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
- 1104
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Time For Tea ☕
How did tea become Britain’s national drink? Its story begins in China, where it was first popularised during the Han and Tang dynasties - but it first made its mark in London’s coffee houses on 30th…
00:13:19 |
Mon 30 Sep 2024
When 3-D First Flopped
Journalists, exhibitors and producers packed the Ambassador Hotel Theater, Los Angeles on 27th September, 1922 - to see the first ever paid-for screening of a 3-D film, ‘The Power Of Love’.
Using an …
00:11:16 |
Fri 27 Sep 2024
The French King of Sweden
Rerun: Jean Bernadotte’s dad, a local prosecutor in the southwestern French city of Pau, intended for his son to follow in his footsteps as a lawyer. Instead, Jean became heir to the Swedish Crown on…
00:12:03 |
Thu 26 Sep 2024
Praise The Lord, It's Billy Graham
Billy Graham’s Los Angeles Crusade started modestly on 25th September, 1949. But after newspaper giant William Randolph Hearst told his editors to "puff Graham", the nightly revival meetings exploded…
00:11:06 |
Wed 25 Sep 2024
Sexing Up Jane Austen
The ‘Austenmania’ craze of the mid-90s kicked off with the BBC’s production of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, which first aired on 24th September, 1995.
Now primarily remembered for Colin Firth’s ‘wet shirt…
00:10:36 |
Tue 24 Sep 2024
Richard II's Blowout Banquet
The most extravagant feast of the Middle Ages took place at the London home of the Bishop of Durham on September 23rd, 1387, in honour of King Richard II.
The banquet featured dishes like broth, ven…
00:11:23 |
Mon 23 Sep 2024
Fonzie Jumps The Shark
Rerun: Henry Winkler, an accomplished water-skier, had asked the producers of ‘Happy Days’ if he could showcase his skills on the sitcom. On 20th September, 1977 his wish came true - in a shark-jumpi…
00:11:42 |
Fri 20 Sep 2024
Let's Illuminate Blackpool
Rerun: Powered by steam engines, and positioned on 60ft poles along the seafront, the Blackpool illuminations were first shown to adoring public on 19th September, 1879.
70,000 people came to see eig…
00:12:05 |
Thu 19 Sep 2024
How the Paralympics Began
The first Paralympic Games - hosting 400 athletes from 23 countries - took place in Rome on 18th September, 1960.
But it was only known by this name retrospectively: the day it took place, this fest…
00:13:03 |
Wed 18 Sep 2024
Mary, King of Hungary
Mary, ‘King’ of Hungary, was coronated today in history, on 17th September, 1382.
The Hungarian nobility had never had a female monarch, and did not recognize the possibility of one in law, so deci…
00:11:42 |
Tue 17 Sep 2024
The Oklahoma Land Grab
The largest land rush in history kicked off on 16th September, 1893 - on Oklahoma's Cherokee Strip. Tens of thousands of people—horseback riders, wagons, and even a passenger train—waited for a canno…
00:12:00 |
Mon 16 Sep 2024
I'mma Let You Finish
Rerun: Kanye West was ejected from Radio City Music Hall at the MTV VMAs on 13th September, 2009, after drunkenly interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video.
Distraught that…
00:11:49 |
Fri 13 Sep 2024
Meet The Monkees
Rerun: NBC premiered ‘Royal Flush’ - the pilot episode of iconic Sixties pop-comedy show The Monkees - on 12th September, 1966. And the Daydream Believers quickly found their way into America’s heart…
00:12:07 |
Thu 12 Sep 2024
The Real Lord of the Flies
Captain Peter Warner and his crew made a startling discovery as they sailed past the uninhabited island of Atta in the Pacific on 11th September, 1966: six naked, shaggy-haired teenage boys, who had …
00:12:08 |
Wed 11 Sep 2024
Leopold And Loeb: Life Plus 99 Years
Chicagoans gathered around their radio sets on 10th September, 1924 - to hear Judge John R. Caverly sentence wealthy teenagers and lovers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb to life in prison for the bru…
00:13:06 |
Tue 10 Sep 2024
OMG! From Churchill to Chatrooms
The viral phrase ‘OMG’ has a much longer history than you might think… first being recorded on 9th September, 1917, in a letter from Lord John Fisher, a 75-year-old retired admiral, to Winston Church…
00:13:05 |
Mon 09 Sep 2024
The Self Service Revolution
Rerun: Clarence Saunders opened the world’s first self-service supermarket, ‘Piggly Wiggly’, in Memphis, Tennessee on 6th September, 1916.
Calculating that the revenues gained through impulse purchas…
00:11:40 |
Fri 06 Sep 2024
Bring On The Beard Tax
Rerun: Peter The Great levied a tax on facial hair on 5th September, 1698, requiring every man in Moscow to shave or stump up some cash - although there were exemptions for the Orthodox Church.
The h…
00:11:50 |
Thu 05 Sep 2024
The Night The Earls Vanished
When 90 Irish nobles, led by the Earl of Tyrconnell and the Earl of Tyrone, fled for Normandy in the dead of night on 4th September, 1607, their intentions were not entirely clear.
Their escape, whi…
00:12:16 |
Wed 04 Sep 2024
Introducing eBay
In today’s episode Arion, Rebecca and Olly look into the founding of the massive multinational e-commerce company eBay.
On the day it went live it was named AuctionWeb, and was just one project amon…
00:12:03 |
Tue 03 Sep 2024
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