you'll experience all of that in the hour ahead through the eyes and minds of my colleagues and friends, where it happened right from the start. january 2011, the first rumblings of an uprising in cairo. crowds began to gather in the city central of tahrir square. a revolution has begun. >> what is your message to president mubarak? >> he should leave tonight. >> hosni mubarak should be egypt's dictator for 30 years, and the growing crowd of protesters want him out. but mubarak digs in, and the once-peaceful protests turn violent. >> oh, my god! >> this is an unmistakable show of military force. firefighter jets flying low over cairo's tahrir square, liberation square, which has been a symbol of defiance. >> what you're hearing them saying is in arabic it means, "go, go." >> the demonstrators say that's the army firing to warn them to stay away. >> reporter: pro-mubarak forces target the unarmed protesters. journalists also come under attack. >> i'm a little bit scared, because i got shoved out of the way there. this is just a completely surreal experience. okay, okay. i'm not -- okay. i'm being told, walk, walk. don't stay. oka okay. >> i've been hit now like ten times. the egyptian soldiers -- the egyptian soldiers are doing nothing. >> we'd like to be showing you, instead of this picture, the strange image of us sitting on the floor of an undisclosed location in dim lighting, we would like to be showing you pictures, live pictures of what's happening in liberation square right now, but we can't do that because our cameras have systemically been taken down through threats, through intimidation, through actual physical attacks. 18 days of clashes end with mubarak stepping down from power. just one country away, another revolution begins in benghazi, libya. >> we are the first television crew to get to this city, and we were just overwhelmed by the welcome here. people were throwing candy inside the car, clapping, shaking our hands, telling us, you're welcome, thank you for coming here. an incredible experience. >> the uprising against gadhafi turns into a seven-month war. in the capital, government minders try and force-feed journalists a message of total gadhafi control. >> this is really what the libyan government wants to get out. this message that here in the capital of tripoli, support for moammar gadhafi is strong. support for his government is strong. >> nato begins its campaign to protect libyan civilians. the battle on the ground intensifies. >> this is proving to be a much tougher battle than anyone had anticipated. this city, key territories should the pro-gadhafi elements be able to push in here, the concern is that this could potentially turn into a bloodbath. >> get down! down! >> okay. we're leaving this area, because there's gunfire all around us and we believe that gadhafi's force are doing a -- a roundabout movement, so we are rushing out of this area. >> you all right, guys? alec? >> everybody's fine. we're going as fast as we can. >> as the fight draws closer to tripoli, gadhafi loyalists trap journalists inside a hotel. >> in the past few seconds, really, or the past few minutes, we've learned that the security that has been so prevalent around this hotel has all of a sudden decided to leave, essentially the government minders who are armed with kalashnikov assault rifles have emptied the hotel and it's pretty empty in the lobby apart from a few security staff -- or rather, a few hotel staff. apart from that, it's completely empty, which makes it a very kind of uncertain time. >> tripoli begins to fall and the journalists are free. days later, opposition fighters storm gadhafi's compound. >> over here, you're seeing them -- these are cars that belong to the gadhafi regime. they are blowing off rounds on the top of them. that is obviously a security -- i'm going to try not to get hit by any of those rounds. >> gadhafi is later found and killed. in 2011, the world also watches a natural disaster unfold on live tv. the most powerful earthquake to hit japan causes a massive tsunami. and widespread destruction. this feels like it's the ground, but this isn't actually the ground. we're probably -- this is probably about 10 feet up off what the actual ground is. there's just so much debris piled on, there's actually an entire van beneath me. more than 15,000 people are killed. >> when the earthquake happened, students at this elementary evacuated out of the school. they had no idea a tsunami was coming. out of 108 students at the school that day, 77 are either dead or missing. that's 70% of the children at the school. >> the quake also causes a nuclear emergency after floodwaters damage some of the country's largest nuclear reactors. the radiation leak forces the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. only the animals are left behind. journalists retreat to tokyo, but continue to report. >> this one has an lawmaker, yours does. if you finally find yourself in an area where there's too much radiation, it will alarm. >> nuclear concerns linger today as the country tries to rebuild. another story where journalists and the world watched history as it happened. there are different kinds of seismic events, of course. some begin when the earthquake shakes, others when people simply won't be moved. it's been happening all around the world, most recently in egypt. we asked our reporters to spend a few minutes to tell us what they remember most covers these stories. ben wedeman was in egypt at the outset of the revolution. here's what he had to say. >> 2011 has been a year of unrelenting news, but of course, here in cairo the biggest news came on the 25th of january, when we were told that there would be yet another demonstration against hosni mubarak. we attended one and it went to tahrir square, but it was relatively small. we headed back to the office. i started to write a script about that modest demonstration and i got a phone call there was tear gas being fired in tahrir square. so we went down to the street, jumped in a taxi, and started to go there, but we went over, or rather, under, what's known as the six october bridge. and just by chance, i looked behind me and i saw thousands and thousands of students coming down the bridge, shouting down, down with the regime, and heading to tahrir square. when i saw that, i realized this regime is going down. >> ben wedeman joins me now along with arwa damon, nic robertson, and hala gorani. what was about what was happening on that bridge that made you realize, okay, this is really it? >> it was the sheer number of people. i've seen demonstrations for years in cairo, against mubarak, against many others. but it was always a handful, maybe 100, maybe 200. the bridge was full. we're talking thousands and thousands of people. and i think what became apparent that day was that the regime was outnumbered by the people. and i think that realization spread so quickly that three days later, basically, the regime gave up and handed over the country to the army. >> people died on that bridge. you were beat up, you were pushed around a little bit near that bridge, weren't you? >> that was on the 28th. >> on the 28th? >> actually, in cairo, you get shoved around quite a lot by the security forces. >> you'll have to be more specific about which day. >> okay, yeah. but on the 28th, we were filming and this was clearly the day when it was all going to come down and sort of with finality. and we were with tommy evans and mary rogers. and we were basically suddenly surrounded by plain clothes policeman and hired thugs. they looked like they were under the influence of some kind of narcotics. and they were insisting on taking away the camera. and i said, no, because we had great footage of some incredible scenes. and what ensued was a very long pushing and shoving match in which, eventually, they just cracked the camera, the view finder right off and took it away. i went back to argue with this superior officer, the commanding officer -- >> you're fluent in arabic. >> yes, yes. and i was using words that i wouldn't use in polite company. and i argued with this guy for quite some time, but we lost. we lost our camera, lost the footage. got a bit roughed up, but, you know, it got me going. i was angry. >> right. i remember that night. i got there days later. but for all of us, for me, that was probably the most remarkable reporting experience, just to witness it, to be there. what about for you guys? i mean, you, ivan, were trapped in tahrir square in kind of in rundown hotel during the worst of the violence. we were all very worried about you. we were on the other side, the pro-mubarak forces. >> that was the famous day of the battle of the camel, where we all saw scenes we think we'd never see before. first, this rock fight breaks out. i think you got attacked on that day. we were all getting pushed and shoved around and we were caught. my cameraman, joe duran and i, were caught in the middle of this horrendous rock fight between two sides. and basically ran, did a commando run, and our hotel, this kind of flea hotel, the door was chained shut. and we managed to squeeze in. got to the roof. and suddenly these camels started charging into the square and beating up the demonstrators. and then the riders were ripped off. and we were stuck in that hotel, in tahrir square, as it was encircled by the thugs, and we didn't know if we'd get out that night. >> because the fear was that they would come into the hotel, there was nothing to stop them if they had that area. >> we didn't think the demonstrators could hold out against the regime. and they did, for days. and they won in the end. >> what i find fascinating is every -- this battle of the camels was seen from so many different perspectives. you were from up top. i was right there when the ca l camels came in. i was sort of trying to badly take blackberry pictures. but it just symbolized the historical nature of what was happening. >> all of a sudden this epic, bizarre, surreal camel charge? in tahrir square? and we were all seeing it -- >> i think that was the movement when many egyptians realized that the regime was bankrupt. had no idea how to deal with it. other than to pay a bunch of camel drivers to try to put down the revolt. >> when you resort to the camel drivers, it's over at that point. but it was interesting, i mean, because of technology and because of the resources, frankly, of cnn, you're able to be in the midst of stories in a way -- and broadcast live during them in a way that we just never have been able to do before. >> mm-hmm. >> and we saw that, whether it was you being in tahrir square, broadcasting live. i remember being on the balcony with you of the hotel overlooking it and getting laser sighted by people in the area around where the thugs were. and we didn't know if it's a laser sight of a rifle or if -- what it was. >> we were sound surrounded. we were completely under siege. you could not leave the hotel without getting beaten up. we named it, sarcastically, the beat a journalist day, because so many people were just getting smacked around. and there was something so raw and visceral among those who were pro-mubarak, anti-us, hating us, labeling us as spies. >> we want to continue the conversation about egypt when we come back. also, what's happening in egypt right now. we'll also look at what happens after a dictator falls, the struggles with the military, and now elections. here's ivan watson. >> this year, tahrir square has been the scene of incredible drama. sensational images of the famous battle of the camel, people fighting each other with clubs and sticks, making weapons and shields out of the most basic tools. but it has also become a symbol, tahrir square, behind me, of a struggle for freedom, a struggle for dignity in the arab world. first, in january and february, as egyptians gathered and said no to the dictatorial regime of hosni mubarak, and once again nine, ten months later in november as they gathered again and said no to the ruling military council here. so tahrir square has become a symbol of this struggle for dignity in the arab world, and i predict we'll see more drama here again as egyptians continue to see this square as a sign and a symbol of their struggle for freedom. ♪ in here, pets never get lost. ♪ in here, every continent fits in one room. it was fun. we played football outside. why are you sitting in the dark? [ male announcer ] in here, you're never away from home. it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. at&t. okay... uhh. the bad news, it's probably totaled. the good news is, you don't have to pay your deductible. with vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance, you got $100 off for every year of safe driving, so now your deductible is zero. the other good news ? i held on to your coffee. wow. ♪ nationwide is on your side ( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day when you consider. that's great. i was able to witness firsthand the birth of something that i thought i'd never seen in the middle east. protesters demanding accountability from their leaders. i never thought in the years i spent covering the middle east, and in the time i've spent going back and forth to the middle east, my family is from syria. i never thought that i'd see a dictator taken down by the tower of street protests. in egypt, it's freer. the press can travel to cairo and report, and i've come to love that country and the people in egypt. i truly have, over the several years i've spent reporting in there. so it's almost a -- i almost -- it's almost like wishing family well, when you know a can country intimately, in the way that i feel like i've grown to know egypt. >> hala gorani and the transformation in egypt. i spent time there at the height of uprising, but hala and her colleagues had a chance to see every chapter before and since. ben, you live in cairo. your family was there. at the same time all of this was happening, you're also concerned about your family and their well-being? >> i was completely split, ripped in two. because on the one hand, i wanted to cover the revolution. on the other, my neighborhood became an armed camp. you know, my neighbors put barricades, barriers on the roads. they pulled out weapons i didn't know they had, shotguns, machine guns, samurai swords. and even my 17-year-old son was out there every night with a baseball bat and our german shepherd joining the patrol. because we live in a very nice neighborhood surrounded by slums, with next to egypt's largest prison. >> i'll never forget broadcasting with you and with hala. we had snuck from the hotel to the bureau, because it would have a better satellite feed for us. and moments before we went on the air, you saw, or the security guys saw some people coming up through the back alley, and the bureau is completely open, anybody can get into the building, and that's when we decided to turn off all the lights, get down on the floor, and the security guy suddenly jammed the couch in front of the door. i was like, that's our high-tech security? jam the couch in front of the door? and we just went ahead with the broad cast on the floor. that, for me, was one of the most intense moments. >> surreal. >> surreal. absolutely surreal. you've all reported on this region. did you ever expect to be seeing the things that you are now seeing? >> never. >> absolutely not. not across the whole of north of africa the way we've seen it change. and i think this is only the beginning. we're looking forward to next year. the revolution's happened, but as we all know, what happens after revolutions, the countries going through convulsions and contortions and several governments may come over the next few years. syria is an event in a way that we're still waiting to happen. and that will happen an effect. >> syria's going to have a huge effect. >> to be sort of watching the middle east completely and utterly change, no, who would imagine that. >> the u.n. had recently come out with the report saying there's civil war in sirra. arwa and hala, you were recently there. i want to watch what hala had to say about her experience there. >> i was hiding in the back of a white van with to activists who were absolutely terrified, who i'd never met before in my entire life and they were taking me through the damascus suburbs to link up with a young doctor who had set up a secret underground clinic, part of a network of doctors trying to save wounded demonstrators' lives. they were taking this incredible risk because they wanted us to see some of their patients. people who had gunshot wounds, that weren't able to go to hospitals, and a young boy, a teenager. the doctor didn't have the medical equipment to be able to fully understand the scope of his injuries. so he said, this little boy was partially paralyzed from the waist down. the doctor was a young man. he said it was so difficult for him to have people die in his hands, because he quite simply couldn't save them. >> for months, the syrian government has been lying publicly. they're saying, the ambassadors are free to travel wherever they want in syria. what was your experience? >> well, you're free to travel, as long as you take a government minder with you, who's not called a government minder. he's called a facilitator. he's not there to prevent you from reporting, he's actually there to help you out. >> protect you against those elements who might want to do you harm. that was the narrative the whole time we were in syria. we're not keeping you from traveling around the country because we want to hide things from you. we're keeping you from traveling around the country because we want to protect you. but it was still better to be there with those restrictions than not to be there at all. we were able in the end to get some of these stories, get out, away from our minders, and get some of the reports -- >> because the street whispers to you too and the street talks to you. >> what do you mean? >> people will come up to you and slide pieces of paper in your hand. >> we connected with some of the activists. they would slide very -- in this age of twitter and facebook and everything, the most old-faxed way of communicating is how i got the best contact in syria, which was a young man, an engineering student, who i'm still in touch, with a fake e-mail account, just to make sure he's okay, rolled this tiny, tiny little piece of paper and put it in my hand and said, they're lying to you, call me, e-mail me. it was just -- it was amazing how they get around the controls of the surveillance. >> and when you think about the risk that their taking, they could die so easily or be tortured -- things we can't even imagine. we hear some of the stories coming out of syria and they're so terrifying, it makes your skin crawl. and people are taking this risk all the time. we'd be there surrounded by government minders and someone would walk back and say, they're lying, that's all you hear. >> do you get used of seeing the bravery of people coming forward. do you get used to people being killed in the streets for speaking out? >> never. >> these people, the bravery we've seen, it makes you want to weep sometimes to see these people come out, they're at a funeral of their friend who was killed and then the security forces start shooting at the funeral procession. and they still keep chanting, you know, democracy or down with the regime, when being fired on that way. >> even now, on my show, i talk to people in syria, on the phone, who insist on using their real names. they insist on it, because they say they're no longer afraid and they want the government to know, they're no longer afraid, no matter what's going to happen to them. >> that's the biggest unifying factor i found through the whole region, people saying, we lost our fear. it started