We look at the first US presidential election debate in history, and we’ll see how an afternoon by a hotel pool helps win that election and save humanity from World War III.

And we examine what provoked the Japanese to join in alliance with Germany and Italy – signing the Tripartite Pact – in September 1940.

Finally, we ask, who is the biggest cheat in sporting history? 24th September is the anniversary of one big sporting cheat, and you tell us who you think are the biggest, baddest or most audacious cheats in sporting history.

This episode was first broadcast on  24 September 2015  on Noreen Mir’s 1-2-3 Show, RTHK Radio 3. Click ‘Subscribe’ to receive future podcasts automatically (or see the This Month in History website). Each month, Paul Letters examines events from this month in history. Recorded at Radio Television Hong Kong Studios, Broadcast Drive, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator and novelist. See paulletters.com for more history, including a daily ‘On-This-Day-75-Years-Ago’ Twitter feed and photographs. Plus the novel that combines: the real history of the Allies’ first strike against Nazi Germany; Paul’s granny’s escape (as a teenager) from 1939 Poland to 1940 Paris to wartime London; the ‘Double-Cross System’, the Special Operations Executive and assassination in Prague (aChanceKill.com).

Podcast cover work by Gill Bertram.