In September 1961, an attack by rebels in Eritrea marked the start of the country's thirty year war of independence from Ethiopia. We hear the story of one doctor who joined the liberation struggle.

In 1993 young women began disappearing in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Hundreds are thought to have been kidnapped and killed since then.

Witness hears from two people closely involved in the cases.

Photo: Jorge Uzon. AFP/Getty Images

In 1946 Aboriginal farm workers went on strike against virtual slavery in Australia. It was the first time they'd taken industrial action and it helped changed their status.

PHOTO: A photograph of Aboriginal strikers, all of whom are now deceased. Courtesy of David Noakes.

POEM: Clancy and Dooley and Don McLeod by Dorothy Hewett, 1946.

On August 28th 1963, the American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, made his historic plea for an end to racial discrimination in the USA. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he addressed hundreds of thousands of activists who had marched to Washington to demonstrate for black rights.

Listen to John Lewis, the youngest speaker on the podium that day.

Photo: Associated Press.

In 1962, Sherri Finkbine, a TV presenter from Arizona, unwittingly took the dangerous drug thalidomide while pregnant with her fifth child. She and her husband then launched a very public campaign for the right to have an abortion. Refused treatment in America, the Finkbines eventually had to travel to Sweden. Their case galvanised the campaign for abortion to be legalised in the United States.

In 1883, the Krakatoa volcano exploded, triggering a tsunami that caused devastation in Indonesia and beyond. Using archive recordings, Simon Watts tells the story of one of the world's biggest natural disasters. He also speaks to historian Simon Winchester. This programme was first broadcast in 2010.

PHOTO: Associated Press.

In 1992, President Fernando Collor of Brazil was forced from office by a huge wave of street protests against corruption. The demonstrations were led by students who painted their faces with slogans and the colours of the Brazilian flag. Witness speaks to one of the first members of a movement that became known as Caras pintadas, meaning the Painted Faces.

Picture: Students with painted faces protest, Credit: AFP/Getty Images

In August 1976 more than 200 people developed a mystery illness at a convention of veterans' association the American Legion in Philadelphia. 34 of them died.

We speak to the doctor who led the Centre for Disease Control's response to the outbreak.

Photo: Rachel Rogers.

On August 21 1983, the opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, was shot dead in the Philippines.

He was killed at Manila airport, minutes after returning from exile in the US.

We hear from his brother-in-law, who was with him that day.

Photo: Benigno Aquino on the plane home (courtesy of K. Kashiwahara)

A former student describes how he made a desperate appeal for the support of the outside world as invading Soviet tanks rumbled through the streets of the Czechoslovak capital in August 1968. This programme was first broadcast in 2010.

Picture: Soviet troops in Prague (Getty Images)