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
The Chicken of Tomorrow
With breast meat so chunky it could feed the whole family, and drumsticks so small you could carve straight past the bone, the ‘chicken of tomorrow’ envisaged by U.S. retailer A&P inspired a national…
00:11:59 |
Fri 24 Jun 2022
Inventing The Typewriter
The Glidden-Sholes prototype for “the writing of ordinary communications with types instead of a pen” was granted a patent on 23rd June, 1868. It wasn’t the first typewriter, but it became the first …
00:11:56 |
Thu 23 Jun 2022
Public Enemy Number One, Number One
John Dillinger, infamous 1930s gangster, jail breaker, bank robber and brawler, earned himself a new title on 22nd June, 1934 - when he became the FBI’s first ever ‘Public Enemy Number One’.
The auth…
00:11:59 |
Wed 22 Jun 2022
Empire of the Sunglasses
Why are spectacles so expensive? The sheer scale of EssilorLuxottica, the world’s biggest maker of eyewear and lenses, might have something to do with it. On 21st September, 2007, they paid $2.1 bill…
00:11:49 |
Tue 21 Jun 2022
The Famous Painting Ape
Congo, pet chimp of science writer and TV personality Desmond Morris, was considered a novelty in the art world when his paintings were displayed in the 1950’s. But, on 20th June, 2005, three of his …
00:11:47 |
Mon 20 Jun 2022
Fancy Meeting You Here
When Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen abandoned his epic, but failed, attempt to reach the North Pole, he was not expecting to hitch a ride home with a Brit.
But, on 17th June, 189…
00:11:34 |
Fri 17 Jun 2022
Don't Wear Orange
Dutch patriots are now regularly spotted sporting orange wigs, orange clothes, orange banners and orange face paint. But, on 16th June, 1784, they were BANNED from wearing anything orange.
The inten…
00:11:53 |
Thu 16 Jun 2022
Don't Eat The Ice Cream
Typhoid Mary - real name Mary Mallon - was the first ever asymptomatic carrier of typhoid to be identified. A cook for wealthy New York families, her name was published on 15th June, 1907, when sanit…
00:12:05 |
Wed 15 Jun 2022
Zsa Zsa and the Beverly Hills Cop
Slapping a police officer is rarely a great idea, but it somewhat revived the career of actress and Hollywood personality Zsa Zsa Gabor, whose trial began amidst a media blitz on 14th June, 1989.
Af…
00:11:50 |
Tue 14 Jun 2022
Let’s Censor Hollywood
The Production Code Administration - which policed standards of decency on all US cinema releases for twenty years - was established on 13th June, 1934, following a patch of unconvincing Hollywood se…
00:11:57 |
Mon 13 Jun 2022
Dmitry The Undead
Three imposters claimed to be the assassinated son of Ivan the Terrible, Prince Dmitry - but the first of the fraudsters got the furthest, actually being crowned Tzar on 10th June, 1605, and reigning…
00:12:07 |
Fri 10 Jun 2022
Goodbye, Alexandra Palace
A huge fire ravaged Alexandra Palace in Muswell Hill, London on 9th June, 1873 - just 16 days after it had opened, on Queen Victoria’s birthday, as ‘the People’s Palace’. A single burning ember is th…
00:11:45 |
Thu 09 Jun 2022
Meet The Vikings
Northumbria’s ‘holy island’, Lindisfarne, was invaded by Vikings on 8th June, 793 in a smash-and-grab, ‘shock and awe’ attack that left locals reeling for decades.
The completely unexpected incursi…
00:11:52 |
Wed 08 Jun 2022
Sony’s Betamax Blunder
VHS won the so-called ‘format wars’ of the 1980s - but before JVC unveiled their VCR system, Sony created the market, with their innovative Japanese launch of Betamax on 7th June, 1975.
For the firs…
00:11:49 |
Tue 07 Jun 2022
It's Fun To Found The YMCA
George Williams, 22, created the Young Men’s Christian Association to provide somewhere for London’s young men to escape the vices and stress of rapid urbanization (translation: get yourself clean, h…
00:11:34 |
Mon 06 Jun 2022
The Quintessential Whisky Drinker
An entry in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland on 1st June, 1495, records that Friar John Cor was given charge of eight bolls of malt, ‘wherewith to make aqua vitae’. This has led many people to believe…
00:11:41 |
Wed 01 Jun 2022
Ramesses The Great Propagandist
Becoming Pharaoh at the age of 24, Ramesses ‘The Great’ II had his coronation on 31st May, 1279 BC - a fact we know because he had it chiselled into stone. Repeatedly.
He lived until the age of 90 an…
00:11:40 |
Tue 31 May 2022
Hershey and the Chocolate Theme Park
Hersheypark was created as a recreation ground for the workers and families who staffed the Hershey chocolate factory in Pennsylvania when it opened on 30th May, 1906. But visitors from across the St…
00:11:53 |
Mon 30 May 2022
The Queen's Punk Jubilee
The Sex Pistols’ anti-establishment single ‘God Save The Queen’ was banned by the BBC when it was re-released on 27th May, 1977 by Virgin Records - mischievously, to tie-in with the Silver Jubilee of…
00:11:24 |
Fri 27 May 2022
I Am Kaspar Hauser
When a ragged, peculiar-looking teenage boy was found wandering the streets of Nuremberg on 26th May, 1828, it triggered a centuries-long quest to discover who he was, why he had (apparently) been ra…
00:12:04 |
Thu 26 May 2022
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