On This Day in Soup

Godzilla stomped into Japanese cinemas on 3 November 1954. For a monster from the sea, a soup from the sea: Okinawa's irabu-jiru, made with smoked sea snake.

On 4 November 1922 Howard Carter uncovered the first step down to Tutankhamun's tomb. We mark it with Egypt's best-loved green soup, molokhia, finished with a sizzle of garlic and coriander.

Maria Skłodowska, later Marie Curie and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, was born in Warsaw on 7 November 1867. Poland's golden Sunday rosół is our prize-winning bowl.

John T. Dorrance, born on this day in 1873, worked out how to condense soup and made canned soup cheap for American families. Campbell's chicken noodle, first sold in 1934 as "Noodle with Chicken", became the best known tin of them all.

Pelé scored the 1,000th goal of his career from the penalty spot at the Maracanã on 19 November 1969. Brazil's canja de galinha, chicken and rice soup, is our golden bowl for the King.

Panama celebrates its independence from Spain on 28 November 1821. Its national soup is sancocho: hen, ñame and plenty of culantro in one pot.

On 29 November 2018 UNESCO listed Jamaican reggae as world heritage. Turn the music up and cook Jamaica's red pea soup, kidney beans with spinner dumplings and a whole scotch bonnet.

1 December is Romania's National Day. A good day for ciorbă rădăuțeană, the creamy, garlicky and pleasantly sour chicken soup from Bukovina.

On 2 December 1981 France met "La Soupe aux choux", the cult comedy in which Louis de Funès wins over a visitor from space with a bowl of cabbage soup. Here is the real thing, slow-cooked with pork and root vegetables.

The very first Nobel Prizes were handed out on 10 December 1901, with four of them presented in Stockholm. We stay in Sweden for ärtsoppa, the yellow pea soup Swedes still serve on Thursdays.

Groundhog Day began with the Pennsylvania Dutch, who brought a German Candlemas weather custom to Pennsylvania. Whatever the groundhog says, their chicken corn soup with rivels is made for a cold February.

Galileo was born in Pisa on 15 February 1564 and went on to point a telescope at the sky. Garmugia, a spring soup from Lucca just up the road from Pisa, is full of little green spheres of its own: peas and broad beans.

On 10 March 1876 Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words down a telephone line: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." Bell was born in Edinburgh, so we answer with Scotch broth.

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in Swabia, on 14 March 1879. Swabia's own big idea is the Maultasche, a pasta parcel that hides its filling, served here in clear broth. Relatively speaking, the perfect birthday bowl.

On 29 March 1974 farmers digging a well near Xi'an struck the first pieces of the Terracotta Army. Xi'an's signature soup takes patience too: you break the mo bread into tiny pieces yourself before the lamb broth goes in.

Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert in the Netherlands on 30 March 1853. A painter of carrots, leeks and bright colour deserves the Dutch home classic: clear vegetable soup with tiny meatballs.

Gustave Eiffel raised the French flag at the top of his tower on 31 March 1889, after two years, two months and five days of building. We toast Paris with France's best-known soup abroad: onion soup under a lid of bubbling cheese.

Hans Christian Andersen, born in Odense on 2 April 1805, wrote a fairy tale about mice trying to make soup from a sausage peg. We can do better: Denmark's golden chicken soup with two kinds of dumplings.

The first modern Olympics opened in Athens on 6 April 1896. Greece's golden egg and lemon soup, avgolemono, is our medal for the day.

On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth in 108 minutes, the first person ever to leave the planet. Back on the ground, Russia's solyanka packs pickles, olives and capers into one punchy bowl.

Leonardo was born near Vinci in Tuscany on 15 April 1452. Tuscany's ribollita, "reboiled" and even better the next day, proves that some masterpieces deserve a second go.

On 30 April 1993 CERN, the physics lab on the Swiss border at Geneva, gave the World Wide Web software to the world for free. We click through to Switzerland's Basler Mehlsuppe, a soup built from almost nothing: browned flour, onion and stock.

Star Wars opened in US cinemas on 25 May 1977, and Luke Skywalker's desert planet Tatooine was filmed in southern Tunisia. Tunisia's lablabi, a garlicky chickpea soup, is the real taste of that galaxy far, far away.

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa stood on top of Everest on 29 May 1953. Thukpa, the noodle soup eaten across Nepal and Tibet, is the bowl of the mountains they climbed.

Alexey Pajitnov finished the first Tetris in Moscow on 6 June 1984. Russia's okroshka is the soup version: everything cut into neat little pieces and fitted together in one cold bowl.

Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom around Dublin on a single day, 16 June 1904, and Dubliners still celebrate it as Bloomsday. The day calls for Dublin's own pot: coddle, sausages, rashers and potatoes cooked slowly under a lid.

On 22 June 2013 UNESCO added Mount Fuji to the World Heritage List. Hōtō, the thick miso noodle soup of Yamanashi, comes from the foot of the mountain itself.

Antoni Gaudí, the architect of the Sagrada Família, was born in Reus, Catalonia, on 25 June 1852. Catalonia's escudella i carn d'olla is just as ambitious: meats, vegetables and one giant meatball, built up over hours.

On 1 July 2018 UNESCO added Göbeklitepe in Şanlıurfa to the World Heritage List: carved T-shaped pillars raised by hunter-gatherers some 11,500 years ago, just as the first farmers appeared. Geneticists trace the first farmed einkorn wheat to the nearby Karacadağ mountains, so we serve firik, south-east Türkiye's smoky green-wheat soup.

On 4 July 1862, rowing up the Thames from Oxford, Lewis Carroll first told the story that became Alice in Wonderland. Its Mock Turtle sings "Beautiful Soup", and this is the soup he is named after.

On 7.7.07 Chichén Itzá was named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. The Maya city stands in Yucatán, home of sopa de lima, chicken soup scented with the region's own lima citrus.

Ernő Rubik, the Hungarian who invented the Rubik's Cube in 1974, was born in Budapest on 13 July 1944. Hungary's goulash soup is our answer: cubes of beef, paprika red, solved in one pot.

PSY released "Gangnam Style" on 15 July 2012, and the whole planet learned the horse dance. The song is named after a Seoul district, so today is for seolleongtang, Seoul's milky ox-bone soup.

On 18 July 1976 in Montreal, 14-year-old Nadia Comăneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics, and the scoreboard could only show 1.00. Our salute is a Romanian classic: sour meatball soup with lovage.

Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon on 20 July 1969, and NASA packed freeze-dried cream of chicken soup for the crew. Back on Earth, America's favourite chicken soup is this one.

On 21 July 1910 the Tour de France rode over the Tourmalet and the Aubisque for the first time, and Octave Lapize called the organisers "assassins". The Aubisque stands in the Béarn, home of garbure, a cabbage and bean soup so thick a spoon can stand in it.

Uruguay beat Argentina 4–2 in Montevideo on 30 July 1930 to win the first World Cup. Buseca, the tripe and bean soup both countries share, is the bowl for a final between neighbours.

Usain Bolt ran 100 metres in 9.58 seconds in Berlin on 16 August 2009, a world record. Jamaica parties with mannish water, the peppery goat soup served in cups; it simmers for hours, so start well before the 9.58.

Duke Kahanamoku, born in Honolulu on 24 August 1890, won Olympic swimming gold and carried surfing to the world. Hawaii's chicken long rice, a ginger broth with glass noodles, is our wave back.

On 25 August 1958 Momofuku Ando put the first instant noodles on sale in Japan. Today we honour the bowl that inspired him: proper ramen with broth, tare and springy noodles.

Michael Schumacher sealed a record seventh Formula One title at Spa on 29 August 2004. A German milestone gets Germany's celebration soup: Hochzeitssuppe, the clear broth that opens wedding feasts.

Super Mario Bros. came out in Japan on 13 September 1985. Mario took his name from a real Italian-American, Nintendo's landlord Mario Segale, so today gets Italian wedding soup, meatballs and all.

HMS Beagle reached the Galápagos on 15 September 1835, with a young Charles Darwin on board. The islands belong to Ecuador, so today is for caldo de bolas from Ecuador's coast: plantain dumplings in beef broth.

On 30 September 1791 Mozart conducted the first night of The Magic Flute in Vienna. Mozart grew up in Salzburg, in the Austrian Alps, so we serve the Alpine favourite: cheese dumplings floating in clear broth.

The Sydney Opera House was officially opened on 20 October 1973, its white sails finally finished. Australia's most theatrical soup is the pie floater: a meat pie set upside down in a bowl of green pea soup.

Auguste Escoffier, the chef who put French cooking in order in Le Guide Culinaire, was born on 28 October 1846. In his book every clear soup starts from the same thing: a perfectly clear consommé.