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. In just ten minutes!
Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee).
Get early access and ad-free listening at Patreon.com/Retrospectors or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 12 minutes
- Episodes
- 1103
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Retrospectors Quiz of the Year 2024
How many nickels did the first Automat take in 1902? What does ‘Opus Dei’ mean in Latin?
And what WAS the title of the novelty song released by the Jamaican bobsled team in 1988?
It’s Arion vs. Reb…
00:28:01 |
Fri 20 Dec 2024
Meet Ebenezer Scrooge
Rerun: Charles Dickens’ novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ was written in just six weeks, and published on 19th December, 1843. The timeless story, which introduced the world to Ebeneezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim,…
00:11:58 |
Thu 19 Dec 2024
Renée and Renato's Christmas Hit
Save Your Love became the UK’s unlikely Christmas Number One on 18th December, 1982. A blend of heartfelt crooning, offbeat British humour, and bucketfuls of kitsch, the song gained traction after Te…
00:12:08 |
Wed 18 Dec 2024
The First Christmas Card
Victorian Henry Cole took delivery of the first ever mass-produced card today in history in 1843.
Notably absent from the design was Jesus Christ; Cole had commissioned up-and-coming illustrator Joh…
00:11:33 |
Tue 17 Dec 2024
When Thatcher Met Gorbachev
Over a Chequers banquet of sole in shrimp sauce, fillet of beef, and caramelized oranges, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time on 16th December, 1984.
While their ideologie…
00:12:24 |
Mon 16 Dec 2024
Who Ate All The Mayonnaise?
Rerun: Michelle "Cardboard Shell" Lesco achieved her third world record in competitive eating on 13th December, 2018 - this time for consuming the most amount of mayonnaise in three minutes.
She cons…
00:11:34 |
Fri 13 Dec 2024
Winona's Shoplifting Scandal
Rerun: Winona Ryder was arrested for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills on 12th December, 2001. Amongst the products she had stuffed into her hat was a Marc Jacobs sweater worth $760, …
00:12:09 |
Thu 12 Dec 2024
Angry Birds Begins
Mobile game Angry Birds debuted on the App Store on 11th December, 2009. The quirky and fun cartoonish characters and addictive gameplay found fans - but it took Apple featuring the app as their ‘Gam…
00:10:42 |
Wed 11 Dec 2024
The Dog Statue Controversy
On 10th December, 1907, angry medical students and animal rights activists were clashing over a controversial bronze statue of a brown terrier who had been dissected at University College London in 1…
00:12:56 |
Tue 10 Dec 2024
Theirs Not To Reason Why
Alfred Tennyson’s ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was first published on 9th December, 1854, in The Examiner. Tennyson had penned the poem shortly after reading a dramatic account in The Times of t…
00:11:36 |
Mon 09 Dec 2024
Joyce Brothers - $64,000 Swot
Rerun: A female contestant had never scooped the jackpot on an American TV quiz show before New York psychologist Dr Joyce Brothers won $64,000 on 6th December, 1955.
Her specialist subject was boxin…
00:11:40 |
Fri 06 Dec 2024
Christie's First Auction
Rerun: James Christie held his first auction on 5th December, 1766 - billed as a sale of “genuine household furniture, jewels, plate, firearms, china and a large quantity of madeira and high flavoure…
00:12:01 |
Thu 05 Dec 2024
The Earliest Dinosaur 🦕
A 245 million years old fossil named Nyasasaurus parringtoni was officially determined the earliest known dinosaur on 4th December, 2012; meaning dinosaurs had roamed the Earth at least 10 million ye…
00:13:34 |
Wed 04 Dec 2024
Where's Agatha Gone?
Renowned detective novelist Agatha Christie found herself at the centre of a real-life mystery: when she mysteriously disappeared for 11 days, from 3rd December, 1926.
Shortly after learning of her…
00:12:55 |
Tue 03 Dec 2024
The Enron Illusion
Enron—the seventh-largest company in the U.S.—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 2nd December, 2001, marking the dramatic end of a business empire once hailed as unstoppable.
What once looked like …
00:13:03 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
Concorde - The Future of Flight
Rerun: Supersonic aircraft took a giant leap forward when the French and British governments signed a treaty to join forces on designing Concorde on 29th November, 1962. Up until this point, the two …
00:11:20 |
Fri 29 Nov 2024
The Cabbage Patch Riots
Rerun: Towards the end of 1983, frenzied parents battled with one another in stores across the US in a desperate bid to buy their children the toy of the moment, the Cabbage Patch Kid.
The so-called …
00:12:09 |
Thu 28 Nov 2024
Mitzvahpalooza!
Aerosmith, 50 Cent and Tom Petty starred at 13 year old Elizabeth Brooks’ $10 million bat mitzvah party on 27th November, 2005. The lavish do, at New York’s legendary Rainbow Rooms, became a symbol o…
00:11:47 |
Wed 27 Nov 2024
The First Frat House
Arion, Rebecca and Olly recall the founding of The Kappa Alpha Society, the oldest continuously existing college fraternity, established as a literary society at Union College, New York on 26th Novem…
00:11:32 |
Tue 26 Nov 2024
The Medieval Titanic
When The White Ship hit a rock near Barfleur on 25th November, 1120, she sank, killing all 300 noblemen on-board. Among the dead was Henry I’s one legitimate son, William Adelin, plunging the English…
00:11:49 |
Mon 25 Nov 2024
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