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
Australia's Bikie Shootout
Millperra, a quiet suburb in southwest Sydney, is now best known for a tragic event that took place on 2nd September, 1984: a violent shootout between two biker gangs, the Comancheros and the Bandido…
00:12:53 |
Mon 02 Sep 2024
The Moscow-Washington Hotline
Rerun: After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets and Americans agreed to install a ‘hot line’ between their Presidents. On 30th August, 1963, a 10,000 mile transatlantic Washington-Moscow cable wen…
00:12:02 |
Fri 30 Aug 2024
How Netflix Began
When Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Mark Randolph registered the website that would become Netflix on 29th August, 1997, they named it ‘Kibble’ after a previous idea they had for a do…
00:12:05 |
Thu 29 Aug 2024
The Dizzy Leap From Brooklyn Bridge
Larry Donovan made headlines by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge on 28th August, 1886: a daring feat that earned him the name of the ‘Champion Jumper of the World’ and a reputation for daredevil jumps…
00:13:38 |
Wed 28 Aug 2024
Krakatoa!
The awesome, brutal power of the Krakatoa eruption, which had the explosive force of a 200-megatonne bomb, killed more than 36,000 people and cooled the entire Earth by an average of 0.6°C.
Curiousl…
00:11:45 |
Tue 27 Aug 2024
Bogie and Bacall Burn Up The Screen
Rerun: Howard Hawks’ film noir ‘The Big Sleep’ finally hit cinemas on 23rd August, 1946, after extra crowd-pleasing repartee had been inserted, featuring real life couple Humphrey Bogart and Lauren B…
00:11:22 |
Fri 23 Aug 2024
Balloons With Bombs On
Rerun: The world’s first notable air raid occurred on 22nd August, 1849, when the Austrian Army attacked Venice using a fleet of 200 miniature hot air balloons, each delivering a 33lb pound bomb.
Fo…
00:10:50 |
Thu 22 Aug 2024
The Voodoo Revolution
The creation of Haiti was the culmination of a slave revolt that began on a stormy night in the dense woods of Bois Caïman in Saint-Domingue, on 21st September, 1791, when a Voodoo ceremony led by th…
00:12:28 |
Wed 21 Aug 2024
Never In The Field Of Human Conflict
Winston Churchill had only been Prime Minister for three months when, on 20th August, 1940, he delivered ‘The Few’ - one of his most iconic speeches - in the House of Commons.
Arion, Rebecca and Ol…
00:11:42 |
Tue 20 Aug 2024
Creating The Soap Box Derby
A whopping 40,000 spectators gathered at Burkhart Hill in Dayton, Ohio, to witness the first-ever All American Soapbox Derby on August 19th, 1934. Hundreds of kids, aged 10 to 15, raced in homemade c…
00:12:02 |
Mon 19 Aug 2024
On Tour with the Siamese Twins
Rerun: Conjoined teenagers Chang and Eng Bunker began their world tour in Boston, Massachusetts on 16th August, 1829.
‘Discovered’ by Scotsman Robert Hunter in Siam (now Thailand), the boys inspired …
00:11:12 |
Fri 16 Aug 2024
America's Nazi Summer Camps
Rerun: Camp Siegfried hosted a ‘Nazi Camp Fete’ for 40,000 attendees on 15th August, 1938. The Summer resort, on Yaphank, Long Island, was the epicentre of the German-American Bund: an organisation d…
00:12:07 |
Thu 15 Aug 2024
Inside The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment, created by Philip Zimbardo, began on 14th August, 1971.
24 male college students volunteered to be assigned roles as either ‘guard’ or ‘prisoner’ in a mock jail: the …
00:13:01 |
Wed 14 Aug 2024
The 'Mock' Battle of Manila
The ‘mock’ battle of Manila took place on 13th August, 1898, when the Spanish Army attempted to save face by staging a low-impact fight with the Americans, handing over the territory of the Philippin…
00:11:45 |
Tue 13 Aug 2024
Singer's Sewing Machine
Isaac Singer's iteration of a mechanised sewing machine received US Patent Number 8294 on 12th August, 1851.
By refining an existing design by Elias Howe, and improving it with a straight-line shutt…
00:12:50 |
Mon 12 Aug 2024
Britain's First Nudist Beach
Rerun: Black Rock - a 200-yard strip of pebbly beach in Brighton - was first set aside for naked bathers on 9th August, 1979. It came after a campaign by the Central Council For British Naturism, who…
00:11:35 |
Fri 09 Aug 2024
When The Beatles Crossed The Road
Rerun: Abbey Road was a street known only to North Londoners until The Beatles posed on the zebra crossing outside EMI Studios on 8th August, 1969. Photographer Iain MacMillan took just six snaps, on…
00:11:33 |
Thu 08 Aug 2024
California's Courtroom Siege
Jonathan Jackson, teenage brother of imprisoned black power activist George Jackson, entered the Marin County Courthouse concealing three guns under his raincoat on 7th August, 1970.
In the middle o…
00:11:25 |
Wed 07 Aug 2024
Meet The Addams Family
The Addams Family debuted as a one-panel cartoon in The New Yorker on 6th August, 1938.
Created by Charles Addams, the family (who for decades were essentially archetypes, without character names) …
00:12:07 |
Tue 06 Aug 2024
Let's Revive Welsh
Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party, was founded on 5th August, 1925, with a principal mission to revive the Welsh language.
Despite boasting a history of over 1,400 years - evolving from the Ce…
00:12:31 |
Mon 05 Aug 2024
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