Podcasts
The Shipwrecked Mr. Crusoe
RETRO
Literature’s most famous castaway, Robinson Crusoe, was washed up on a desert island – where he would remain for 28 years – on 30th September, 1659. By selecting this date, author Daniel Defoe ensured that his fictional protagonist’s fate pre-dated the real-life estrangement of Royal Navy man Alexander Selkirk, who was stranded some 46 years …
The 33-Day Pope
RETRO
The corpse of John Paul I was discovered by a nun in the early hours of 29th September, 1978. His body was embalmed within 24 hours, heightening suspicions that the cause of death may have been unnatural. He had been Pope for just 33 days. An unconventional Pope – who had refused to wear the papal …
Let’s Get Metric
RETRO
Feet, inches, palms, cubits, rods… all were SWEPT ASIDE on 28th September, 1889, when the first General Conference of the Weights and Measures Commission met in Sèvres, France to refine a definition for the NEW universal measurement of distance: the metre. The calculation was painstakingly made by measuring a quarter of the meridian of the …
When 3-D First Flopped
RETRO
Journalists, exhibitors and producers packed the Ambassador Hotel Theater, Los Angeles on 27th September, 1922 – to see the first ever paid-for screening of a 3-D film, ‘The Power Of Love’. Using an anaglyph system (meaning the 3-D glasses had two tinted lenses; one red, one green), viewers were told they could select a happy …
America’s Transgender Celebrity
RETRO
Christine Jorgensen began gender reassignment surgery in Copenhagen on 24th September 1951. The New York Daily News later heralded the event with a headline splash – “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty!” – thereby creating America’s first transgender celebrity. Writing to friends, she said: “As you can see by the enclosed photos, taken just before the operation, …
See Facts? Ceefax!
RETRO
The BBC’s teletext information service, Ceefax, launched on 23rd September, 1974 – providing the British public with a way to look up headlines, football results and TV listings, some twenty years before the launch of Internet Explorer. Countless National Lottery winners discovered their victories via the analogue service, which was discontinued in 2012. To this …
The All-Female Jury
RETRO
Witchcraft and infanticide were the charges levelled against young maidservant Judith Catchpole at the General Provincial Court in Patuxent County, Maryland on September 22nd, 1656. Since the case hinged on whether she had been pregnant, an all-female jury was assembled – the first in colonial America. Seven married women and four single women physically examined her …
‘The Cod War’ Heats Up
RETRO
‘The Fish Feud!’ – as the tabloids originally termed the standoff between Britain and Iceland over fishing rights – had escalated into a fully-fledged ‘Cod War’ by 21st September, 1958, when the destroyer H.M.S. Diana requested medical assistance for a Marine suffering appendicitis. The dispute arose when Iceland had unilaterally extended its fishing zone from …
Fonzie Jumps The Shark
RETRO
Henry Winkler, an accomplished water-skier, had asked the producers of ‘Happy Days’ if he could showcase his skills on the sitcom. On 20th September, 1977 his wish came true – in a shark-jumping sequence so absurd it would forever be linked with the irreversible artistic decline of long-running TV series. To ‘Jump the Shark’ was …
The Bermuda Triangle Theory
RETRO
Why were multiple ships and planes lost in the section of the Atlantic between Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda? Journalist Edward van Winkle-Jones first floated the idea of ‘the Bermuda Triangle’ – although he didn’t call it that – in an article for the Miami Herald on 17th September, 1950. The speculation that ensued inspired …