Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise gay marriage. Four couples were chosen to take part in a collective wedding at midnight which was broadcast on TV. Hélène Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus talk about the wedding they thought they'd never have.
Our guest Lauren Moss, the LGBT & Identity Correspondent at BBC News tells us about the history of gay marriage. Also, the man who risked his life to make the audio recordings which blew open one of the biggest corruption scandals in Spain's recent history.
Then we hear the story of the 1970s defection from the Soviet Union of a world-famous ballerina. Plus, the mystery surrounding the fate of the last king of France's son and the man who really does believe that laughter is the best medicine.
Contributors: Hélène Faasen & Anne-Marie Thus - the first lesbian couple to get married legally. Lauren Moss - LGBT & Identity Correspondent at BBC News. José Luis Peñas - the man that made secret recordings that revealed the Gurtel scandal. Prof Jean Jacques Cassiman - Belgian geneticist. Deborah Cadbury - historian. Dr Madan Kataria – founder of World laughter day.
(Photo: The couple arrive to be married at the Amsterdam City Hall. Credit: Marcel Antonisse/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Thirty years since the first free elections in South Africa
Ebola outbreak and the Friendship Train returns
The history of art heists
Swedish History
Seventy-five years of Nato and the Heimlich Manoeuvre
Chinese history
Finding early vertebrate’s footprints and the Deaflympic badminton champion
Uruguay's smoking ban and the Carnation Revolution
Whisky wars and the Lord of Sipan
Skiing and two-headed dogs
Letters to Juliet and Saint Valentine’s traditions
Inspirational black women
Internet cafes and Doomsday seeds
Traitors and treachery
Lady Tarzan and Ibadan Zoo
Hindenburg disaster and wingsuits
Pad Thai, kiwis and the chef Ken Hom
Tsunamis and Caster Semenya
Mandela's funeral and Tsar's reburial
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