Episodes

Heavily influenced by the Church, Article 43 of the Irish Constitution forbade divorce – a law that stood until 17th January, 1997, when a Judge granted a terminally ill husband the right to divorce the woman from whom he’d already separated so that he could marry his current partner.  This followed a contentious referendum in […]

It had a budget of just $1 million, a lead actor wearing a toupee, and the baddie in the first draft of the script was a monkey. But the first James Bond film, ‘Dr. No’, which began shooting in Jamaica on 16th January, 1962, kicked off a phenomenally successful franchise that’s still a staple of

Rerun : Wikipedia launched with the cheery words “Hello World!” on 15th January, 2001. The project arrived almost by accident, as the side-project of a more serious effort by tech entrepreneur Jimmy Wales to create an online encyclopedia called Nupedia. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why before Wikipedia came about Wales briefly

When Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Tamla Records in Detroit on 12th January, 1959, he reshaped popular music forever. With an iconic artist roster that included The Temptations, Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5, Motown’s ability to identify and nurture talent – inspired by the principles of a car production line – were unprecedented. Gordy’s journey,

The Open University began welcoming students on 10th January 1971 – but they did not meet up for Fresher’s Week, due to this innovative institution (brainchild of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson) having been created to offer mature students the opportunity for tertiary education without stepping foot on campus. Instead, students would study for their

Naval commander Horatio Nelson became the first non-Royal to receive a full British state funeral on 9th January, 1806, when tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of London to pay tribute to their fallen hero – including, surprisingly, his defeated counterpart, French admiral Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve.  The anticipation for the burial was fuelled

In New York City on 8th January, 2007, an unexplained pervasive egg smell was reported. Baffled authorities scrambled to try to work out whether it had been caused by a gas leak, a chemical spill, a terrorist attack or something else entirely. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly open (and close) their own investigation

Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic novella ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was published in the USA on 5th January, 1886. It had been intended for release as a Christmas horror story the previous month – but Stevenson’s wife Fanny had been so disturbed by the initial draft that she reportedly asked him

Billboard introduced the first-ever pop music chart on 4th January, 1936. Catering to jukebox operators, rather than everyday music fans, the chart was an occasional magazine feature, listing top tracks from each of the major record labels based on sheet music sales, record sales, requests from band leaders, and mail-in requests to radio stations.  Big

A dramatic standoff between Metropolitan Police and Latvian anarchists unfolded in the East End of London on 3rd January, 1911 – when two men suspected of murdering policemen in a jewellery heist were surrounded by armed authorities. As tensions escalated, Winston Churchill, then the Home Secretary, mobilised a significant military force to Sidney Street, where