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
- 1103
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
The All-Female Jury
Witchcraft and infanticide were the charges levelled against young maidservant Judith Catchpole at the General Provincial Court in Patuxent County, Maryland on September 22nd, 1656. Since the case hi…
00:11:48 |
Wed 22 Sep 2021
‘The Cod War’ Heats Up
‘The Fish Feud!’ - as the tabloids originally termed the standoff between Britain and Iceland over fishing rights - had escalated into a fully-fledged ‘Cod War’ by 21st September, 1958, when the dest…
00:11:42 |
Tue 21 Sep 2021
Fonzie Jumps The Shark
Henry Winkler, an accomplished water-skier, had asked the producers of ‘Happy Days’ if he could showcase his skills on the sitcom. On 20th September, 1977 his wish came true - in a shark-jumping sequ…
00:11:49 |
Mon 20 Sep 2021
The Bermuda Triangle Theory
Why were multiple ships and planes lost in the section of the Atlantic between Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda? Journalist Edward van Winkle-Jones first floated the idea of ‘the Bermuda Triangle’ - al…
00:11:48 |
Fri 17 Sep 2021
The First Student Newspaper
The Cornell Daily Sun - the oldest continuously independent college daily newspaper in the United States - published its first issue on 16th September, 1880. It featured some campus sports reports, s…
00:11:57 |
Thu 16 Sep 2021
Rebirth of the MINI
BMW unveiled its redesigned MINI for the first time on 15th September, 1997; the eve of the Frankfurt Motor Show. Its predecessor had been in production for 41 years.
Reborn as a ‘city’ car, rather t…
00:11:34 |
Wed 15 Sep 2021
Oh Say, Can You See?
‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is now well-known as the USA’s national anthem - but when Francis Scott Key wrote the words on 14th September, 1814, it was merely the latest in a series of patriotic poems…
00:11:17 |
Tue 14 Sep 2021
I’mma Let You Finish
Kanye West was ejected from Radio City Music Hall at the MTV VMAs on 13th September, 2009, after drunkenly interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video.
Distraught that the cou…
00:11:49 |
Mon 13 Sep 2021
The 19th Century Drunk Driver
London cab driver George Smith became the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building on 10th September, 1897. He was fined 20 shillings (around £130 in today'…
00:11:49 |
Fri 10 Sep 2021
Laughter, Uncanned
'The Hank McCune Show' - an otherwise unremarkable footnote in American TV history - became the first single-camera sitcom to deploy a pre-recorded laugh track (aka ‘canned laughter’) on 9th Septembe…
00:11:15 |
Thu 09 Sep 2021
Apple’s $100m U2 Fail
When U2’s new album, Songs Of Innocence, was rumoured to be bundled in with the iPhone 6 on 8th September, 2014, the band’s official spokespeople denied any involvement with Apple's product launch.
B…
00:11:46 |
Wed 08 Sep 2021
The Umbrella Assassin
Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov was shot by a poisoned pellet whilst walking on Waterloo Bridge on 7th September, 1978. Four days later, he was dead.
He thought the bullet - believed to be filled with…
00:10:44 |
Tue 07 Sep 2021
The Self Service Revolution
Clarence Saunders opened the world’s first self-service supermarket, ‘Piggly Wiggly’, in Memphis, Tennessee on 6th September, 1916.
Calculating that the revenues gained through impulse purchases woul…
00:11:40 |
Mon 06 Sep 2021
Becoming Frederick Douglass
Posing as a sailor, with a borrowed ‘Protection Pass’ in his pocket, Frederick Douglass boarded a train from Baltimore to Philadelphia on 3rd September, 1838 - and escaped the slavery into which he h…
00:11:34 |
Fri 03 Sep 2021
Queen of the Cuban Sea
Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad was 64 years old when she became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the use of a shark cage for protection on 2nd September, 2013.
Nyad completed the 1…
00:11:05 |
Thu 02 Sep 2021
Nokia’s Beloved Brick
The Nokia 3310 - featuring Snake II, pop-on/off covers, and a discreetly concealed antenna - was launched on 1st September, 2000 at a boardsports event in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Popularly nicknamed ‘th…
00:11:19 |
Wed 01 Sep 2021
I Say, Boy, It’s Foghorn Leghorn
A giant chicken with the mannerisms of a wise-crackin’ Southern gentleman, Foghorn Leghorn first appeared in the Looney Tunes short ‘Walky Talky Hawky’ on 31st August, 1946.
Directed by Robert McKims…
00:11:36 |
Tue 31 Aug 2021
The Birth of Ladybird Books
The British Museum Library registered the legal deposit of the first ever 'Ladybird Series' titles, from publishers Wills & Hepworth (later 'Ladybird') on 27th August, 1914.
The books - 'Hans Andrer…
00:11:07 |
Fri 27 Aug 2021
Colin The Caterpillar - A Cultural Odyssey
Equally beloved at office boardrooms and toddler birthday parties, Colin the Caterpillar - a £7 swiss roll cake with white and milk chocolate and buttercream - was launched at an unsuspecting public …
00:11:40 |
Thu 26 Aug 2021
The Beatles’ Giggling Guru
John, Paul, George and Ringo travelled to a transcendental meditation workshop in Bangor, Wales on 25th August, 1967 - at the invitation of ‘giggling guru’, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The event changed e…
00:11:03 |
Wed 25 Aug 2021
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