Episodes

Leonarde Keeler, inventor of the modern polygraph, first showcased his device in a courtroom on 2nd February, 1935. The wooden box, which measured physiological responses like blood pressure and respiration, took the stand alongside him, and, while Keeler emphasized the machine wasn’t infallible, he later told journalists assembled outside the venue that his invention would […]

The BBC broadcast the first ever edition of Roy Plomley’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ – the world’s longest-running interview programme – on 29th January, 1942.  Opening, as the show still does, with Eric Coates’s theme music ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’, the episode welcomed comedian Vic Oliver as the series’ first ‘castaway’. Plomely would go on to

The U.S. Postal Service permitted parcel delivery for packages under 11 pounds in 1913 – parameters which were pushed to their limits on 26th January, 1913, when Ohio couple Jesse and Matilda Beagle set a bizarre precedent by mailing their baby, James, a mile up the road to his grandmother. As Parcel Fever swept the

George Metesky’s campaign of terror as ‘the Mad Bomber of New York’ ended abruptly on 22nd January, 1957. Between 1940 and 1956, he had planted at least 32 bombs in public places, including theatres, railway stations, libraries, and landmarks such as Grand Central Terminal.  Police arrived just before midnight at his modest home in Waterbury,

Celebrated medium Helen Duncan was arrested on 19th January, 1944, when, midway through one of her séances, an undercover policeman dramatically revealed her “spirit” to be nothing more than… herself draped in white fabric.  Initially charged with minor fraud, her case took a wild turn when she became the last woman imprisoned under the 1735

A roaring wave of syrup swept through the North End of Boston on 15th January, 1919, in an event that claimed 21 lives, including 2 children, and came to be known as the “Great Molasses Flood”.  At the heart of the disaster was a rushed, badly built industrial tank: the steel was too thin, the

Octavia Hill, Hardwicke Rawnsley, and Sir Robert Hunter founded The National Trust on January 12, 1895, with an intention to preserve Britain’s natural beauty and historic treasures for the public and future generations. The founders’ efforts reflected the late Victorian spirit of social and environmental reform, championed by figures like John Ruskin and William Morris.

John Stewart was elected MP for Lymington, Hampshire on 8th January, 1833.  On paper, he seemed a textbook member of Britain’s elite: wealthy, well-connected, educated in England, and a plantation owner.  But Stewart’s mother was an enslaved woman, making him considered by many to be Britain’s first Black MP. Yet Stewart did not enter Parliament

All-Black basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters travelled to Hinckley, Illinois on 7th January, 1927 – setting them on a barnstorming journey through the Midwest, the nation, and eventually the world…  Their manager, Abe Saperstein, was obsessed with basketball, stitching together tours at a time when Black athletes were locked out of most professional leagues. His

An angry crowd hurled abuse and antisemitic slurs at Captain Alfred Dreyfus on 5th January, 1895, as he stood in the courtyard of the École Militaire in Paris to have his insignia torn away and his sword ceremonially snapped. He had been falsely convicted of treason. The case against him rested almost entirely on a