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
Birth of the Big Things
Rerun. In the early days of advertising, tyre company Goodyear sent a giant tyre on a coast-to-coast publicity trip. It was photographed on 42nd Street, New York on 10th November, 1930.
Was this the …
00:11:27 |
Thu 10 Nov 2022
The Last Shōgun
Prince Tokugawa Yoshinobu (徳川 慶喜) was the 15th and last shōgun of the Tokugawa shōgunate of Japan. On November 9, 1867, Yoshinobu tendered his resignation to the Emperor.
This restored traditional ru…
00:11:54 |
Wed 09 Nov 2022
Mastermind of the Gunpowder Plot
Guy Fawkes has gone down in history as the most-remembered figure from the thwarted 17th century plot to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I. But the ringleader of this attempted terror …
00:12:12 |
Tue 08 Nov 2022
The Elephant and The Donkey
Why are the Republican Party represented by an elephant, and the Democrats (unofficially) by a donkey? The answer lies in the work of revered political cartoonist Thomas Nast, whose picture ‘Third Te…
00:11:59 |
Mon 07 Nov 2022
Harry Potter: The Movie
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first big-screen adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling book series, had its premiere in London's Leicester Square on November 4th, 2001.
Among the gl…
00:12:05 |
Fri 04 Nov 2022
The Day The (Rave) Music Died
Rerun. Attending or producing raves was made illegal in Britain with the passing of the Criminal Justice Act on 3rd November, 1994. The government even legislated against electronic dance music, “who…
00:12:09 |
Thu 03 Nov 2022
Lady Chatterley's Lawsuit
Publishing House Penguin Books was found unanimously not guilty of obscenity for printing an unexpurgated Lady Chatterley's Lover on November 2nd, 1960.
The novel’s author, D.H. Lawrence, had died 30…
00:12:01 |
Wed 02 Nov 2022
Moving to the White House
John Adams became the first US president to move into the White House on November 1st, 1800, even though construction work was still underway and most of the building was unfinished.
There was a reas…
00:11:54 |
Tue 01 Nov 2022
Casanova’s Prison Escape
One of Giacomo Casanova's most famous deeds was his daring midnight, cross-rooftop escape from the dreaded “The Leads” prison in Venice on the night of October 31st, 1756.
Key to his escape plan was …
00:12:06 |
Mon 31 Oct 2022
Welcome To Harvard
The life of Harvard University – the oldest institution of higher learning in the US – officially began on 28th October, 1636 when the Massachusetts Bay Colony appropriated £400 for its construction.…
00:11:58 |
Fri 28 Oct 2022
The Man Who Saved The World
Rerun. Soviet naval officer Vasili Arkhipov may not have the name recognition of Castro, Kruschev and Kennedy - but his actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis on 27th October, 1962 almost certainly …
00:11:12 |
Thu 27 Oct 2022
Wyatt Earp's Greatest Gunfight
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral – a 30-second shootout between lawmen and outlaws – occurred on October 26, 1881, in the small US mining town of Tombstone. When the smoke cleared, three people lay de…
00:12:07 |
Wed 26 Oct 2022
Pepys the Philanderer
On 25th October, 1668, Elizabeth Pepys walked in on her maid and her husband – the inveterate restoration shagger Samuel Pepys – in a position so compromising that Samuel himself could only bear to d…
00:12:10 |
Tue 25 Oct 2022
Meet Mr Blobby
Mr Blobby made his anarchic television debut on 24th October, 1992, in a new segment called “Gotcha” on the hugely popular BBC show Noel’s House Party.
The googly eyed, perma-grinning, yellow and pin…
00:12:04 |
Mon 24 Oct 2022
Welcome To The Guggenheim
Frank Lloyd Wright’s extraordinary Guggenheim building finally flung open its doors on 21st October, 1959, after a gestation period of two decades - during which time both Wright, and Solomon Guggenh…
00:12:07 |
Fri 21 Oct 2022
The Boy Who Poisoned His Granddad
Rerun. William Alnutt tipped arsenic into the family sugar bowl on 20th October, 1847 - and five days later, the 12 year-old’s sweet-toothed grandfather, Samuel Nelme, was dead.
It was the second ti…
00:11:40 |
Thu 20 Oct 2022
Here's One I Snorted Earlier
Richard Bacon was sacked from Blue Peter after The News of the World revealed he had taken cocaine; an event which was explained to the show’s young viewers by Lorraine Heggessy, then head of Childre…
00:11:43 |
Wed 19 Oct 2022
The Black Magic Massacre
The East Java Ninja Scare - an outbreak of mass hysteria in East Java, Indonesia that led to hundreds of deaths - reached its peak with a massacre of suspected ‘sorcerers’ on 18th October, 1998.
Esse…
00:11:54 |
Tue 18 Oct 2022
The Exploding Tank of Beer
The London Beer Flood, which created a 15ft-high wave of booze, and claimed the lives of eight people, began on 17th October, 1814 - when an iron hoop came loose on a giant barrel at Meux’s famous Ho…
00:11:55 |
Mon 17 Oct 2022
The First African-American Patents
Henry Blair, the only inventor ever denoted as a ‘colored man’ in the records of US Patent Office, received a patent for his invention of a mechanical corn planter on 14th October, 1834. For decades,…
00:12:04 |
Fri 14 Oct 2022
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