Episodes

Project MKUltra, a CIA program aimed at mastering mind control, secretly started on 13th April, 1953, supposedly to combat Soviet brainwashing. It soon evolved into a bizarre mix of government-sponsored LSD experiments and psychological torture. Led by Sidney Gottlieb, a chemist with a penchant for poisons, the program dosed often unwitting subjects—including CIA agents, prisoners […]

Spain began expel Moriscos – the descendants of Muslims who had converted, often under pressure, to Christianity – on 9th April, 1609.  Although many had lived alongside Christian neighbours for generations, political suspicion lingered, and King Phillip III increasingly viewed them as a problem to be solved rather than a community to be integrated: expelling

Former First Lady Betty Ford quietly marked what she would later call her “sobriety birthday” on 7 April 1978: a deeply personal victory following years of dependence on prescription medication and alcohol.  Though the milestone itself was private, it came just days after a profoundly difficult family intervention at her home in Rancho Mirage, where

3M scientist Spencer Silver created the adhesive that makes Post-It Notes sticky back in 1968 – but it wasn’t until 6th April, 1980 that the stationery product we all know and love was first released to consumers, in a promotional effort the company termed ‘The Boiasie Blitz’. The problem? His “invention” wasn’t what his company

With a single, deliberate shot, Roger Sharpe played pinball for the council of the New York City Council chamber on 2 April 1976, theatrically overturning a 34-year ban on the game by proving it could be a game of skill.  The city’s censorship of the game had its roots in the economic strain of the

One of the most famous hoaxes in broadcasting history aired on the BBC’s revered Panorama programme on April Fools Day, 1957: a segment purporting to show a “spaghetti harvest” taking place near Lake Lugano. According to the report, mild weather and the disappearance of a “spaghetti weevil” had resulted in trees unseasonably laden with strands

When Starbucks opened in Pike Place, Seattle, on March 30th, 1971, it was a simple shop selling whole coffee beans, tea, and spices – with no creamy macchiatos or pumpkin spice lattes in sight. Founders Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bowker, mentored by Dutch coffee trader Alfred Peet, never intended the store to become

The mass suicide of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult in San Diego County was discovered on 26th March, 1997. The tragedy came to light after a former member alerted authorities, having received a farewell videotape recorded by the group.  Leader Marshall Applewhite had preached that a spacecraft travelling in the wake of the

Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ was released on 23rd March, 1999 – launching the singer to worldwide superstardom, and kickstarting a Latino pop boom that propelled J-Lo, Shakira, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias and Santana into the charts. But he wasn’t an overnight success. He had already conquered the Latin music world, starred on General

Blaise Pascal created the first organised public transport system: the carrosses à cinq sols (“five-sou carriages”), which had its first full day of service in Paris on 19th March, 1662. Like a modern bus, the horse-drawn carriages followed fixed routes and scheduled departures, running whether or not they were full; a scheme authorised by royal