Sunday, August 23, 2026, brings National Sponge Cake Day—an observance honoring the dessert that owes much of its lift to whipped eggs.

Today’s journey begins with a bank robbery that produced a controversial psychological term, continues with an airplane that was expected to hurt its manufacturer, and ends with a country whose lawmakers scheduled its disappearance.

Today we explore the strange hostage crisis behind “Stockholm syndrome,” the remarkably enduring C-130 Hercules, and East Germany’s historic decision to join the Federal Republic of Germany.

Along the way, we meet birthday celebrant Rick Springfield, the Australian musician and television doctor whose biggest song was inspired by a man who wasn’t actually named Jessie.

Sometimes the neat version of history hides just how uncertain—and genuinely strange—the moment felt to everyone living through it.