Episodes

Literature’s most famous castaway, Robinson Crusoe, was washed up on a desert island – where he would remain for 28 years – on 30th September, 1659. By selecting this date, author Daniel Defoe ensured that his fictional protagonist’s fate pre-dated the real-life estrangement of Royal Navy man Alexander Selkirk, who was stranded some 46 years […]

A tiny microstate nestled between Spain and Portugal, Couto Misto existed for centuries until its dissolution on 29th September, 1864. The final act of the Portuguese Restoration War, a treaty in Lisbon saw Spain claim the lion’s share of the land, while Portugal reclaimed its independence after 60 years of Spanish rule. The Misto people

Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland met in York to settle the whole “where does England end, and where does Scotland begin?” question on 25th September, 1237. The consequent ‘Treaty of York’ (mostly) settled the map of the borders right up to the present day. Alexander agreed to give up claims on

Christine Jorgensen began gender reassignment surgery in Copenhagen on 24th September 1951. The New York Daily News later heralded the event with a headline splash – “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty!” – thereby creating America’s first transgender celebrity. Writing to friends, she said: “As you can see by the enclosed photos, taken just before the operation,

The BBC’s teletext information service, Ceefax, launched on 23rd September, 1974 – providing the British public with a way to look up headlines, football results and TV listings, some twenty years before the launch of Internet Explorer. Countless National Lottery winners discovered their victories via the analogue service, which was discontinued in 2012. To this

Operation Little Vittles” – an initiative during the Berlin Airlift to drop Allied sweets and chocolates from planes as a gift to the German children below – began on September 22, 1948. Lt. Gail Halvorsen, a 27-year-old U.S. pilot, had been moved to the gesture by a group of children he encountered one day near

The first Black Miss America, Vanessa Williams, was crowned in Atlantic City on 17th September, 1983, with the usual fanfare. But within ten months, she had returned her crown, following a nude photo scandal. She had already received hate mail and even death threats – some from racist whites who hated seeing a Black Miss

The Cornell Daily Sun – the oldest continuously independent college daily newspaper in the United States – published its first issue on 16th September, 1880. It featured some campus sports reports, some horrible amateur poetry, and even some jokes. It wasn’t until seven years later that a British University caught up with its own equivalent:

The start of World War I featured officers in white gloves, leading troops in neat lines, and cavalry charges complete with sabres and lances. But this changed on 15th September, 1914 – when soldiers began digging into the earth, laying the groundwork for the trench warfare that would come to define the conflict. By that

The guillotine claimed its last victim on 10th September, 1977, when murderer Hamida Djandoubi was executed in Marseille, his grim end marking the closing chapter of nearly two centuries of clinical beheading, stretching back to the French Revolution.  Overseen by France’s last official executioner Marcel Chevalier, the event was private and hushed – a far