Episodes

An entry in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland on 1st June, 1495, records that Friar John Cor was given charge of eight bolls of malt, ‘wherewith to make aqua vitae’. This has led many people to believe that his patron, King James IV, was the first big consumer of what we now know as whisky.

Becoming Pharaoh at the age of 24, Ramesses ‘The Great’ II had his coronation on 31st May, 1279 BC – a fact we know because he had it chiselled into stone. Repeatedly. He lived until the age of 90 and reigned for 66 years – which gave him plenty of time to commission statues of

Hersheypark was created as a recreation ground for the workers and families who staffed the Hershey chocolate factory in Pennsylvania when it opened on 30th May, 1906. But visitors from across the State soon came to marvel at its playgrounds, boating lake and band-stand… and, before long, the environs began to morph into the chocolate-themed

The Sex Pistols’ anti-establishment single ‘God Save The Queen’ was banned by the BBC when it was re-released on 27th May, 1977 by Virgin Records – mischievously, to tie-in with the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. To rub salt in the wound, the band’s ‘art-school punk’ manager, Malcolm McLaren, arranged a boat procession outside

When a ragged, peculiar-looking teenage boy was found wandering the streets of Nuremberg on 26th May, 1828, it triggered a centuries-long quest to discover who he was, why he had (apparently) been raised in captivity, and (if so) whom had done such a thing to him. His name was Kasper Hauser. The newspapers went into

The first group of Australian sportspeople to ever represent the country overseas were an Aboriginal team of cricketers, who began an acclaimed tour of England on 25th May, 1868. The team had to face racism, illness and ignorance – but won the hearts of thousands of spectators, and the British establishment. They also did some

California had virtually no reputation as an international wine-growing region until 24th May, 1976 – when 11 wine experts gathered at a Parisian hotel and decided, in a blind taste-test, that wines from Napa Valley were indeed more quaffable than France’s most famous varieties: a decision that shook up the world of wine, and became

Throwing people out of windows might seem a peculiar way to protest, but it’s happened so often in history, it’s got a special name: defenestration. And perhaps the most significant of all – because it brought about the Thirty Years War – was the assault on three Habsburg officials by Bohemian malcontents in Prague on

Motorcycling daredevil Evel Knievel had been keen on jumping the Grand Canyon since 1968, but never staged an actual attempt. On May 20th, 1999, however, his son Robbie performed the feat on live television – and lived to tell the tale. “I’m wiped out in the head a little”, he said, before being examined by