Episodes

The first ever St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Ireland, as many people might expect, but in Spanish Florida, on March 17, 1601. It wasn’t until about 100 years later that the world famous parades got going in Boston and New York City. Historian J. Michael Francis made the discovery of this unexpectedly […]

The world’s first blood bank opened on March 15, 1937 at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, revolutionising the way blood transfusions were performed. Dr. Bernard Fantus, the man behind the blood bank, had originally wanted to call his innovation the Blood Preservation Laboratory – but then his daughter came up with a rather less ghoulish

The Mikado opened on March 14, 1885 to immediate acclaim, and went on to become W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s most famous and best-loved operetta, despite its tortured genesis.  Due to growing creative tensions and their previous show flopping, Gilbert and Sullivan’s partnership was on the rocks, so The Mikado’s success took both completely

Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, better known to the world as Mata Hari, set the Paris stage ablaze on March 13, 1905, with a scandalous dance routine that turned her into an overnight success.  Sporting a gold jeweled breastplate and bracelets, Mata Hari’s performance was a striptease that left little to the imagination. But even the wildest

The infamous French Foreign Legion was formed by King Louis Philippe on March 10, 1831, to help the French control Algeria using mercenaries who were more expendable than native young Frenchmen. To this day a magnet for men who want a clean break from their past, the Legion famously did not ask many questions about

Copycat murderer Heriberto Seda began his spree of violence in New York City on March 8, 1990, when he attempted to kill a middle-aged man with a homemade gun. He claimed he was the famous ‘Zodiac’ killer, who had terrorized the West Coast in the 1960s.   The NYPD began to take his crimes seriously

Kidnapped from her prestigious Liverpool boarding school on March 7, 1827, 15-year-old Ellen Turner was led to believe her family would be financially ruined if she didn’t marry her 30 year-old abductor, Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Before she was able to deduce that his story was a sham, Turner was whisked off to Gretna Green and

Birdseye Frosted Foods launched its first range of flash-frozen foods at a ‘test kitchen’ in Springfield, Massachusetts on 6th March, 1930 – and at the helm was Clarence ‘Bob’ Birdseye, an American entrepreneur of great ambition and insight. Like Captain Birdseye, the bearded, fictional mascot of the brand dreamt up for the British market, Bob

Sending rude mail was dealt a devastating blow on 3rd March, 1873, when the campaign against pornography, reproductive health, birth control, and abortion led by self-appointed ‘Special Agent’ of the US Postal Service Anthony Comstock went all the way to Washington.  After the ‘Comstock Act’ became law, books were banned, ‘obscene’ pamphlets were destroyed, and,

Aviator Charles Lindbergh (‘The Lone Eagle’) was a household name when his 20 month-old son, Charlie Jr (dubbed ‘The Eaglet’) vanished from his nursery on 1st March, 1932, sparking a nationwide media frenzy. The kidnappers left a ransom note demanding $50,000. After a further 12 exchanges of correspondence, the Lindberghs were told their son was