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
- 1105
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Noodles: The World's Convenience Food
Nissin Chikin Ramen (日清チキンラーメン), the first marketed brand of instant noodles, launched in Japan on 25th August, 1958.
The product was created by Momofuku Ando, who developed the production method of …
00:12:03 |
Fri 25 Aug 2023
The End of the Pirate Monk
Rerun. Bandit, Admiral, wizard, pirate... ‘Eustace The Monk’ did it all - and was decapitated for his troubles, at the Battle of Sandwich on 24th August, 1217.
Previously a licensed criminal for the …
00:11:46 |
Thu 24 Aug 2023
When The Baltics Held Hands
A colossal human chain, stretching 430 miles, spanned across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 23rd August, 1989 - the anniversary of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact that covertly carved up the region fif…
00:12:15 |
Wed 23 Aug 2023
Leaving Devil's Island
Established in 1852, Devil’s Island, one of six penal colonies in French Guiana, was finally closed on 22nd August, 1953. Nicknamed the ‘Green Hell’ and the ‘Dry Guillotine’, it earned a reputation a…
00:11:41 |
Tue 22 Aug 2023
Cat Bin Lady, Internet Villain
CCTV footage captured middle-aged bank worker Mary Bale dropping friendly tabby cat Lola into a Coventry wheelie bin on 21st August, 2010. The video went viral, and Bale was disgraced on the front pa…
00:12:47 |
Mon 21 Aug 2023
Discovering Helium
French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen became the first person to observe helium, an element never before seen on Earth, on August 18th, 1868.
Janssen had been observing a total solar eclipse …
00:11:05 |
Fri 18 Aug 2023
The Dingo Baby-Snatcher
Rerun. When two month-old Azaria Chamberlain was taken from her tent by a dingo on the night of August 17th, 1980, the majority of the Australian public believed that her mother, Lindy Chamerlain, ha…
00:11:58 |
Thu 17 Aug 2023
The First Accidental President
Angry protestors gathered outside The White House on 16th August, 1841, burning an effigy of President John Tyler, the first Vice-President to assume the Presidency (following the death of William He…
00:12:06 |
Wed 16 Aug 2023
The Real Macbeth
Immortalised by Shakespeare, Scottish king Macbeth was killed in battle near Lumphanan, Aberdeenshire on 15th August 1057; a demise that brought significant changes to Scotland's monarchy.
But the re…
00:12:37 |
Tue 15 Aug 2023
Capturing Carlos The Jackal
A decades-long manhunt closed in on international terrorist Illich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos the Jackal, on 14th August, 1994 - when he was sedated and kidnapped by French intelligence agents in Kh…
00:12:43 |
Mon 14 Aug 2023
America's Biggest Mall
The Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota, opened on 11th August, 1992, with more than 10,000 employees, 330 stores, and a Camp Snoopy theme park.
With a gross area of 4.8 million square feet, t…
00:11:22 |
Fri 11 Aug 2023
The Slap Heard Around The World
Rerun. Whilst visiting traumatised U.S. soldiers in an evacuation hospital on 10th August, 1943, General George S. Patton encountered a man he believed to be a coward. So he slapped him in the face w…
00:11:26 |
Thu 10 Aug 2023
India's First Christians
Quilon, in present-day Kerala, became India’s first diocese on 9th August, 1329. In response to Marco Polo's accounts about an extant Christian community there, Pope John XXII had dispatched missiona…
00:12:24 |
Wed 09 Aug 2023
I Need A Dollar
The dollar emerged as the official currency of the United States at a meeting of the Continental Congress on 8th August, 1786. During the American Revolution, various international coins had remained…
00:10:58 |
Tue 08 Aug 2023
The Aryan Polynesian Hypothesis
The Kon-Tiki expedition, led by Norwegian explorer and ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl, reached Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelag near Tahiti, on 7th August, 1947. The 45-foot-long balsa wood raft, with a …
00:12:26 |
Mon 07 Aug 2023
Put Him in the Stocks!
The public stocks in St Clement’s Dane’s parish (now Portugal Street in London’s Strand) were finally dismantled on 4th August, 1826. They had originally been mandated in 1351, to subjugate labourers…
00:12:04 |
Fri 04 Aug 2023
The Fake Critic
Rerun. Eyebrows were raised when Dave Manning - a previously unknown film critic - was suddenly receiving star billing on Hollywood movie posters. He turned out to be fictional. This climaxed with a …
00:10:49 |
Thu 03 Aug 2023
How JFK Got His Purple Heart
It's rare to find a politician behaving as heroically as John F. Kennedy did on 2nd August, 1943. After his torpedo boat was exploded by a Japanese destroyer in the South Pacific, he swam more than t…
00:13:30 |
Wed 02 Aug 2023
The First Michelin Guide
Andre and Edouard Michelin published their first Guide on 1st August, 1900. Now recognised as the gold standard in luxury restaurant reviews, the original guide was primarily created to encourage de…
00:11:39 |
Tue 01 Aug 2023
The Great Rum Debate
The Royal Navy were issued with their final daily ration of rum - ending a tradition of more than 300 years - on July 31, 1970. The day became known as ‘Black Tot Day’.
The demise of the long-standin…
00:12:34 |
Mon 31 Jul 2023
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