Episodes

Svetlana Aleluyeva walked into the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi on 9th March, 1967, and asked for political asylum. As the only daughter of Joseph Stalin, she was an unknown figure outside the USSR; panicking American diplomats: how could they grant her asylum, without warming up the Cold War? The U.S. tried to keep her […]

The hip-swivelling Hula Hoop craze swept through America within months of its 1958 debut – yet Wham-O didn’t receive a patent for it until 5th March, 1963.  The toy had first come to the attention of Arthur K. ‘Spud’ Melin, the company’s co-founder, when Australian swimsuit model Joan Anderson demonstrated it in California. Appending the

King Kong roared onto the silver screen on March 2nd, 1933, in an extraordinary simultaneous screening at Radio City and the Roxy, New York – attracting 10,000 viewers in one hit. The buzz around the film was no accident — RKO Pictures had blitzed the public with an aggressive marketing campaign, including publishing a novelization

The 89th Academy Awards reached its grand finale on 26th February 2017, with a balls-up that instantly entered Hollywood lore. Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway stepped onstage to announce Best Picture and declared La La Land the winner. Cast and crew flooded the stage, speeches began, and the orchestra swelled – but the true

Optometry historians observe 23rd February, 1305 as the day eyeglasses were perhaps first discussed in public, when friar Giordano de Rivalto stood at the pulpit and declared that he had personally met the man who invented spectacles… Except, frustratingly, he forgot to mention the bloke’s name. One popular contender for the title is Salvino D’Armati,

When the Second Continental Congress calmly reshuffled the revolutionary army’s high command on 19th February 1777, they couldn’t have known they were detonating a grievance in one of their most daring and battle-tested commanders: Benedict Arnold. Arnold was certain that he had the merit and seniority to be promoted, but instead saw junior officers leapfrogging

High-rolling merchant Nicholas Vanacker wrote out a cheque for a hefty £400 on 16th February, 1659 – one of the earliest modern cheques still preserved today. For goldsmiths-to-the-aristocracy Morris and Clayton, the innovation wasn’t just about ease; it was a strategic move to reduce risk and maximize profit, even though the process involved clerks physically

Just nine days before he was assassinated, Malcolm X visited an unlikely place on 12th February, 1965: Smethwick, the industrial suburb of Birmingham that had recently gained a grim reputation as ‘the most racist town in Britain’.  Having been refused entry to France, Malcolm X had been speaking at the London School of Economics when

Just three months after Magic Johnson retired from basketball due to his HIV diagnosis, he made a triumphant return on 9th February, 1992 – at the NBA All-Star Game in Orlando, Florida. The sports world was divided—some players, like Michael Jordan, welcomed him back, while others, like Karl Malone, were hesitant, voicing concerns about physical

United Artists, a new company formed by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith – four of the most powerful figures in early cinema – was announced on 5th February 1919. The movie trade press quickly labelled it a ‘rebellion’ against the mainstream studios. Declaring their new enterprise would exist to “protect