Episodes

On 30 October, 1990, with little fanfare and without any cameras present, the first connection was made between the French half and the British half of the Channel Tunnel, when a two-inch metal probe broke through to link Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in more than 8,000 years.  In the […]

Nicholas Ray’s ‘troubled teen’ picture, ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ opened in the US on 27th October, 1955. The film was eagerly anticipated, partly due to the recent death of its star, James Dean, in a car accident. Although the movie’s title can be traced back to a book by Dr. Robert Lindner that explored the

When Queen and David Bowie met in Switzerland to record their iconic collaboration ‘Under Pressure’ on 26th October, 1981, *quite a lot* of drugs and wine were taken – to the extent that nobody can recall exactly how the iconic pop song came to be formed. What we do know is that Freddie Mercury never

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. became the first African-American general in the US Army on 25th October, 1940 – despite facing opposition from those who saw his appointment as political opportunism, whilst Roosevelt wooed the ‘negro vote’. Despite facing racial discrimination throughout his career, Davis had a deep connection to the military, serving in various roles

King Henry VIII’s third wife, Queen Consort Jane Seymour, died aged just 29 on 24th October, 1537 – 12 days after giving birth to their son, future King Edward VI. Her death was attributed to complications following a prolonged and challenging labour, though recently it has been speculated it was in fact a pulmonary embolism. 

According to the 17th-century Archbishop James Ussher, the world began on 23rd October, 4004 BC at precisely midday. Today, it is easy to ridicule Ussher’s date – and plenty of people do – but his methodology was scrupulous and his calculations were in line with most of the best estimates of his age. In this

The Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20th October, 1973, marking the start of a two-week festival of events in celebration of the audacious new building.  “I understand that its construction has not been totally without problems,” Her Majesty commented with some understatement, adding “but the human spirit must sometimes take

Ten thousand spectators gathered by the side of the Thames on 19th October, 2003 to watch street magician/illusionist David Blaine come back down to Earth, having spent 44 days suspended in a perspex box in a stunt called ‘Above The Below’. It was an accomplishment almost sabotaged by the British tabloid media and general public,

On October 18th, 1867, the United States formally took possession of Alaska, after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. This certainly looks like an incredibly good deal today but at the time the American public believed the land to be barren and worthless and dubbed the

The traditional music for the circus, “Entrance of the Gladiators”, wasn’t actually written for the circus at all, instead when it was composed on 17th October, 1899, it was in fact intended to be a military march.   Julius Fučík composed it, in part, to showcase the cutting-edge capabilities of the era’s brass instruments, which had