Putting the following in your .bashrc (either in your home, or globally if its just a desktop), will increase the number of entries your bash history will show (when typing `history` or using C-r). The HISTCONTROL variable will cause your bash_history to ignore consecutive commands, so only one will display in your history.

export HISTSIZE=1000
export HISTFILESIZE=1000
export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups