“The real world is where the monsters are.” — Rick Riordan What connects a flying elephant, a prehistoric predator and a revolutionary little music player? The answer is 23 October, a date that brings together three remarkable milestones in entertainment, imagination and technology. 🐘 1941 — An Elephant Takes Flight On 23 October 1941, Walt […]
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What could possibly connect a pioneering French parachutist, a spectacular railway accident in Paris and a Soviet spacecraft landing on Venus? The answer is gravity — and the remarkable coincidence that all three events happened on 22 October. Our story begins in Paris, travels through one of the most extraordinary accidents in railway history, and […]
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There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” — Edith Wharton What connects a Victorian nurse, an American inventor and the speed of light? The answer is 21 October — a date that takes us from the battlefields of the Crimean War to the birth of […]
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What connects a Hungarian vampire, a British Gothic rock band, German modernism and Australia’s most famous building? Today marks the 144th anniversary of the birth of Béla Lugosi, born on 20 October 1882. He became immortalised as Count Dracula in the 1931 horror film. But the story doesn’t end with Dracula’s death. In 1979, the […]
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New York, Thrice! Three events, three centuries, one extraordinary date. Monday 19 October 2026 🗽 ✈️ 📉 What connects a British naval expedition during the American Revolutionary War, the world’s most famous supersonic passenger aircraft, and the biggest one-day percentage crash in Wall Street history? The answer is New York City — and 19 October. […]
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Gandhi’s Wheels 🕊️📺🇮🇳 Two men, two anniversaries, three wheels and a remarkable journey from Indian independence to modern television. 🕊️ 1. Gandhi’s Birthday — 2 October 1869 On 2 October 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India. He would become one of the internationally recognised figures of the twentieth century, helping lead India’s […]
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What happens when going around the world is no longer enough? On 28 September 1924, two Douglas World Cruisers returned to Seattle and completed the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. The US Army Air Service expedition had begun on 6 April and lasted 175 days, covering roughly 27,550 miles. Four aircraft had set out; […]
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Some dates seem to acquire a literary life of their own, and 21 September has an unusually impressive collection of connections. We begin in 1866, with the birth of H. G. Wells. Wells became one of the defining figures of early science fiction, imagining time travel, invisible men and, most famously, an invasion from Mars […]
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What happens when two birthdays collide in Paris? You get Pink the Panther. On 8 September 1925, Peter Sellers was born in Portsmouth. Forty-four years later, on 8 September 1979, Alecia Beth Moore — better known as Pink — was born in Pennsylvania. That gives us a wonderfully simple Link Salad: Pink + Peter Sellers […]
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Some dates seem to have a theme running through them. 3 September is a day for turning. On 3 September 1967, Sweden carried out one of the most extraordinary changes in its motoring history. On Dagen H — Högertrafikomläggningen, the right-hand traffic reorganisation — the country switched from driving on the left-hand side of the […]
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