On this day in 1989, The Simpsons aired their first ever episode. No one could know that it would go on to become the longest running American sitcom in history, with 649 episodes to date. Knowing cultural references have peppered the show since the offset, drawing on everything from mathematics to celebrity gossip. References to art history come thick and fast in episodes, with nods to everyone from Salvador Dali to Edward Hopper and Monet. In this particularly memorable homage, Homer’s lusty fantasy is refigured as Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.
