Newsweek magazine declared the year 1969 the “Year of the Commune”. A commune could be characterised as a large group of people (usually unrelated) living…
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Cool Britannia (a play on the title of the popular British patriotic song Rule, Britannia) was a period of increased pride in the culture of the…
Originally made by the American Aerosol Company in 1965, the “fun foam soap” delighted kids with pop culture character designs such as Popeye, Spider-Man and…
Crop circles – a phenomenon which began in the 1970s – were areas in fields where crops (usually cereal crops such as wheat and barley,…
Whether you were travelling in the Mystery Machine with Scooby-Doo and crew, or just pulling bongs in the back of a Dodge Econoline airbrushed with…
The Daleks were the arch-enemies of the Doctor in the hugely popular BBC television series Doctor Who. They were created by writer Terry Nation and…
In 1976, there were an estimated 10,000 discos open in the US, as opposed to only 1,500 in 1974. Before Saturday Night Fever (1977), disco was very…
The increase in available leisure time in the 1960s (the average working week reduced by nearly 10 hours a week post-WWII) afforded greater freedom. One…
The series of oil-on-canvas paintings universally known as “Dogs Playing Poker” was created by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (1844 – 1934), Like Michelangelo’s “David”, Da Vinci’s…
On 6 June 1933, the world’s first drive-in movie theatre was opened in Camden, New Jersey, USA, by Richard Hollingshead Jr. Hollingshead patented a ramp…
Evel Knievel always insisted reports suggesting every bone in his body had been broken during his career were an exaggeration. But, in the 20 years that…
Newton’s Balls (pictured at right) were the first widespread executive toys. These were a series of chrome ball-bearings suspended from a metal frame, which could…
As the 1950s dawned, a Communist attack seemed imminent. The Russians had grabbed Berlin and in 1949 had successfully tested their own A-bomb. China had…
Ferrah Leni Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1947. While studying at the University of Texas at Austin she was named one of…
Although synonymous with all those 1980s cliches of power-dressing, double-breasted suits and big hair, the Filofax has actually been around since 1921, and its template…
Trading stamps originated in the United States as far back as 1896 and were sold to retailers who then issued them to their customers. The…
Once upon a time, there were girls (and occasionally guys) who took pride in the mere act of bedding rock stars. Some of them even…
While Swinging London vibrated to the Mod sound of The Who and The Small Faces, an entirely different youth scene had developed half a world away – It was all…
On Sunday 25 May 1986, Americans were asked to simultaneously hold hands across a 4,137-mile route stretching from California’s Santa Monica Pier to New York’s…
An abundance of disposable income combined with Hawaii’s entrance into the Union in 1959 manifested itself in the US as a mania for all things…