Episodes

Just 224 words long, Eric Carle’s classic children’s book, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, was first published on 3rd June, 1969. Initially conceived as a “bookworm” eating through the pages, Carle’s editor suggested a caterpillar for the central character, leading to a timeless tome that has sold over 55 million copies in 70 languages.  Carle’s journey […]

Rerun. John Harvey Kellogg believed his corn flakes had a future as a sexual suppressant when he filed a patent for “Flaked Cereals and Process of Preparing Same” on 31st May, 1895. What the Seventh Day Adventist and eugenicist hadn’t counted on was his brother Will – who combined his discovery with sugar; effectively creating

Bing Crosby recorded the biggest-selling single of all time, ‘White Christmas’, on 29th May, 1942. The session took just 18 minutes, and the song was not considered the standout from the album: everyone thought the Valentine’s-themed ballad ‘Be Careful, It’s My Heart’ had a better chance of chart success. The songwriter, Irving Berlin, was perhaps

In this week’s Sunday’s episode, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover ‘miracle babies’ the Dionne Quintuplets – Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and Marie, the first known quintuplets to survive infancy – born on 28th May, 1934 in rural Canada. Fearing private exploitation, the Ontario government removed

Rerun: Spectacle, camp and glamour were NOT on the agenda in Lugano, Switzerland on 24th May, 1956: the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast mostly on the radio, and featured a whistling duo as its interval act. Who had to perform twice. Voting controversy, however, was enshrined in the institution right from the outset –

When Jerry Lee Lewis landed at Heathrow Airport for his first UK tour on 22nd May, 1958, he was met with a flurry of journalists eager for a scoop. Yet just one question brought everything to a halt: “Who are you?”.  A wide-eyed girl in Lewis’s entourage answered: Myra Gale Brown, his wife. But she

The funeral for Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley was half religious ceremony, half rock concert on 21st May, 1981. An estimated 100,000 people are believed to have seen Marley’s body lying in state, and the announcement of Jamaica’s national budget was postponed by several days to accommodate his funeral. The casket contained his red Gibson

‘Protect and Survive’, the UK Government’s pamphlet offering Britons advice on how to navigate the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, was published on 20th May, 1980, following a campaign in The Times. Intended for distribution in times of imminent crisis – and only alongside the broadcast of a series of related public information films –

Rerun: Gun totin’, horse ridin’ spectacular ‘Buffalo Bill’s Wild West’ opened in Omaha, Nebraska on 17th May, 1883 – the start of a multi-decade run. With a cast of hundreds, including Calamity Jane, Sitting Bull, and Annie ‘Get Your Gun’ Oakley, it toured the world – and forever shaped the way cowboys and Indians were

George III narrowly dodged a bullet for the SECOND time in one day on 15th May, 1800, as he attended a performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.   The assassination attempt came from James Hadfield, a clinically insane former soldier, who rose from the pit and fired a pistol at the King, causing uproar in