Bauhaus entered a small Wellingborough studio in January 1979 barely six weeks after forming and emerged with the nine-minute record that would become goth’s unofficial creation myth. Bela Lugosi’s Dead was recorded live in one take, borrowed as much from dub as horror cinema, and sounded unlike almost anything the band had intended to become.

In 1973, Uri Geller’s supposed psychic abilities moved from television studios into experiments connected to American intelligence research at Stanford Research Institute. The declassified paperwork survives, preserving a remarkable moment when the Cold War made even telepathy look worth investigating.

In November 1998, Jack Kevorkian handed 60 Minutes a videotape that transformed his assisted-dying campaign into prime-time television and effectively dared Michigan prosecutors to charge him with murder. They accepted the invitation, and within months the man who had survived repeated assisted-suicide prosecutions was heading to prison.