theESP

TWISH – This Week in Skeptical History

January

    1 Jan, 1762: Cock Lane Ghost mystery

      This started in London first week in 1762 and includes murder allegations, a ghost and a haunted house.
      Ep. #203

    2 Jan, 1860: Planet Vulcan

      The discovery of the planet Vulcan, orbiting between Mercury and the Sun was announced by the French Acadademy of Sciences. It later turned out not to exist.
      Ep. #055

    4 Jan, 1581: James Ussher (born this day)

      Prolific Irish scholar and church leader, famous for his chronology that sought to establish the time and date of the creation
      Ep. #153

    6 Jan, 1920: Doris Stokes (born this day)

      Self-proclaimed psychic and ‘claireaudient’.
      Ep. #204

    8 Jan, 1823: Alfred Russel Wallace (born this day)

      British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection.
      Ep. #256

    8 Jan, 1981: Trans-en-Provence Case

    11 Jan, 1906: Albert Hoffman (born this day)

      Swiss scientist and discoverer of LSD-25
      Ep. #107

    13 Jan, 1404: Act Against Multipliers

      This act made it illegal to create silver or gold using alchemy
      Ep. #005

    16 Jan, 1964: Massimo Pigliucci (born this day)

    20 Jan, 1612: Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (died this day)

      Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the House of Habsburg.
      Ep. #258

    21 Jan, 1789: Baron d’Holbach (died this day)

      French-German philosopher, encyclopedist, writer, and prominent figure in the French Enlightenment
      Ep. #309

    21 Jan, 1854: Eusapia Palladino (born this day)

      Italian spiritualist physical medium
      Ep. #057

    22 Jan, 1561: Sir Francis Bacon (born this day)

      English philosopher and Statesman
      Ep. #155

    23 Jan, 1943: Stanisław Burzyński (born this day)

      Founder of The Burzynski Clinic, is a controversial clinic offering an unproven cancer treatment
      Ep. #109

    24 Jan, 1928: Desmond Morris (born this day)

      British zoologist and anthropologist. He was instrumental in popularizing the Aquatic Ape hypothesis.
      Ep. #206

    25 Jan, 1900: Theodosius Dobzhansky (born this day)

      Ukrainian-American evolutionary biologist
      Ep. #310

    27 Jan, 1950: Derek Acorah (born this day)

    29 Jan, 1986: The Height 611 UFO incident

      Known as ‘Russia’s own Roswell incident’.
      Ep. #207

    30 Jan, 1948: Edzard Ernst (born this day)

      Retired academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine
      Ep. #156

    31 Jan, 1911: Grandmother (“Baba”) Vanga (born this day)

      Bulgarian mystic, clairvoyant, and herbalist.
      Ep. #059

    31 Jan, 2021: INH (Informationsnetzwerk Homöopathie, or Information Network Homeopathy)

      INH is a German association of homeopathy critics . The association is part of the GWUP (the German Skeptics).
      Ep. #259

February

    2 Feb, 2010: Andrew Wakefield’s paper

      The Lancet formally retracts Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 paper
      Ep. #311

    5 Feb, 2011: 1023 Campaign

      The 1023 global homeopathy challenge happened on 5 February 2011.
      Ep. #260

    6 Feb, 1999: Skeptics in the Pub

      The first ever skeptical pub was held this date in London
      Ep. #111

    8 Feb, 1834: Dimitri Mendeleev (born this day)

      Russian chemist and inventor. He is best known for formulating the Periodic Law and creating a farsighted version of the periodic table of elements.
      Ep. #312

    8 Feb, 1855: Devil’s Footprints

      A series of strange footprints was reported from around the Exe Estuary in East and South Devon, England
      Ep. #110

    10 Feb, 1937: Anne Anderson (born this day)

      Reproductive physiologist, forerunner of evidence based medicine
      Ep. #009

    10 Feb, 1947: Oliver Lodge‘s letters

      Oliver Lodge‘s last letter was opened, failing to prove that psychics are real
      Ep. #157

    12 Feb, 1809: Charles Darwin (born this day)

      English naturalist, geologist and biologist.
      Ep. #209

    13 Feb, 1923: Philippe de Cherisey (born this day)

      French writer, radio humorist, surrealist and supporting actor. He is best known for his creation of fake parchments
      Ep. #158

    15 Feb, 1564: Galileo Galilei (born this day)

      the “father of modern science”
      Ep. #061

    19 Feb, 1473: Nicolaus Copernicus (born this day)

      Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon. He formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center.
      Ep. #262

    22 Feb, 1997: Dolly the sheep

      Presentation of Dolly to the press.
      Ep. #263

    22 Feb, 2004: Andrew Wakefield

      Brian Deer’s landmark investigation into the Wakefield fraud was published
      Ep. #113

    22 Feb, 2010: Homeopathy

      The British Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee published its damning Evidence Check on homeopathy
      Ep. #159

    23 Feb, 1455: Gutenberg Bible

      First book printed using reusable metal types
      Ep. #314

    24 Feb, 1588: Johann Weyer (died this day)

      Dutch physician, occultist and demonologist
      Ep. #011

    27 Feb, 1971: Derren Brown (born this day)

March

    3 Mar, 1968: Brian Cox (born this day)

      English physicist and former musician who is a professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester and The Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science.
      Ep. #264

    4 Mar, 2002: Bankrupsy of David Irwing

      David Irving, famous holocaust denier, was declared bankrupt on 4 March 2002, after losing a libel suit against a writer who published a book about his “research”.
      Ep. #212

    9 Mar, 1847: Mary Anning (died this day)

      English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist
      Ep. #115

    9 Mar, 1934: Yuri Gagarin (born this day)

      Russian Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, the first human to journey into outer space
      Ep. #013, Ep. #265

    10 Mar, 1969: Massimo Polidoro (born this day)

      Italian psychologist, writer, journalist, television personality, co-founder and executive director of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudoscience (CICAP)
      Ep. #316

    14 Mar, 1835: Giovanni Schiaparelli (born this day)

      Astronomer who believed he had discovered ‘canali‘ on Mars
      Ep. #162

    14 Mar, 2018: Stephen Hawking (died this day)

      English theoretical physicist, cosmologist
      Ep. #117

    15 Mar, 1848: Hungarian Revolution of 1848

      On this day the Hungarian Revolution broke out against Habsburg absolutism. People today have many misconceptions about what happened and why.
      Ep. #317

    18 Mar, 1981: Quark

      Premiere of Italian science program Quark hosted by skeptic Piero Angela
      Ep. #163

    19 Mar, 1992: Hungarian Skeptic Society

      Predecessor the Hungarian Skeptic Society, Tényeket Tisztelők Társasága was founded on 19th March 1992.
      Ep. #266

    20 Mar, 1726: Sir Isaac Newton (died this day)

      English mathematician, astronomer and physicist
      Ep. #065

    22 Mar, 1832: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (died this day)

      German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic
      Ep. #117

    23 Mar, 1907: Daniel Bovet (born this day)

      Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
      Ep. #015

    23 Mar, 1919: Italian Fascist Party

      Benito Mussolini, an Italian World War I veteran and publisher of Socialist newspapers, breaks with the Italian Socialists and establishes the nationalist Fasci di Combattimento
      Ep. #318

    26 Mar, 1941: Richard Dawkins (born this day)

      British evolutionary biologist and author.
      Ep. #215

    27 Mar, 1845: Wilhelm Röntgen (born this day)

      German mechanical engineer and physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achievement that earned him the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
      Ep. #267

    29 Mar, 1939: UK Cancer Act of 1939

      This act was passed, most significantly to regulate advertising claims of cancer cures
      Ep. #164

    30 Mar, 1925: Rudolf Steiner (died this day)

    31 Mar, 1596: René Descartes (born this day)

      French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who invented analytic geometry, linking the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra.
      Ep. #268

April

    1 Apr, 2010: Simon Singh

      Simon Singh wins “fair comment” libel appeal against BCA
      Ep. #319

    1 Apr, 2019: Internet Pranks

    2 Apr, 2008: Rupert Sheldrake was stabbed

      The incident happened after a lecture on April 2, 2008.
      Ep. #216

    5 Apr, 2012: Founding of ComCept

      Comunidade Céptica Portuguesa (English: Portuguese Skeptical Community), is a Portuguese project dedicated to scientific skepticism, created to promote rational and critical thinking about paranormal and pseudoscientific claims from a scientific point of view.
      Ep. #269

    6 Apr, 1956: Chris French (born this day)

      British psychologist specialising in the psychology of paranormal beliefs and experiences, cognition and emotion. He is the head of the University of London’s anomalistic Psychology Research Unit and appears regularly in the media as an expert on testing paranormal claims.
      Ep. #320

    6 Apr, 1961: Jules Bordet (died this day)

      Belgian bacteriologist and immunologist
      Ep. #017

    10 Apr, 1755: Samuel Hahneman (born this day)

      German physician, best known for creating homeopathy.
      Ep. #166

    11 Apr, 1903: Gemma Galgani (died this day)

    12 Apr, 1888: Premature obituary for Alfred Nobel

      12 April 1888, a French newspaper allegedly published an obituary for Albert Nobel, inventor of dynamite, calling him “a merchant of death”, prompting Nobel to launch his esteemed award.
      Ep. #217

    12 Apr, 1955: Polio

    13 Apr, 1949: Christopher Hitchens (born this day)

      Journalist and prominent atheist
      Ep. #018

    14 Apr, 1629: Christiaan Huygens (born this day)

      Dutch mathematician, physicist, astronomer and inventor, who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time and a major figure in the scientific revolution.
      Ep. #321

    14 Apr, 1935: Erich von Däniken (born this day)

      Swiss author of several books which make claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, including the best-selling Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968. Von Däniken is one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the “paleo-contact” and ancient astronauts hypotheses.
      Ep. #270

    19 Apr, 1943: First deliberate LSD trip

      On this day Albert Hofmann chose to deliberately ingest 250 micrograms of the Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) he had synthesized at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. Three days earlier he had accidentally absorbed some through his skin by touching a container of the drug. From the accidental exposure he experienced restlessness, dizziness and “extreme activity of imagination.” Although he had first made it five years before, as a drug intended to relieve respiratory ailments, it was only on this day that he found the drug was a hallucinogen. The striking experience was one he chose to repeat.
      Ep. #218

    20 Apr, 1889: Adolph Hitler (born this day)

    20 Apr, 1902: Radium isolated

      Marie and Pierre Curie isolated radium for the first time on 20 April 1902.
      Ep. #271

    20 Apr, 1959: Wim Hof (born this day)

      Wim Hof, (“the Iceman”), is extraordinarily resistant to extreme cold. His Wim Hof Method (WHM) combines breathing exercises, cold exposure, and meditation. Hyperventilation has been shown to reduce the body’s response to inflammation, but Hof’s extravagant claims of health benefits are not supported by scientific evidence.
      Ep. #322

    21 Apr, 1932: Iván Almár (born this day)

      Hungarian astronomer and prominent figure of SETI and the Hungarian skeptic movement
      Ep. #167

    26 Apr, 1986: Chernobyl disaster

      The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union.
      Ep. #272

    29 Apr, 1380: Catherine of Siena (died this day)

      Mystic, activist, author, and lay member of the Dominican Order
      Ep. #071

    30 Apr, 1878: Germ Theory

      Louis Pasteur presents his Germ Theory
      Ep. #168

May

    1 May, 1776: The Illuminati in Bavaria

      Founding of the mythical organisasion
      Ep. #122

    4 May, 1825: Thomas Henry Huxley (born this day)

      Known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his persistent and relentless defence of Darwin’s theory of evolusion
      Ep. #021

    5 May, 1813: Søren Kierkegaard (born this day)

      Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.
      Ep. #273

    6 May, 1983: Adolf Hitler

      Stern Magazine admitted that they had spent 19 million marks on fake Hitler diaries
      Ep. #169

    8 May, 1926: David Attenborough (born this day)

      English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author
      Ep. #324

    10 May, 1978: UFO abduction in Poland

      An alleged alien abduction in Poland on May 10, 1978 is now commemorated with a stone memorial.
      Ep. #221

    12 May, 1820: Florence Nightingale (born this day)

      English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing
      Ep. #073

    13 May, 1917: Apparitions of Our Lady of Fàtima

      The first of several apparitions of the virgin Mary in Fàtima, Portugal
      Ep. #325

    14 May, 1796: First Smallpox inoculation

      On this day, Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox inoculation
      Ep. #274

    15 May, 2009: Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (VTDK)

    18 May, 1959: Ranga Yogeshwar (born this day)

      Luxembourgish physicist and science journalist.
      Ep. #275

    19 May, 1941: Heinz Oberhummer (born this day)

    19 May, 1962: Colin Fry (born this day)

      English television personality, entertainer and self-proclaimed medium
      Ep. #124

    20 May, 2010: Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

      Event in support of artists threatened with violence for drawing representations of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
      Ep. #023

    21 May, 1911: Peter Hurkos (born this day)

      Dutchman who allegedly manifested extrasensory perception (ESP) after recovering from a head injury and coma.
      Ep. #223

    22 May, 1859: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (born this day)

    26 May, 1897: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

      First publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula
      Ep. #276

    28 May, 1807: Louis Agassiz (born this day)

      Swiss-American biologist and geologist, founder of glaciology – and creationist.
      Ep. #224

    31 May, 1725: Fake fossils

      Fake fossils accepted as genuine by Johann Beringer
      Ep. #172

June

    2 Jun, 1739: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

      the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was established
      Ep. #328

    2 Jun, 1740: Marquis de Sade (born this day)

      Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his libertine sexuality.
      Ep. #277

    3 Jun, 1873: Otto Loewi (born this day)

      German-born pharmacologist and psychobiologist
      Ep. #025

    5 Jun, 1921: Gérard de Sède, baron de Liéoux (born this day)

      French author, writing under the nom-de-plume of Gérard de Sède, and a member of various surrealist organizations
      Ep. #225

    6 Jun, 1975: European Common Market

      UK referendum to join European Common Market
      Ep. #173

    7 Jun, 1195: Ball lightning

      The first sighting of a ball lighting in England
      Ep. #329

    8 Jun, 1916: Francis Crick (born this day)

      British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin played crucial roles in deciphering the helical structure of the DNA molecule.
      Ep. #278

    9 Jun, 2014: Creationism

      Teaching creationism as science was banned in public schools in the UK.
      Ep. #226

    10 Jun, 1895: Immanuel Velikovsky (born this day)

      Russian, Israeli, and American scholar, known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history
      Ep. #126

    12 Jun, 1922: Margherita Hack (born this day)

      Italian astrophysicist, activist and was also a co-founder of CICAP
      Ep. #174

    15 Jun, 1941: Evelyn Underhill (died this day)

      English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice
      Ep. #077

    16 Jun, 1858: John Snow (died this day)

      The father of modern epidemiology, died on 16 June 1858. He is famous for tracking down the source of the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak in London.
      Ep. #227

    16 Jun, 2002: Padre Pio

      Padre Pio gets canonised. Also known as Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (Italian: Pio da Pietrelcina; 25 May 1887 – 23 September 1968), Padre Pio was an Italian Franciscan Capuchin, friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic, now venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
      Ep. #330

    17 Jun, 1603: Joseph of Cupertino (born this day)

      Italian Conventual Franciscan friar, Christian mystic and saint
      Ep. #027

    17 Jun, 1832: William Crookes (born this day)

      Great british chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry but also was a believer in spiritualism.
      Ep. #175

    19 Jun, 1623: Blaise Pascal (born this day)

      French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, writer and Catholic theologian.
      Ep. #279

    19 Jun, 1795: James Braid (born this day)

      Scottish surgeon and “gentleman scientist”
      Ep. #128

    24 Jun, 1374: Medieval Dancing Plague

      The strange “Medieval Dancing Plague” broke out this day in Aachen, Germany
      Ep. #228

    25 Jun, 1961: Ricky Gervais (born this day)

      Ricky Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, and writer.
      Ep. #331

    26 Jun, 1943: Karl Landsteiner (died this day)

      Austrian biologist, physician, and immunologist.
      Ep. #280

    30 Jun, 1860: The Oxford Evolution Debate

      Best remembered for Thomas Henry Huxley telling Bishop Samuel Wilberforce that he would not be ashamed to have a monkey for his ancestor, but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used his great gifts to obscure the truth (the exact wording is debated).
      Ep. #079

    30 Jun, 1894: Tower Bridge

      Opening by the Prince of Wales. The story about how Robert P McCulloch was conned into buying London Bridge thinking he actually paid for Tower Bridge in 1968 is just an urban myth.
      Ep. #176

July

    1 Jul, 1646: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (born this day)

      Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat.
      Ep. #332

    1 Jul, 1818: Ignaz Semmelweis (born this day)

      Ethnic German-Hungarian physician and scientist born in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire, now known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. He discovered that doctors washing hands drastically drove down deaths in maternity wards.
      Ep. #229

    1 Jul, 1976: Anneliese Michel (died this day)

    2 Jul, 1946: Peter Popoff (born this day)

      German-born American televangelist and debunked clairvoyant and faith healer. He was exposed in 1986 for using a concealed earpiece to receive radio messages from his wife, who gave him the names, addresses, and ailments of audience members during Popoff-led religious services.
      Ep. #281

    5 Jul, 1687: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

      Newton’s ‘Principia’ lay the ground for much of modern science, over three hundred years ago.
      Ep. #333

    6 Jul, 1885: Louis Pasteur

      Louis Pasteur saves boy from rabies with his new vaccine, but also cut quite a few corners in ways that would never be allowed today (if even then).
      Ep. #177

    6 Jul, 1885: Rabies vaccine

      On 6 July 1885, Louis Pasteur successfully demonstrated a working Rabies vaccine.
      Ep. #230

    8 Jul, 1857: Alfred Binet (born this day)

    10 Jul, 1856: Nikola Tesla (born this day)

      Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
      Ep. #282

    14 Jul, 1933: Eugenics

      The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring in Nazi Germany was made into act
      Ep. #130

    14 Jul, 1951: Photo of Loch Ness

      The most iconic and known supposed picture of the mythical creature
      Ep. #081

    15 Jul, 1834: The Spanish Inquisition

      After several years of attempts to end it, it was finally abolished by Royal Decree
      Ep. #031

    15 Jul, 1975: Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

      First international space collaboration, signifying the end of the space race
      Ep. #334

    17 Jul, 1954: Angela Merkel (born this day)

      German politician and scientist.
      Ep. #283

    19 Jul, 1936: David Colquhoun (born this day)

      British Pharmacologist and prominent skeptic.
      Ep. #179

    20 Jul, 1804: Sir Richard Owen (born this day)

      English biologist and comparative anatomist. Founder of the Natural History Museum in London.
      Ep. #335

    20 Jul, 1822: Gregor Mendel (born this day)

      Meteorologist, mathematician, biologist, Augustinian friar and abbot.
      Ep. #284

    26 Jul, 1875: Carl Jung (born this day)

      Carl Jung continues to be an extremely influential figure in the history of psychology despite that he got most of it wrong.
      Ep. #132, Ep. #232, Ep. #285

    28 Jul, 1902: Karl Popper (born this day)

    29 Jul, 1862: Eduard Brückner (born this day)

      German geographer, meteorologist, glaciologist and climate scientist
      Ep. #033

    29 Jul, 1951: Susan Blackmore (born this day)

      British writer, lecturer, skeptic, broadcaster, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her fields of research include memetics, parapsychology, consciousness, and she is best known for her book The Meme Machine.
      Ep. #233

    31 Jul, 1831: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (born this day)

      Russian author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875
      Ep. #035

August

    1 Aug, 1744: Lamarck (born this day)

      Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck, or ‘Lamarck’,  was born. He was a French naturalist with not entirely correct ideas about the evolution of species and although he was wrong about how it works, he still set the stage for Darwin, who was born about sixty years later.
      Ep. #181

    7 Aug, 1928: James ‘the Amazing’ Randi (born this day)

    7 Aug, 1948: Lysenkoism

      Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences announced that from that point on Lysenkoism would be taught as “the only correct theory”.
      Ep. #234

    7 Aug, 1987: Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim (born this day)

      German chemist, science communicator, television presenter and YouTuber.
      Ep. #286

    10 Aug, 1940: Peter Atkins (born this day)

      Professor of Physical Chemistry and outspoken atheist
      Ep. #338

    13 Aug, 1956: The Lakenheath-Bentwaters Incident

      A series of radar and visual contacts with unidentified flying objects over airbases in eastern England
      Ep. #085

    15 Aug, 1977: the Wow! signal

      the Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal received on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope in the United States.
      Ep. #235

    17 Aug, 2006: ‘Orbo’ free energy device

      The company Steorn published their claims on its ‘Orbo’ free energy device. They got financing to the tune of 23 million Euro, but strangely the device never materialized…
      Ep. #183

    18 Aug, 1503: Pope Alexander VI (died this day)

      Pope 1492 to 1503. Issued several Papal bulls that legitimized the oppression of North and South America
      Ep. #339

    18 Aug, 1932: Luc Montagnier (born this day)

      Nobel Laureate and proponent of pseudoscience
      Ep. #287

    19 Aug, 2001: Sylvia Millecam (died this day)

      Dutch actress and comedian. Her death of breast cancer in 2001 could possibly have been avoided if she had not taken advice from Dutch healing medium Jomanda.
      Ep. #134

    25 Aug, 1850: Charles Richet (born this day)

      French physiologist at the Collège de France, who coined the term ectoplasm
      Ep. #087

    26 Aug, 1743: Antoine Lavoisier (born this day)

    26 Aug, 1910: Mother Teresa (born this day)

      Probably the best known modern saints of all, still in fact pretty mean and cruel
      Ep. #340

    29 Aug, 1632: John Locke (born this day)

      English philosopher and physician and one of the first British “Empiricists”
      Ep. #185

    29 Aug, 1967: UFO Sighting at Cussac, France

      The famous UFO Sighting at Cussac in France took place on 29 August 1967.
      Ep. #237

    30 Aug, 1797: Mary Shelley (born this day)

September

    1 Sep, 1964: Pontus Böckman (born this day)

      Podcaster and skeptical activist
      Ep. #341

    5 Sep, 1996: Holocaust denial

      Libel suit filed concerning Deborah Lipstadt’s book ‘Denying the Holocaust’
      Ep. #137

    8 Sep, 1774: Anne Catherine Emmerich (born this day)

      Catholic Augustinian Canoness who inspired Mel Gibson’s “the Passion of the Christ”
      Ep. #089

    10 Sep, 1713: John Needham (born this day)

    10 Sep, 2008: Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

      At CERN in Switzerland the Large Hadron Collider (LCH) was powered up on 10 September 2008.
      Ep. #239

    11 Sep, 1822: Heliocentrism accepted by Vatican

      College of Cardinals finally accepts heliocentrism
      Ep. #342

    11 Sep, 2001: 9/11 attacks in the US

      Starting point for modern conspiracy theories online
      Ep. #290

    14 Sep, 2011: Ask for Evidence campaign

      The Ask for evidence campaign was launched 14 September 2011
      Ep. #187

    15 Sep, 1530: The portrait of Saint Dominic in Soriano

    18 Sep, 1819: Léon Foucault (born this day)

      French mathematician and astronomer who is best known for his invention of a pendulum which demonstrates the rotation of the earth.
      Ep. #343

    18 Sep, 1895: Chiropractic

    20 Sep, 1863: Jacob Grimm (died this day)

      Linguist and a fairy tale collector
      Ep. #292

    23 Sep, 1939: Sigmund Freud (died this day)

      Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis
      Ep. #091

    25 Sep, 1994: ECSO

      The European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO) was founded on 26 September 1994.
      Ep. #241

    26 Sep, 1897: Pope Paul VI (born this day)

      Initiator of the Second Vatican Council, implemeting many reforms.
      Ep. #041

    27 Sep, 1989: The Voronezh UFO incident

      UFO sighting in former Soviet Union
      Ep. #345

    28 Sep, 1994: Estonia ship disaster

      Surrounded by many conspiracy theories
      Ep. #293

October

    2 Oct, 1958: Marie Stopes (died this day)

      British author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for eugenics and women’s rights
      Ep. #093

    2 Oct, 1991: Ig Nobel Prize

      The first Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
      Ep. #141

    5 Oct, 1713: Denis Diderot (born this day)

      French philosopher and writer, author of ‘The Skeptic’s Walk’ and main contributor of the Enyclopedia
      Ep. #346

    7 Oct, 1885: Niels Bohr (born this day)

      Danish physicist and Nobel Laureate
      Ep. #294

    9 Oct, 768: Coronation of Charlemagne

      There is a myth that this never happened at all.
      Ep. #243

    10 Oct, 1816: Sir John Simon (born this day)

    13 Oct, 2018: QED conference

      QED 2018 was the latest QED week and we now prepare for 2022
      Ep. #347

    14 Oct, 1988: Shroud of Turin

      Radiocarbon date analysis revealed that the shroud is a medieval hoax
      Ep. #143

    14 Oct, 2016: QED conference

      This week in 2016, 2017 and 2018 the QED Conference took place in Manchester.
      Ep. #244

    16 Oct, 2002: Dark Side of the Moon

      Mockumentary release on this day.
      Ep. #192

    18 Oct, 1922: Founding of the BBC

      The BBC is the largest public service media company in the world
      Ep. #348

    20 Oct, 1882: Bela Lugosi (born this day)

      Hungarian-American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula.
      Ep. #245

    22 Oct, 1996: Evolusion recognized by the Papacy

      Pope John Paul II famously admitted that evolution makes sense on 22 October 1996. Better late than never!
      Ep. #193

    24 Oct, 1601: Tycho Brahe (died this day)

      Danish astronomer, astrologer and alchemist
      Ep. #349

    24 Oct, 1611: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (born this day)

    28 Oct, 312: The battle of the Milvian Bridge

      The Milvian Bridge is a bridge over the Tiber in northern Rome, Italy. It was an economically and strategically important bridge in the era of the Roman Empire and was the site of the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, which led to the imperial rule of Constantine.
      Ep. #246

    29 Oct, 1813: William Benjamin Carpenter (born this day)

      English Physician, zoologist, physiologist and a skeptic. He described and named the Ideomotor Phenomenon, sometimes known as the Carpenter Effect.
      Ep. #194

    31 Oct, 1926: Harry Houdini (died this day)

      Hungarian-born American escape artist, illusionist, stunt performer and mysteriarch, noted for his escape acts
      Ep. #097

    31 Oct, 1992: Galileo Galilei

      Vatican admits that Galileo was right
      Ep. #144

November

    5 Nov, 1459: The Council of Constance

    7 Nov, 1867: Marie Curie (born this day)

      Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist
      Ep. #047

    9 Nov, 1938: Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass)

      This was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party’s Sturmabteilung (SA) paramilitary forces along with civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938.
      Ep. #248

    10 Nov, 1895: József Öveges (born this day)

    10 Nov, 2009: Glasgow Skeptics

    14 Nov, 1929: Mihály Beck (born this day)

      Hungarian chemist and skeptic, one of the founders of the skeptical movement
      Ep. #352

    14 Nov, 1948: Prince Charles (born this day)

      Heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II
      Ep. #099

    18 Nov, 1900: George Kistiakowsky (born this day)

    21 Nov, 1694: Voltaire (born this day)

      French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher
      Ep. #049

    21 Nov, 1907: Josef M. Issels (born this day)

      German physician known for promoting an alternative cancer therapy
      Ep. #147

    21 Nov, 1953: the Piltdown Man

      The Piltdown Man, a skull regarded as one of the most important missing links between apes and man, was publicly announced to be a hoax on this day.
      Ep. #197

    24 Nov, 1859: On the Origin of Spieces

      The first publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
      Ep. #301

    29 Nov, 1989: Belgian UFO wave

      Beginning of several months of UFO reports. It lasted until April 1990
      Ep. #101

December

    2 Dec, 1936: Peter H. Duesberg (born this day)

      German-American molecular biologist and HIV/AIDS denialist
      Ep. #002

    2 Dec, 2010: Decision to build a memorial to fallen aliens

      On 2 December 2010 the Ukrainian newspaper “Бердичiв дiловий” (“Business Berdichev”) announced that group of UFOlogists decided to build a memorial to fallen aliens.
      Ep. #251

    3 Dec, 1933: Paul J. Crutzen (born this day)

    4 Dec, 1873: Ghost Ship Mary Celeste

      The Ghost ship Mary Celeste was found on this day, abandoned by all crew. A couple of years later a promising young author called Arthur Conan Doyle (later Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) published a fictionalized account of the event , changing the spelling of the name of the ship slightly. This was taken as a true story and was the start not only of a brilliant writing career but also a legend and a myth that has intrigued and inspired ever since.
      Ep. #199

    4 Dec, 1893: John Tyndall (died this day)

      Prominent 19th-century Irish physicist who discovered the molecular basis of the greenhouse effect
      Ep. #148

    5 Dec, 1952: Great Smog of London

      Severe air pollution event started that affected London in December 1952
      Ep. #051

    9 Dec, 1979: Smallpox

      On December 9, 1979, the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication signed their names to the statement that “smallpox has been eradicated from the world.” It was a milestone in that it was the first time a disease was eradicated by human effort.
      Ep. #200

    9 Dec, 2009: Norwegian Spiral Anomaly

    11 Dec, 1972: Apollo 17

      Apollo 17 lands on the moon, the last time humans walked on the moon
      Ep. #150

    12 Dec, 1916: Rasputin (died this day)

      Russian mystic with great influence on Russian Royal house, murdered
      Ep. #004

    14 Dec, 1503: Nostradamus (born this day)

      French astrologer, physician and reputed seer
      Ep. #103

    15 Dec, 2006: Founding of Hungarian Skeptics

      The Hungarian Skeptic Society (HSS) (Hungarian: Szkeptikus Társaság Egyesület) is a skeptic organisation based in Hungary.
      Ep. #253

    16 Dec, 1594: Allison Balfour (died this day)

    16 Dec, 1917: Arthur C. Clarke (born this day)

    19 Dec, 1956: John Bodkin Adams

      Arrested on this day in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients
      Ep. #053

    22 Dec, 1839: John Nevil Maskelyn (born this day)

      He was a stage magician, skeptic and the inventor of the pay toilet.
      Ep. #201

    22 Dec, 1928: Piero Angela (born this day)

      Italian television host, science journalist, writer and pianist.
      Ep. #254

    25 Dec, 1: Jesus (born this day)

    25 Dec, 1642: Sir Isaac Newton (born this day)

      English mathematician, astronomer and physicist
      Ep. #151

    27 Dec, 1571: Johannes Kepler (born this day)

      German astronomer, mathematician and astrologer.
      Ep. #202

    30 Dec, 1993: The Smallpox Retention Controversy

      The last remaining samples of smallpox virus in lab environment was planned to be destryed. This was not executed
      Ep. #105

    31 Dec, 335: Saint Sylvester (died this day)