Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.
We go to Quebec in 1995 when voters went to the polls to decide whether the province should declare independence from Canada.
Tim Marshall, the author of The Power of Geography and presenter of the World Service podcast, The Compass, explores other referendums which have taken place in recent history.
Plus the creation of children's TV series Teletubbies in 1994. It became a global hit.
(Photo: Voters gather in the streets of Barcelona. Credit: Marco Panzetti/NurPhoto Getty Images)
Contributors: Jean-François Lisée and Stephane Dion - on the Quebec referendum Paul Kelly - Australian political correspondent Praveen Jain - Indian photojournalist Patricia da Silva - Jean Charles de Menezes' cousin Anne Wood- creator of Teletubbies