Ep. 13
On 13 June 1893, US President Grover Cleveland underwent radical cancer surgery aboard a private yacht in Long Island Sound, disguised as a fishing trip. The operation removed a substantial portion of his upper jaw, five teeth, and a tumour the size of a walnut. His team denied all rumours, and the truth remained secret for 24 years. Also on this date: in 1981, a teenager fired six blank shots at the Queen during Trooping the Colour, and she steadied her horse and carried on. In 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first human-made object to leave the central Solar System. And in 2010, the Hayabusa probe returned asteroid dust to the Australian Outback after a seven-year mission fraught with breakdowns and near disaster. Four stories about secrecy, composure, distant journeys, and the quiet ways history unfolds when no one is paying full attention.
