A patient was tested during and following an episode of transient global amnesia. During the episode, the patient displayed a profound anterograde amnesia which spared short-term memory. There was also a retrograde amnesia which was transient and which involved recent material but not memory for events and persons that became famous between 1930 and 1975. The results are discussed in the context of current memory models and some speculative interpretations of the amnesia are offered.