Today In History with The Retrospectors
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Today In History with The Retrospectors
Curious, funny, surprising daily history - with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll. From the invention of the Game Boy to the Mancunian beer-poisoning of 1900, from Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain to America's Nazi summer schools... each day we uncover an unexpected story for the ages...
Son Bölümler
1214 bölüm
Let's Colonise Florida
Departing from Puerto Rico with grand plans to establish a new colony, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León set out on his ill-fated second expedition...
Benedict Arnold: American Traitor
When the Second Continental Congress calmly reshuffled the revolutionary army’s high command on 19th February 1777, they couldn’t have known they were...
The Prince Who Drowned in Wine
Sentenced to death for treason against his brother King Edward IV, George, Duke of Clarence was executed on 18th February, 1478 - and, according to le...
From Hitler To Herbie: The VW Beetle
Between 1908 and 1927, the Ford Motor Company sold 15,007,033 Model Ts, making the car the best-selling automobile the world had ever seen. That recor...
Write Me A Cheque
High-rolling merchant Nicholas Vanacker wrote out a cheque for a hefty £400 on 16th February, 1659 - one of the earliest modern cheques still preserve...
The Jamaican Bobsled Team
The Winter Olympics kicked off in Calgary on 13th February, 1988 - but the stand-out stars of the event did not qualify for a medal. Rather, the four-...
Malcolm X in Smethwick
Just nine days before he was assassinated, Malcolm X visited an unlikely place on 12th February, 1965: Smethwick, the industrial suburb of Birmingham...
The Urinary Leash
The first women’s public toilets in London opened on Bedford St on 11th February, 1852 - attempting to capitalize on the success of George Jennings’ ‘...
Meet Tom and Jerry
Hanna-Barbera’s classic cat-and-mouse cartoon series Tom and Jerry kicked off when their debut short, ‘Puss Gets The Boot’, was released by MGM on 10t...
Magic Johnson: Hoops and Hope
Just three months after Magic Johnson retired from basketball due to his HIV diagnosis, he made a triumphant return on 9th February, 1992 - at the NBA...
I Am Anastasia
Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1917 - yet, on 6th February, 1928, a mentally troubled Polish factory worker claim...
The Studio Run By The Stars
United Artists, a new company formed by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith - four of the most powerful figures in ea...
Barry Bremen, The Great Imposter
Disguised variously as a baseball umpire, NFL referee, pro golfer, and even Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, Barry Bremen earned his reputation as America’...
The £21,000 Masque
With a cast of over 800, and a budget equivalent to £3 million, James Shirley’s extravagant masque ‘The Triumph of Peace’ was performed on 3rd Februar...
The Truth Machine
Leonarde Keeler, inventor of the modern polygraph, first showcased his device in a courtroom on 2nd February, 1935. The wooden box, which measured phy...
Bring Me The Head of Oliver Cromwell
Revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell was executed on 30th January, 1661 - despite having been dead for more than two years. His body was exhumed from...
Desert Island Discs' First Castaway
The BBC broadcast the first ever edition of Roy Plomley’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ - the world’s longest-running interview programme - on 29th January, 1...
Lego Shifts To Plastic
Stud-and-tube bricks, which paved the way for Lego to become one of the most successful companies in Denmark, were patented on 28th January, 1958. But...
Let's Embalm Lenin
The corpse of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, was placed on display in Moscow's Red Square on 27th January, 1924 - where, astonishingly,...
There's A Baby In The Post
The U.S. Postal Service permitted parcel delivery for packages under 11 pounds in 1913 - parameters which were pushed to their limits on 26th January,...
The Elephants of War
Elephants have played a surprisingly important role on the battlefield, even before the birth of Christ; notably in 5th Century BCE India, and during...
Unmasking New York's 'Mad Bomber'
George Metesky’s campaign of terror as ‘the Mad Bomber of New York’ ended abruptly on 22nd January, 1957. Between 1940 and 1956, he had planted at lea...
The Chastity Belt and the Frenchman
Henri Littière and his adulterous wife Suzanne thought they’d come up with a novel way to combat her philandering - by commissioning a custom-made cha...
Lalli and the Axe
According to Finnish legend, a peasant farmer named Lalli murdered the Christian missionary Bishop Henry on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi on January 20...
Britain's Last Witch
Celebrated medium Helen Duncan was arrested on 19th January, 1944, when, midway through one of her séances, an undercover policeman dramatically revea...
Shooting 'Dr. No'
It had a budget of just $1 million, a lead actor wearing a toupee, and the baddie in the first draft of the script was a monkey. But the first James B...
Death By Molasses
A roaring wave of syrup swept through the North End of Boston on 15th January, 1919, in an event that claimed 21 lives, including 2 children, and came...
New York meets Snow White
Disney’s long-awaited feature ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was rapturously received at Radio City, New York, inspiring three-hour queues for tick...
Henry IV and the Philosopher's Stone
It was today in history in 1404 that Henry IV issued the Act Against Multipliers, a ban on the mysterious art of creating or duplicating gold, more co...
Creating The National Trust
Octavia Hill, Hardwicke Rawnsley, and Sir Robert Hunter founded The National Trust on January 12, 1895, with an intention to preserve Britain’s natura...
Let's Bury Nelson
Naval commander Horatio Nelson became the first non-Royal to receive a full British state funeral on 9th January, 1806, when tens of thousands of mour...
Britain's First Black MPs
John Stewart was elected MP for Lymington, Hampshire on 8th January, 1833.
On paper, he seemed a textbook member of Britain’s elite: wea...
Here Come the Harlem Globetrotters ⛹🏾♂️
All-Black basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters travelled to Hinckley, Illinois on 7th January, 1927 - setting them on a barnstorming journey throu...
Rink-O-Mania!
Roller skates, most readily associated with the 1970s, were actually first patented in the US on 6th January, 1863, by New York furniture salesman Jam...
Alfred Dreyfus: From Officer To Outcast
An angry crowd hurled abuse and antisemitic slurs at Captain Alfred Dreyfus on 5th January, 1895, as he stood in the courtyard of the École Militaire...
Best Of 2025: The 'Ten Cent Beer Night' Riot
Rebecca’s favourite episode of 2025 is “The 'Ten Cent Beer Night' Riot”. Twice the usual crowd turned up to see the Cleveland Indians take on the Texa...
Best Of 2025: Land Rover's Rugged Beginnings
Arion's favourite episode of 2025 was “Land Rover's Rugged Beginnings” A British motoring icon made its debut at the Amsterdam Motor Show on 30th Apri...
Best Of 2025: The 'New Coke' Debacle
Happy New Year, Retrospectors! We’ll return with new episodes from Monday 5th January, but in the meantime the team have been choosing their favourite...
Retrospectors Quiz of the Year 2025
How much have YOU learned from this year’s show? It’s time for our annual trivia test, as Arion and Rebecca face Olly’s fiendishly difficult questions...
When Cliff Ruled Christmas 🕊️🍷
Mistletoe and Wine became the UK’s Christmas Number One on 18th December, 1988; the first of three singles Cliff Richard would take to the top of the...