Peter Benenson

In November 1960, British barrister Peter Benenson traveled to work on London's Underground as usual, wearing his customary bowler hat, with a newspaper tucked under his arm. It contained a story that would change not only his life, but the course of tens of thousands of other lives too.

The article told the story of two Portuguese students, overheard raising a toast to liberty in a Lisbon café, who had been jailed for seven years. Benenson was outraged, but rather than launch a one-man protest, he came up with an idea he hoped would mobilize people...