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)
Black American History Special
The Zanzibar revolution
The Gwangju massacre
Britain's World War Two crime wave
Fighting for the pill in Japan
VE Day Special
The 1957 flu pandemic
The last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade
Apollo 13: The drama that gripped the world
How technology revolutionised our lives
Women in the law
The AIDS memorial quilt - a patchwork of loss
The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope
The 1918 'Spanish' flu pandemic
The history of the Volkswagen Beetle
Freeing American prisoners from Iran
Saving Antarctica
The publication of Harry Potter
London's first black policeman
The early days of the European Union
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