Episodes
Fingerprints Go Legit
RETRO
William James Herschel, a British colonial magistrate in India, first used fingerprints as a means of identification on 28th July, 1858 – not to catch a criminal, but to implement two-step verification on a contract. In Britain, the technology was first used to solve the theft of some billiard balls in 1902. These days, it’s …
Raleigh’s Tobacco Adventures
RETRO
Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back to Britain from Virginia on 27th July 1586 – and, in so doing, triggered a craze for smoking, which at the time was considered a tonic for halitosis, and even a cure for cancer. Despite Queen Elizabeth I being an advocate for the new drug, it didn’t take long …
Let’s Build A Language
RETRO
Linguist L. L. Zamenhof published ‘Dr. Esperanto’s International Language’ on 26th July, 1887 – and in so doing launched Esperanto, the most popular ‘constructed language’ on Earth. Thanks to apps like Duolingo, there are still around 2 million esperantists today. It was once even proposed as the official language of the incipient League of Nations …
Radio 1 hits the road
RETRO
Concerned that it was too London-centric, the BBC commissioned a series of pop-up outside broadcasts for its youth music station Radio 1, kicking off modestly in Newquay on 23rd July, 1973. The events exploded in popularity, and spawned an annual tour of bucket-and-spade Britain, becoming the iconic ‘Radio 1 Roadshow’. Despite the concerts pulling in …
The World’s First Motor Race
RETRO
Billed as a concours for ‘horseless carriages’, the Paris–Rouen competition which took place on 22nd July, 1894, is now widely considered the world’s first motor race. Only 21 vehicles qualified. Some of them had solid iron tyres. One was an eight passenger wagonette that weighed four tonnes. The car that came in first – a …
The Outing of Milli Vanilli
RETRO
German pop duo Milli Vanilli sold 33 million singles, including three US number ones, but harboured a shameful secret: their vocals were sung by someone else. At a promotional gig in Connecticut on 21st July, 1989, their backing track crashed – and speculation began to mount. “I knew right then and there, it was the …
Napoleon’s Surname Decree
RETRO
France’s Jewish population mostly had no family surnames – until 20th July, 1808, when Napoleon issued a decree insisting they adopted one. They were not permitted to choose place names, and allusions to the Old Testament were forbidden. Rumours persist that some families were charged higher fees to adopt prettier names, but in a Europe …
Marathon Begat Snickers
RETRO
The world’s biggest-selling chocolate bar underwent a name-change in Britain on 19th July, 1990. Until then – concerned that Brits might refer to their candy as ‘knickers’ – Snickers had been known as ‘Marathon’ in the UK. 31 years later, the decision still smarts for some sections of the confectionary-buying public – but, thanks to …
The Death Of Kissing
RETRO
Kissing was a big deal in the Middle Ages: for signing contracts, for greeting colleagues, and for showing deference to the King – a tradition that ended on 16th July, 1439, when Henry VI issued a decree imploring his citizens to stop kissing his ring. Some 400 years before the modern concepts of hygiene and …
The Red Planet Gets Closer
RETRO
The first images of Mars found their way back to Earth from NASA’s Mariner 4 mission on 15th July, 1965 – and were simultaneously revelatory and disappointing. Delivered as binary code, rendered in black and white, and revealing only 1% of the planet, the photos were coloured in by hand and showed no evidence of …