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
Debating Darwin's Theory
Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, were among the prominent figures discussing Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at the Oxford University Museum on 30th June 1860; an encounte…
00:12:04 |
Fri 30 Jun 2023
Eminem vs His Mom
Rerun. Marshall Mathers III, aka Eminem, was sued for defamation by his own mother, Debbie, on 29th June, 2000. The suit was primarily in response to a lyric, “My Mom does more dope than I do”, from …
00:11:22 |
Thu 29 Jun 2023
Amos 'n' Andy 'n' the NAACP
America’s first programme to feature an all-black cast, Amos 'n' Andy premiered on CBS on June 28th, 1951. Despite being based on one of the most popular radio shows of all time, the series lasted on…
00:12:51 |
Wed 28 Jun 2023
Meet The Black Donnelleys
The deadly fight between Patrick Farrell and James Donnelly on 27th June 1857 kickstarted one of the longest-lasting and most violent feuds in Canadian history.
The property the Donnellys had been sq…
00:12:49 |
Tue 27 Jun 2023
Scanning The First Barcode
At a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a packet of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum became the first ever product to have its barcode scanned - at 8:01 a.m. on June 26th, 1974.
Inspired by the morse code tra…
00:12:41 |
Mon 26 Jun 2023
Bobbitt
Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis with a kitchen knife while he was asleep in their apartment in Manassas, Virginia on 23rd June, 1993. After a nine-hour surgery, Bobbitt’…
00:13:37 |
Fri 23 Jun 2023
McEnroe’s Wimbledon Meltdown
John McEnroe was once the world’s No.1 tennis player, winning seven major Grand Slams. But he’ll always be remembered for his extraordinary rant against umpire Edward James at Wimbledon on 22nd June,…
00:12:02 |
Thu 22 Jun 2023
Righteous and Harmonious Fists
The Boxer Rebellion was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, anti-Christian uprising in China, reaching Peking on 21st June, 1900, when Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on all foreign powers and demande…
00:11:22 |
Wed 21 Jun 2023
Inside The Black Hole of Calcutta
When the East India Company surrendered Fort William (in modern-day Kolkata) to the Nawab of Bengal on 20th June, 1756, dozens of British captives were imprisoned in a cell measuring only 18ft long a…
00:12:24 |
Tue 20 Jun 2023
It's A Royal Cock-up
The Grand Knockout Tournament (also known as It’s a Royal Knockout) was a one-off charity event first shown on BBC1 on 19th June 1987, to an audience of 18 million gobsmacked viewers.
The brainchild…
00:13:25 |
Mon 19 Jun 2023
Humanity Dick and the RSPCA
The world’s first animal charity, the RSPCA, was set up on June 16th, 1824, by a small group of men who met in Old Slaughter’s Coffee House in St. Martin’s Lane, London.
They had been brought togethe…
00:11:57 |
Fri 16 Jun 2023
Blackadder Begins
Rerun. Rowan Atkinson headed up the cast and writing team, yet the first series of ‘The Black Adder’ drew a decidedly mixed reaction from audiences and critics when it debuted on BBC TV on 15th June,…
00:11:32 |
Thu 15 Jun 2023
How Spiderman The Musical Lost $60m
The most expensive musical of all time, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, finally opened on June 14th, 2011, after completing a record-breaking run of 183 preview performances.
The show had been plagued…
00:12:33 |
Wed 14 Jun 2023
You Have The Right To Remain Silent
The famous US police warning to suspects that begins “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law” dates back to a landmark ruling by the …
00:12:07 |
Tue 13 Jun 2023
Marion Donovan: Housewife Inventor
Until the mid-20th century, putting nappies on babies involved folding and pinning cloth towelling, then pulling a pair of rubber pants over the top. That all began to change on June 12th, 1951, when…
00:12:52 |
Mon 12 Jun 2023
The Day Nero Died
Nero, the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, killed himself on 9th June AD 68. Having fled Rome to a suburban villa after being declared a ‘public enemy’ by the Senate, he stabbed himself t…
00:12:32 |
Fri 09 Jun 2023
The Hawaiian Pizza - A Legacy
Rerun. Sam Panopoulos, creator of the Hawaiian pizza, died on 8th June, 2017 at the age of 83. Originally Greek, he moved to Ontario, Canada at the age of 20 and opened a restaurant where he experime…
00:11:01 |
Thu 08 Jun 2023
My Name Isn't Prince
When Prince announced he would no longer go by his birth name on June 7th, 1993, it took the public and his record label, Warner Brothers, by surprise. Henceforth he wanted to be known, he explained,…
00:12:32 |
Wed 07 Jun 2023
Digging Up Josef Mengele
Notorious Nazi doctor, ‘Angel of Death’ Josef Mengele, spent the last twenty years of his life on the run. His remains were recovered in São Paulo on 6th June, 1985, when Brazilian Police dug up the …
00:12:44 |
Tue 06 Jun 2023
So I Acquitted An Axe Murderer
Lizzie Borden’s murder trial began on June 5, 1893 in New Bedford Courthouse, Massachusetts. The 32 year-old was accused of killing her father, wealthy magnate Andrew Borden, and his wife Abby, her s…
00:12:37 |
Mon 05 Jun 2023
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