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
Meet The Luddites
Disgruntled textile workers stormed a factory near Nottingham on March 11th, 1811, kickstarting the political movement famously known as Luddism.
Their protest was not anti-technology per se; instead…
00:12:18 |
Mon 11 Mar 2024
The Marx Brothers Bow Out
Comedy legends The Marx Brothers made their final on-screen appearance together on March 8th, 1959, in a TV short called "The Incredible Jewel Robbery." However, due to contractual reasons, Groucho's…
00:12:01 |
Fri 08 Mar 2024
Constantine's Sunday Sabbath
Rerun: Why is Sunday the Christian day of rest? Because Jesus said so? No! It was Roman emperor Constantine The Great who decreed on 7th March, 320 that “on the venerable day of the sun, let the magi…
00:10:45 |
Thu 07 Mar 2024
Shutting Down Napster
Pioneering music-sharing platform Napster faced a pivotal legal showdown on March 6th, 2001, when - despite the company’s defence that it was merely a tool for innocent purposes - US District Judge M…
00:11:21 |
Wed 06 Mar 2024
Che In The Sky With Jacket
The famous 'Che' poster, entitled Guerrillero Heroico, taken by Alberto Korda at a mass funeral in Havana on 5th March, 1960. It went on to become one of the most reproduced photographs of all time.
…
00:11:32 |
Tue 05 Mar 2024
John Lennon's Jesus Controversy
John Lennon's controversial statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus was first published in the London Evening Standard on 4th March, 1966. The reporter, Maureen Cleave, documented the…
00:12:35 |
Mon 04 Mar 2024
I Want My MTV
Mick Jagger, Madonna, and David Bowie were amongst the megastars who participated in the ‘I Want My MTV!’ campaign which debuted on 1st March, 1982; credited for getting music television to a sustain…
00:12:07 |
Fri 01 Mar 2024
Salem's Witchcraft Epidemic
The strange behaviour of two young girls, Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris, sparked the infamous Salem Witch Trials on February 29th, 1692, when a Doctor pronounced that they were possessed by …
00:12:31 |
Thu 29 Feb 2024
Dord: The Ghost Word
Rerun: Webster’s New International Dictionary (Second Edition) was the largest book to be mass produced, but - as was revealed on 28th February, 1939 - it contained an embarrassing error: on page 771…
00:11:51 |
Wed 28 Feb 2024
Unmasking Mardi Gras
New Orleans witnessed its first modern Mardi Gras procession - kick-started by a group of students eager to revive the traditional masquerade, banned for six decades - on 27th February, 1827.
The ci…
00:12:07 |
Tue 27 Feb 2024
Woodrow Wilson and the Grand Canyon
President Woodrow Wilson finally signed into law a bill establishing The Grand Canyon as the USA's 15th National Park on this day in 1919.
Although preservation orders had given the Canyon some prote…
00:11:57 |
Mon 26 Feb 2024
The Plot To Kill The Cabinet
The Cato Street Conspiracy - a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Lord Liverpool and the entire Cabinet as they attended a private dinner party - was foiled on February 23rd, 1820. Thwarted by an in…
00:12:00 |
Fri 23 Feb 2024
The Most Famous Sheep in the World
RERUN: Dolly The Sheep, the first ever successfully cloned mammal, was introduced to the world’s press at the Roslin Institute in Scotland on 22nd February, 1997.
Born seven months earlier, with the …
00:11:57 |
Thu 22 Feb 2024
When Polaroid Changed Photography
Edwin Land unveiled the world's first instant camera to the Optical Society of America on 21st February, 1947.
Snapping a quick black-and-white selfie, Land astonished onlookers as the image emerged …
00:11:39 |
Wed 21 Feb 2024
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 to Florida on February 15th, 1521.
Ponce de León…
00:12:16 |
Tue 20 Feb 2024
When Jarvis Met Jacko
The frontman of Pulp, Jarvis Cocker, infamously crashed the stage of the Brit Awards while Michael Jackson was performing Earth Song at the 1996 Brit Awards on this day in London.
The incident has g…
00:12:01 |
Mon 19 Feb 2024
The Monk Who Met The Mongols
Multi-talented monk Andrew of Longjumeau embarked on a daring journey to the heart of the Mongol Empire on 16th February, 1249. As Ambassador of Louis IX, he led a delegation destined for the court o…
00:12:04 |
Fri 16 Feb 2024
The Delia Backlash
RERUN: TV chef Delia Smith built a stellar career on the success spawned from her first book, ‘How To Cheat At Cooking’ in 1971. So, when she published a reboot on 15th February, 2008, it seemed a sh…
00:11:54 |
Thu 15 Feb 2024
Hollywood's Gossip Queens
Luella Parsons’s reign as Tinseltown’s top tittle-tattler was severely challenged on 14th February, 1938, following the print debut of rival column, ‘Hedda Hopper's Hollywood’.
With her fiery style …
00:12:05 |
Wed 14 Feb 2024
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-man Jamaican Bobsled team - who would later becom…
00:12:17 |
Tue 13 Feb 2024
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