Episodes

Optometry historians observe 23rd February, 1305 as the day eyeglasses were perhaps first discussed in public, when friar Giordano de Rivalto stood at the pulpit and declared that he had personally met the man who invented spectacles… Except, frustratingly, he forgot to mention the bloke’s name. One popular contender for the title is Salvino D’Armati, […]

When the Second Continental Congress calmly reshuffled the revolutionary army’s high command on 19th February 1777, they couldn’t have known they were detonating a grievance in one of their most daring and battle-tested commanders: Benedict Arnold. Arnold was certain that he had the merit and seniority to be promoted, but instead saw junior officers leapfrogging

High-rolling merchant Nicholas Vanacker wrote out a cheque for a hefty £400 on 16th February, 1659 – one of the earliest modern cheques still preserved today. For goldsmiths-to-the-aristocracy Morris and Clayton, the innovation wasn’t just about ease; it was a strategic move to reduce risk and maximize profit, even though the process involved clerks physically

Just nine days before he was assassinated, Malcolm X visited an unlikely place on 12th February, 1965: Smethwick, the industrial suburb of Birmingham that had recently gained a grim reputation as ‘the most racist town in Britain’.  Having been refused entry to France, Malcolm X had been speaking at the London School of Economics when

Just three months after Magic Johnson retired from basketball due to his HIV diagnosis, he made a triumphant return on 9th February, 1992 – at the NBA All-Star Game in Orlando, Florida. The sports world was divided—some players, like Michael Jordan, welcomed him back, while others, like Karl Malone, were hesitant, voicing concerns about physical

United Artists, a new company formed by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith – four of the most powerful figures in early cinema – was announced on 5th February 1919. The movie trade press quickly labelled it a ‘rebellion’ against the mainstream studios. Declaring their new enterprise would exist to “protect

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,