Episodes

When North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung died unexpectedly of a heart attack on 8th July, 1994, his nation went into ten days of mourning, reflecting the deep-seated personality cult he’d cultivated over his 40-year rule. Kim’s passing marked the end of a generation of Marxist revolutionaries in the region, creating uncertainty about whether his successors […]

Rerun: Swimwear never made more of a splash than when designer Louis Réard unveiled his daring new two-piece at the Piscine Molitor in Paris on July 5th, 1946. Showgirl Micheline Bernardini modelled the new attire, named after US nuclear testing site Bikini Atoll. Really. Eleven years later, Modern Girl magazine still considered it ‘inconceivable that

Captain Joshua Slocum set sail from Nova Scotia in The Spray, his revamped oyster sloop, on 3rd July, 1898: the first solo circumnavigation of the world.  Sailing alone for no reason other than pleasure was considered a fool’s errand at the time, but, motivated by the death of his beloved first wife, Virginia, Slocum sought

Generra Sportswear, the Seattle-based company that distributed Hypercolor – the T-shirts that changed colour with heat – and declared bankruptcy on 2nd July, 1992. In a brief three-month span, between February and May 1991, the company sold a whopping $50 million worth of heat-sensitive T-shirts, shorts, pants, sweatshirts and tights, using the ‘Global Hypercolor’ brand

The real-life ‘Shark Week’ that inspired Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws kicked off with the shocking mauling of 23 year-old Charles Vansant off the coast of Beach Haven on 1st July, 1916.  At first, the public refused to believe that a shark could be responsible.But five days later, another attack occurred at Spring Lake, claiming the

Rerun: The first modern dog show took place in Newcastle on 28th June, 1859. Essentially a sideshow to the annual exhibition of cattle, it featured just 23 pointers and 27 setters. The owners of the champion breeds won a gun. Allegations of inbreeding and nepotism plagued the contest from the very beginning; controversies which eventually

What happened to the 130 children that went missing from the town of Hamlein, Lower Saxony on 26th June, 1284? According to legend, a vindictive ‘Pied Piper’ took revenge after the town had failed to stump up for his magical pest control services. But numerous sources corroborate that, fairy tales aside, the town’s children really

The ‘rainbow flag’ first flew in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza for Gay Pride Day, on June 25th, 1978. Created by Gilbert Baker, a friend of Harvey Milk, the original flag featured eight colours – but hot pink and turquoise were dropped from future iterations thanks to a lack of cloth. It was 30ft tall

The Order of the Garter, Britain’s highest chivalric order, was established by King Edward III on 24th June, 1348.  Influenced by Arthurian legend and the popularity of the Crusades, monarchs all over Europe dreamt up similar orders to boost their own support. But in Britain, the Garter ceremony is still held annually, at Windsor’s St.

Rerun: The Ordnance Survey – a government-funded agency created to aid the military in the event of invasion from France – took receipt of a theodolite on 21st June 1791, and so began the epic task of accurately mapping Britain.  It took them twenty years to do the county of Kent. And another twenty years