Episodes

The ‘Austenmania’ craze of the mid-90s kicked off with the BBC’s production of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, which first aired on 24th September, 1995. Now primarily remembered for Colin Firth’s ‘wet shirt’ scene, Andrew Davies’s ‘sexed up’ adaptation also starred Firth’s real-life squeeze Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet, and was the first serialisation of the novel […]

The most extravagant feast of the Middle Ages took place at the London home of the Bishop of Durham on September 23rd, 1387, in honour of King Richard II.  The banquet featured dishes like broth, venison, roasted swan, and boar-heads… and  12,000 eggs.  At just 20 years old, Richard had already developed a reputation for

Rerun: Henry Winkler, an accomplished water-skier, had asked the producers of ‘Happy Days’ if he could showcase his skills on the sitcom. On 20th September, 1977 his wish came true – in a shark-jumping sequence so absurd it would forever be linked with the irreversible artistic decline of long-running TV series. To ‘Jump the Shark’

The first Paralympic Games – hosting 400 athletes from 23 countries – took place in Rome on 18th September, 1960.  But it was only known by this name retrospectively: the day it took place, this festival of disabled sport was called The Ninth Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games. Sprung from a competition held at a

Mary, ‘King’ of Hungary, was coronated today in history, on 17th September, 1382.  The Hungarian nobility had never had a female monarch, and did not recognize the possibility of one in law, so decided to crown her as if she was male – but that was by no means the end of her problems. Before

The largest land rush in history kicked off on 16th September, 1893 – on Oklahoma’s Cherokee Strip. Tens of thousands of people—horseback riders, wagons, and even a passenger train—waited for a cannon’s boom to initiate a mad race for land. The term “Boomer” became synonymous with those waiting for that cannon’s boom to charge in,

Rerun: Kanye West was ejected from Radio City Music Hall at the MTV VMAs on 13th September, 2009, after drunkenly interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video. Distraught that the country star’s ‘You Belong To Me’ video has beaten Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ to the trophy, he memorably proclaimed: “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy

Captain Peter Warner and his crew made a startling discovery as they sailed past the uninhabited island of Atta in the Pacific on 11th September, 1966: six naked, shaggy-haired teenage boys, who had been stranded there for fifteen months. Sione, Stephen, Kolo, David, Luke, and Mano had escaped from their boarding school in Tonga’s capital,

Chicagoans gathered around their radio sets on 10th September, 1924 – to hear Judge John R. Caverly sentence wealthy teenagers and lovers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb to life in prison for the brutal murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks. The couple showed no remorse, exhibited a complete lack of empathy, and said they had committed

The viral phrase ‘OMG’ has a much longer history than you might think… first being recorded on 9th September, 1917, in a letter from Lord John Fisher, a 75-year-old retired admiral, to Winston Churchill.  Fisher used it sarcastically, riffing on the idea of a new order of knighthood; playing off the similar-sounding “OM,” the Order