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How Amsterdam became the cannabis smoking capital of Europe

How Amsterdam became the home of cannabis coffee shops.

• 9 mins

The IRA hunger strikes

Republican prisoner Bobby Sands died in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland on May 5 1981

• 9 mins

Ursula Le Guin

The pioneer of feminist science fiction and creator of the Earthsea fantasy series

• 9 mins

The Great Wine Fraud

The story of wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan, and the French winemaker who exposed him.

• 9 mins

Surviving Guantanamo

Mohamedou Ould Slahi was detained by the USA without charge for 15 years

• 9 mins

Why a British MP was filmed taking mescaline

In 1955 Christopher Mayhew MP took the hallucinogenic drug mescaline for a TV experiment

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Legalising contraception in Ireland

Contraception wasn't easily accessible in traditionally Roman Catholic Ireland until 1985

• 9 mins

The Jewish exodus from Iraq

How two thousand Jews fled persecution in the summer of 1971, helped by Iraqi Kurds

• 9 mins

The trial of South Africa’s 'Dr Death'

The trial of a South African doctor accused of multiple murders under Apartheid.

• 9 mins

China's Democracy Wall

How a brick wall in Beijing became a beacon for those calling for change

• 9 mins

When Ariel Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa compound

The Israeli politician visited the compound containing one of Islam's holiest sites

• 9 mins

Striking in South Korea in 1980

Strikes and protests against South Korea's military government came to a head in May 1980

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When Egypt said 'enough'

Years before the Arab Spring swept the Middle East Egyptians were protesting in Cairo

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Saving the world's wetlands

Iran hosted the first convention to save the world's wetlands in1971.

• 9 mins

Fighting forced marriage in war

Why a court in Sierra Leone ruled that forced marriage was a crime against humanity.

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The strike that shocked India

The Indian railway workers’ strike of 1974 prompted mass arrests and a state of emergency

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The first Arab woman pilot

Egyptian Lotfia Elnadi made history when she gained her pilot licence in 1933

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Amilcar Cabral: An African liberation legend

Amilcar Cabral led the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in West Africa

• 9 mins

Rock concert for Chernobyl

The first charity rock concert ever held in the USSR raised money for Chernobyl survivors

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The Tulsa Race Massacre

In 1921, a white mob destroyed an affluent African-American neighbourhood.

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The war on drugs

President Richard Nixon was the first US President to try to wipe out illegal drug use

• 9 mins

The killing of Pablo Escobar

The Colombian drug lord was shot dead by police in December 1993

• 9 mins

When Peru mistook missionaries for drug traffickers

The Peruvian Air Force shot down a light plane carrying American missionaries in 2001

• 9 mins

Afghanistan's poppy problem

Laila Haidari set up Kabul's first independent drug rehab centre in 2010

• 9 mins

How Switzerland defeated its heroin epidemic

In the 1990s, the Swiss tried radical new policy ideas, including heroin on prescription

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When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor

Israeli warplanes launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981

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Tunisia’s legal brothels

For decades, Tunisia has had a system of legal brothels.

• 9 mins

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem

The emotional first performance at the newly-built Coventry Cathedral in 1962

• 9 mins

The elections that Hamas won

Palestinians voted to elect a new government in 2006. The outcome surprised everyone.

• 9 mins

The Fall of Madrid

How the Spanish capital fell to General Franco's forces in 1939, ending a civil war

• 9 mins