Episodes

A frozen Lake Peipus played host to a dramatic fight between 2,000 Catholic Crusaders and 6,000 Orthodox Christians on 5th April, 1242. The invading forces were the Teutonic Knights, armed with spears and swords to ‘Christianize’ what they saw as a Pagan society. Novgorod’s defender, Prince Alexander Nevsky, lured the Germans to the lake, where […]

Gottlieb Daimler’s patent for his high-speed petrol engine (dubbed the “Grandfather Clock”) on 3rd April, 1885, wasn’t just a technological breakthrough—it inadvertently birthed the motorbike.  Teaming up with Wilhelm Maybach, the duo had crafted a compact engine featuring float-metered carburetors and mushroom intake valves, all powered by hot tube ignition. This engine found its way

Johnny Weissmuller made his debut as ‘Tarzan The Ape Man’ on April 2nd, 1932, when MGM released the first talkie to feature the jungle hero – spawning a Tarzanmania craze. The blockbuster, loosely based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 novel, was commissioned in part because the studio held additional footage from their African-set hit from

Julius Caesar intervened to put his lover and ally Cleopatra on the Egyptian throne on 27th March, 47 BC – cementing their position as the world’s premier Power Couple. But Cleo’s ascent to power was not just a power play. Rather, it was a desperate bid for survival – as she had been ousted from

‘The Combat of the Thirty’, happened in Brittany on 26th March, 1351.  Despite being largely irrelevant in military terms, it was referenced for generations as the pinnacle of chivalric honour in France. The fighting was chaotic, brutal, and lasted for hours, but surprisingly, both sides largely adhered to the agreed-upon rules – even taking a

Each Lady Day, the Hampshire village of Tichborne hands out bags of flour to the  locals – a tradition that began on 25th March, 1150 after Lady Marbella Tichborne, on her death-bed, suggested distributing a ‘Tichborne Dole’ to the needy.  It’s far from the only quaint charity event still going strong in England. In the

There were no orcas or rollercoasters, but there were ‘seamaids’ serving tropical drinks when Sea World San Diego first welcomed guests on 22nd March, 1964.  Originally conceived as a themed restaurant with a marine show inside, the founders had pivoted to build a seaquarium instead, drawing thousands of eager visitors, including, bizarrely, Senator Barry Goldwater.

The bubonic plague was blamed on witches, Jews, God’s wrath, and, on 20th March 1345, in a new theory propagated by the King of France, the rare planetary alignment between Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in Aquarius. Of course, the real cause of the Black Death lay in the microscopic world of bacteria, carried by fleas

The cornerstone of the Sagrada Familia was laid on March 19, 1882, kicking off a construction project so ambitious that it is still going to this day. Perhaps unexpectedly, however, on the day it began, the cathedral that is now regarded as Antoni Gaudí’s Art Nouveau magnus opus was being overseen by another architect entirely,

Tenji blocks (点字ブロック) – small raised shapes in the pavement to assist visually impaired people in crossing the road – were first installed near the Okayama School for the Blind in Japan on March 18th, 1967.  Designed by Seiichi Miyake (三宅精一), the innovation gained traction in urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka, gradually spreading nationwide,