Episodes

In the temple at Philae, an Egyptian Priest called Nesmeterakhem created the last ever known hieroglyphic inscription on 24th August, 394. Although ostensibly praising the God Mandulis, the scribe spent just as long commemorating his own presence – and the names of his Mum and Dad. For centuries, Western academics assumed his words might be […]

Stockholm Syndrome – the condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors during captivity – was named after a bank robbery that began on 23rd August, 1973. It lasted for five days, with 73% of the Swedish public tuning in to watch it.   The robber was Jan-Erik Olsson, who pulled a loaded

The world’s first notable air raid occurred on 22nd August, 1849, when the Austrian Army attacked Venice using a fleet of 200 miniature hot air balloons, each delivering a 33lb pound bomb.  Following a disastrous first attempt – when the balloons blew back on to their own men – this time the Austrians equipped each

Court witnesses have promised to tell ‘the whole truth’ since the 13th century; but, on 19th August, 1992, the U.S. Appeals Court permitted Wallace Ward to stand trial under his own oath – pledging not ‘truth’, but ‘fully integrated honesty’. Ward, the president of a Nevada-based mail order company, had coined the phrase himself when

Rerun. A weather map was first broadcast on TV on 18th August, 1926 – but there were no fancy graphics, no on-screen forecaster, and only one intended recipient: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, DC. In the UK, the Met Office had been producing weather forecasts since 1861, but the BBC didn’t bring

Louis XIV was among the V.I.P. guests at Nicolas Fouquet’s lavish houseparty on 17th August, 1661 – and was supposedly so consumed with jealousy that he had Fouquet arrested for treason. Although not entirely true, the story adds to the mystique of Vaux-le-Vicomte, the opulent chateau Fouquet created with the design team who later went

Aviation in the 1920s could be a lethal business, as proven on 16th August 1927, when only 2 of the 15 planes that entered The Dole Derby – a $35,000 contest to fly from California to Hawaii – successfully reached their destination.  The brainchild of pineapple magnate James D. Dole, the competition inspired the public

Camp Siegfried hosted a ‘Nazi Camp Fete’ for 40,000 attendees on 15th August, 1938. The Summer resort, on Yaphank, Long Island, was the epicentre of the German-American Bund: an organisation devoted to establishing a Nazi stronghold across the United States.  Alongside campfire building and swimming lessons, young attendees were taught to emulate the Hitler Youth

When 42 bodies buried near Liverpool Street Station in London were dug up as part of the works on Crossrail on 12th August, 2015, they were thought to be victims of the Great Plague of 1665. The incident shone a light on the cemetery in which they were buried – a pauper’s grave at Bethlem

Rerun. The 7,885 year-long calendar that the Mayan people used to measure long stretches of time, ‘The Long Count’, began on 11th August, 3114 B.C. The combination of a Haabʼ and a Tzolkʼin date identifies a day in a combination which does not occur again for 18,980 days (52 Haabʼ cycles of 365 days equals