Episodes

On 10th December, 1907, angry medical students and animal rights activists were clashing over a controversial bronze statue of a brown terrier who had been dissected at University College London in 1903, revealing violations of animal experimentation regulations. The ‘brown dog’ case fuelled the anti-vivisection movement, kickstarting a fundraising appeal that culminated in the erection […]

Alfred Tennyson’s ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was first published on 9th December, 1854, in The Examiner. Tennyson had penned the poem shortly after reading a dramatic account in The Times of the disastrous charge, which occurred during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.  Its rhythmic cadence, mimicking the galloping charge, made

Rerun: A female contestant had never scooped the jackpot on an American TV quiz show before New York psychologist Dr Joyce Brothers won $64,000 on 6th December, 1955. Her specialist subject was boxing – a topic about which she knew little, until she devoted herself to studying the annals of the sport in preparation for

A 245 million years old fossil named Nyasasaurus parringtoni was officially determined the earliest known dinosaur on 4th December, 2012; meaning dinosaurs had roamed the Earth at least 10 million years earlier than the previously believed “dawn of the dinosaurs.” Unearthed in Tanzania in the 1930s and mostly ignored for decades, the fossil’s story was

rion, Rebecca and Olly recall the moment renowned detective novelist Agatha Christie found herself at the centre of a real-life mystery: when she mysteriously disappeared for 11 days, from 3rd December, 1926. Shortly after learning of her husband’s infidelity, Christie had driven away from the family home, abandoning her car near a quarry. There was

Enron—the seventh-largest company in the U.S.—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 2nd December, 2001, marking the dramatic end of a business empire once hailed as unstoppable.  What once looked like a financial juggernaut turned out to be a house of cards built on illusory profits, market manipulation, and sheer audacity. “Creative” accounting, including mark-to-market practices,

Rerun: Supersonic aircraft took a giant leap forward when the French and British governments signed a treaty to join forces on designing Concorde on 29th November, 1962. Up until this point, the two countries had been developing their aircraft separately – which had already cost the United Kingdom £150 million. Technologically superior and far more

Aerosmith, 50 Cent and Tom Petty starred at 13 year old Elizabeth Brooks’ $10 million bat mitzvah party on 27th November, 2005. The lavish do, at New York’s legendary Rainbow Rooms, became a symbol of extreme extravagance, and triggered an investigation into her father, David H. Brooks. Brooks had been CEO of a military body

Arion, Rebecca and Olly recall the founding of The Kappa Alpha Society, the oldest continuously existing college fraternity, established as a literary society at Union College, New York on 26th November, 1825. The founders, led by John Hart Hunter, sought camaraderie and intellectual discussions, creating a forum where they could break free from the constraints

When The White Ship hit a rock near Barfleur on 25th November, 1120, she sank, killing all 300 noblemen on-board. Among the dead was Henry I’s one legitimate son, William Adelin, plunging the English throne into a dynastic crisis. Like the Titanic, the vessel was considered the epitome of safety and prestige for its time,