-Apartheid activist in September 1977.
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Appeasement
In September 1938 Neville Chamberlain tried to negotiate with Hitler over Czechoslovakia.
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The Ship that Dumped America's Waste
How campaigners fought to stop the 'Khian Sea' from off-loading tons of US waste abroad
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WWI: The Hundred Days Offensive
First-hand accounts of the Allied offensive that finally brought the bloody war to an end