There are few occasions when the mere presence of an athlete can define not just the future of their respective sport, but the very course of history. In America, it happened on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson took to the field as a player of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. His appearance was the climax of two years-worth of planning and 60 years of fervent hope, and in becoming the first black man to play major league baseball in the 20th century he announced the change that would see the full integration of America's national game.

TSO...Jackie Robinson

Frank Sinatra was one of the icons of 20th century celebrity, the singer with a career that spanned seven decades, nearly all of them at the top. But halfway through his career he was done, a has-been pop star with suicidal thoughts and no chance at redemption. Then, that film saved both his life and his career...

TSO...Frank Sinatra

May 9th marked the 36th anniversary of the murder of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro in a plot that had all the hallmarks of a Cold War political thriller. He'd been kidnapped 8 weeks earlier by the left-wing terrorist group the Red Brigades, but it has long been suspected that their actions were guided by unseen hands - the intelligence services of the United States and the Soviet Union, even the members of Aldo Moro's own government. 

TSO...Aldo Moro

Judy Garland died 45 years ago, on June 22, 1969. She was the epitome of the troubled star, living on a carousel of drug addiction and self-destructive behaviour that began when she was a child and continued to spiral out of control for the remainder of her life.  Yet her extraordinary talent was matched by an indomitable spirit that made her one of the true stars of the 20th century. 

TSO...Judy Garland

60 years ago this week, on July 5, 1954 a young, shy truckdriver walked into a small recording studio in Memphis. Nobody knew it at the time, not even the singer, but by the end of the day rock n roll would never be the same. The recording sessions would later be released and titled after the name of the studio - The Sun Sessions - and the singer, well, we all know what happened to Elvis Presley.

TSO...Elvis Sun Sessions

Woody Guthrie, who was born July 14 102 years ago, was an American music legend. He railed against the villains of his time and stuck up for those denied their fair shake, and his enormous collection of songs is the single most important anthology of American folk music there is. But the wandering bard was something of a self-styled myth, carefully crafted by Woody himself.

TSO...Woody Guthrie

Who is the most important musician of the 20th century? From Mahler to McCartney, it's an easy list to populate with names. But there is one who perhaps deserves greater recognition than everybody else - the trumpet player Louis Armstrong. Not only was he a brilliant musician in his own right, but the music he played was instrumental in defining the future course of not just Jazz, but popular music itself.

TSO...Louis Armstrong

In 1957, Eddie Cochran had his first hit - a track called Sittin' in the Balcony, which made it to No 8 on the Billboard charts in the US. But then America more or less ignored him, and it was only in Britain that his brilliance was recognised - as a songwriter, a brilliant musician and a technical innovator - and all while still a teenager.

TSO...Eddie Cochran

Bob Dylan goes electric

I'm a radio broadcaster and travel writer. My radio work includes The Story Of..., 7-9 minute radio essays that mark the anniversary of a person or event whose impact on our lives was not immediately apparent, but can be felt long after that person or event has passed. These aren't the big events of world affairs; they're the smaller stories that sit in between. 

fionndavenport