Episodes

In front of the world’s TV cameras, 18-month-old Jessica McClure – affectionately known as “Baby Jessica” – was lifted from a disused well in Midland, Texas on 16th October, 1987, having been trapped down there for two and a half harrowing days.  Jessica had slipped into the eight-inch-wide shaft while playing in her aunt’s backyard. […]

Future President Abraham Lincoln had yet to grow his iconic facial fuzz when he received a letter from Grace Bedell – an 11 year-old resident of Westfield, New York – dated 15th October, 1860.  “I have yet got four brothers… and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them

Accused of planning the assassination of her cousin Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots stood trial for treason on 14th October, 1586. Mary’s coded letters, delivered to her co-conspirators in beer barrels, had been intercepted by Sir Francis Walsingham, who had deciphered and copied them and built a case against the former Scottish monarch. In

Margaret Travers Symons was the first woman to make herself heard in the British House of Commons – albeit without permission – on 13th October, 1908. During a tour of Westminster, the suffragette campaigner escaped her escort and interrupted a debate on children’s issues, making a bold demand for votes for women. Meanwhile, outside Parliament,

The Royal Albert Hall was the unlikely venue for the biggest Sumo wrestling tournament ever staged outside of Japan on 9th October, 1991. Around forty wrestlers, described in the press as “bouncing like fat Buddhas,” thundered across a ring on clay sourced from a field near Heathrow.  Part of the grand Japan Festival – a

Hairdressers descended upon Oxford Street on October 8th, 1906 to witness Karl Nessler’s first public demonstration of his pioneering new ‘perm’ – a style which didn’t have its heyday until some eighty years later. Creating a long-lasting curl had been a goal for many stylists over the decades, but Nessler had hit upon a winning

Ron Popeil, inventor of The Pocket Fisherman, the Amazing Smokeless Ashtray, and the Inside-The-Shell Egg Scrambler, was (satirically) awarded an Ignoble Award for Consumer Engineering on 7th November, 1993. But the ‘Infomercial King’ had spun an enviable career from his talent for selling; from humble beginnings shilling vegetable choppers on the shop floor of Woolworth’s

The Reno Brothers pulled off the first moving train robbery in U.S. history in Jackson County, Indiana, on 6th October, 1866. Overpowering the guard, the gang made off with a significant haul of gold, cash, and canvas bags (though, while they tried to steal a hefty safe, they couldn’t open it and simply pushed it

Happy 75th birthday, ‘Peanuts’! Charles Shulz’ iconic comic strip made its debut (although Snoopy had yet to appear) on 2nd October, 1950.  Peanuts would grow into a global phenomenon, running in 2,600 papers across 75 countries. At its peak, it was translated into 21 languages – but never lost its bittersweet mix of humour, disappointment,

A 12 x 8.5cm ‘Correspondenzkarte’, the earliest progenitor of the modern-day postcard, was created by the Austrian Post on 1st October, 1869. Cheaper and more practical than sending long-form letters, the new medium was an instant sensation with the public – with three million postcards being sent in the first three months. But cultural conservatives