Episodes

It was today in history in 1404 that Henry IV issued the Act Against Multipliers, a ban on the mysterious art of creating or duplicating gold, more commonly known as alchemy. It came at an odd time for European science because the widespread efforts to transform so-called base metals, such as lead or copper, into […]

Rerun. Dr James Bedford became the first dead body to be cryogenically frozen on 12th January, 1967 – a day still commemorated in the ‘suspended animation’ community as Bedford Day. But in this burgeoning (pseudo)science, there were plenty of preparations yet to be made. Which meant that the freezing team – lead not by scientists but enthusiasts

British Airways paid out one of the largest libel settlements in UK history on 11th January, 1993, for engaging in disreputable business practices, including shredding documents, poaching passages, and circulating hostile and discreditable stories about their upstart rival Virgin Airlines. The so-called Dirty Tricks revealed that British Airways had created a secret unit within a

On 10th January, 1870 John D. Rockefeller took his first steps towards becoming the world’s richest ever person by forming his company, Standard Oil. He had arrived in the oil industry at a time of wild instability when oil refining was almost a cottage industry. Rockefeller quickly realised that if he had control over not

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, the American statesman Benjamin Franklin once said, but until 9 January, 1799, taxation looked very different to the way it does today, because this was the day the world was first introduced to income tax. Its introduction by British Prime Minister

Roller skates, most readily associated with the 1970s, were actually first patented in the US on 6th January, 1863, by New York furniture salesman James Plimpton. Plimpton developed the shoes after being advised by his doctor to take up ice skating, yet finding himself with nowhere to skate in the Spring and Summer months. He

America’s most notorious outlaws, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, first bonded over a cup of condensed milk hot chocolate on 5th January, 1930. The couple went on to traverse the States on a shooting spree, committing up to thirteen murders, before being ambushed and gunned down in Louisiana four years into their relationship. In this

The world’s tallest tower – Dubai’s Burj Khalifa – had its grand opening ceremony on 4th January, 2010, heralded with the launch of 10,000 fireworks. Previously known as ‘Dubai Tower’, it was re-named at the last minute in tribute to the Sheik of Abu Dhabi, who’d bailed out the neighbouring Emirate with a $10billion loan.

Nazi propagandist William Joyce, best known to British radio listeners as ‘Lord Haw Haw’, was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint at Wandsworth Prison on 3rd January, 1946. At the peak of his powers, his anti-Allied broadcasts from Hamburg reached up to 50% of the UK listening public, who tuned in to hear the German perspective on

Happy Holidays! Arion, Rebecca and Olly will be back with more cracking ‘Today in History’ content from January 3rd 2023… but in the meantime, it’s time to wrap the year with the Pub Quiz that ONLY makes sense if you’ve doggedly revised everything we’ve discussed for the past 51 weeks. It’s Arion vs Rebecca as