Episodes

A deputized posse illegally kidnapped and deported over a thousand striking mine workers from Bisbee, Arizona on July 12, 1917, and dumped them in New Mexico: an event that became known as The Bisbee Deportation.  The action was orchestrated by Phelps Dodge, the major mining company in the area, which provided lists of workers and […]

Mary Whitehouse successfully sued Gay News and publisher Denis Lemon at the Old Bailey in a trial that began on 11th July, 1977 – Britain’s last conviction for blasphemy. What had ired the notorious Christian campaigner was the magazine’s publication of “The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name”, a poem by James Kirkup written

The ‘Abernathy Boys’, Temple and Louis, were aged just 5 and 8 respectively when they departed Guthrie, Oklahoma for a 1,300-mile horseback trip to Roswell, New Mexico on July 10th, 1909. Alone. Sons of widower John Abernathy, himself the youngest-ever U.S. Marshal, the boys encountered wolves, outlaws and vast stretches of untamed plains on their

Pinocchio, ‘The Story of a Puppet’, debuted in Giornale per i bambini, an Italian weekly magazine for children, on 7th July, 1881. Its author, Carlo Lorenzini – going by the pseudonym C. Collodi – intended the tale to end with the hanging of Pinocchio, but popular demand led to the character having further, more optimistic

Rerun. The AK-47 assault rifle, the 20th century’s deadliest weapon, went into production on 6th July, 1947.  Designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, then a 22 year-old tank sergeant, the 600rpm gun was the winning entry in a national competition to find the next generation of Soviet weapons. It went on to be used in conflicts as

Fourteen years of food rationing came to an end in Britain on 4th July, 1954, when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted. Members of the London Housewives’ Association held a special ceremony in London’s Trafalgar Square to mark Derationing Day. Meanwhile, The Minister of Fuel and Power, Geoffrey Lloyd,

David Bowie retired his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust live on stage at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 3rd July, 1973. To the surprise of most of his band, the Spiders From Mars, he announced to a devastated crowd that the gig was “the last show we’ll ever do.”  Bowie’s management company had plans to take Ziggy on

Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, were among the prominent figures discussing Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at the Oxford University Museum on 30th June 1860; an encounter sometimes referred to as ‘The Great Debate’.  The confrontation is best remembered for a heated exchange in which Wilberforce supposedly asked Huxley whether it was

Rerun. Marshall Mathers III, aka Eminem, was sued for defamation by his own mother, Debbie, on 29th June, 2000. The suit was primarily in response to a lyric, “My Mom does more dope than I do”, from his hit song ‘My Name Is’. However, the case never made it to court. Eminem settled for $25,000

America’s first programme to feature an all-black cast, Amos ‘n’ Andy premiered on CBS on June 28th, 1951. Despite being based on one of the most popular radio shows of all time, the series lasted only two years, following a barrage of criticism. Although popular with many African-Americans, the show traded on ethnic caricatures, and