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Witness History Episodes

  1.

    The Pitcairn Sex Abuse Trial

    In 2004 a child sex abuse trial on a remote island in the Pacific shocked the world.

  2. War Photographer, Dickey Chapelle

    Photographer Dickey Chapelle was the first woman war reporter to be killed in Vietnam

  3. Octavio Paz

    In October 1990 the Mexican poet and essayist was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

  4. Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution

    A former communist Red Guard recalls his role in China's Cultural Revolution.

  5. A Black GI in China

    How an African American soldier captured in the Korean war, decided to settle in China

  6. Harry Houdini

    How a performance in London made the reputation of the world's greatest escape artist

  7. The Abduction of Mehdi Ben Barka

    In 1965 French agents helped kidnap and disappear the Moroccan dissident in Paris

  8. The Big Bang

    In 1986 London's Stock Exchange underwent one of the biggest shake-ups in its history.

  9. The Hungarian Uprising

    In October 1956 Hungarians took to the streets of Budapest to protest at Soviet rule.

  10. Shell Shock

    Veterans talk about their experience of 'shell shock' in recordings from the BBC archive

  11. Marvel Comics and 'The Fantastic Four'

    In 1961 a new generation of comic-book super heroes was launched in the US

  12. The Aberfan Disaster

    On 21st October 1966, tragedy struck a village in Wales when a landslide crushed a school

  13. Marcel Duchamp and His Fountain

    The story of the great French conceptualist artist Marcel Duchamp and his art

  14. The Mau Mau Rebellion

    During the 1950s in Kenya, rebels known as the Mau Mau were fighting against British rule

  15. Father Charles Coughlin - America's First Radio Priest

    How a controversial Catholic priest had millions of listeners in the 1930s.

  16. Bugging the US Embassy in Moscow

    The row over hi-tech spying in America's new diplomatic building in the USSR

  17. The Hoover Free Flights Promotion

    How an advertising campaign for vacuum cleaners went badly wrong.

  18. The Last Day of Lebanon's Civil War

    In October 1990, Syrian jets ousted their main opponent in Lebanon ending the civil war

  19. Chile Votes Against Pinochet

    In 1988 Chileans voted to end the brutal 15-year military rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

  20. The Spanish Influenza Pandemic

    In 1918, more than fifty million people died in a global flu pandemic.

  21. Irina Ratushinskaya

    The dissident poet was released from a labour camp on the eve of a US-Soviet summit

  22. Good Vibrations

    In October 1966, the Beach Boys released their "pocket symphony" Good Vibrations.

  23. Exposing Child Abuse in the Catholic Church

    In 1994, a TV programme in Northern Ireland lifted the lid on clerical child sex abuse.

  24. Thai University Massacre

    On October 6th 1976 Thai security forces opened fire on student demonstrators in Bangkok.

  25. The Poisoned Painkiller

    In October 1982 seven people in the US died after taking painkillers laced with cyanide.

  26. The Founding of Mensa

    In 1946, a chance encounter between two men launched the high IQ club, Mensa

  27. Sir Stanley Spencer

    He was one of Britain's most admired 20th century painters. His daughters remember him.

  28. The Mayak Nuclear Disaster

    On September 29th 1957 there was a major nuclear accident in the Soviet Union.

  29. The Attica Prison Rebellion

    In 1971 inmates rioted and seized control of the US jail, taking guards hostage

  30. South Africa's 1985 State of Emergency

    In the dying years of Apartheid, the white government was desperate to keep control.

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