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PODCAST

Today In History with The Retrospectors

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.

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All Episodes

11:36

The First Michelin Guide

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/08/01

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 demand for automobiles - and, therefore, Michelin tyres. At the time, there were fewer than 3,000 cars on French roads. Nearly 35,000 copies of this first, free edition of the guide were distributed, providing information to motorists including maps, tyre repair and replacement instructions, car mechanics

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12:32

The Great Rum Debate

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/31

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-standing tradition was mainly due to safety concerns, following fears surrounding the more complex technology now in operation across the Navy. To show their disappointment, some sailors wore black armbands. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly trace back the origins of this quaint custom; explain why

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11:59

Where's Jimmy Hoffa?

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/30

Union boss Jimmy Hoffa left his Michigan home for what was supposed to be a peace summit with mobsters Anthony Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone on 30th July, 1975. He never returned home.But Hoffa was much more than just a Mafia stooge. He’d been involved in labour unions from the age of fourteen, rapidly rising through the ranks to become president of the powerful Teamsters Union by 1957. Under his leadership, the union ballooned to over 2 million members. And with great power came great

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11:23

The First Boy Scouts

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/29

Robert Paden-Powell took twenty boys to Brownsea Island, Poole on 29th July, 1907, to embark on a ten-day camp. The trip was, essentially, a laboratory for his subsequent books - and, therefore, the global Boy Scout movement. Each day started with cocoa and exercises, and ended with campfire yarns. In between, there was a lot of knot-tying, parading and praying. By the time of the Second World War, 3.3 million British children were enrolled as Boy Scouts. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion

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12:31

The Plane That Crashed into the Empire State

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/28

Captain William Smith, a decorated World War II pilot, was flying a B-25 Mitchell bomber on a routine mission on 28th July, 1945. In heavy fog over New York, he got disoriented and tragically turned the wrong way, narrowly missing the Chrysler Building - before crashing into the Empire State Building.Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver, was thrown from her lift, but miraculously survived. First responders, unaware of the damaged cables in the shaft, placed her in another elevator to transport her

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11:56

Is it a Boat? Is it a Plane? No, it's Hovercraft

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/25

The Hovercraft SR-N1, piloted by Captain Peter Lamb, sailed from Calais to Dover on 25th July 1959, fifty years to the day after Louis Blériot made the first crossing of the English Channel. It took 2 hours, 3 minutes. The brainchild of British engineer and inventor Christopher Cockerell, Hovercraft was described as a cross between an aircraft, a boat and a land vehicle, hovering just above the water on a cushion of air. Ultimately over 80 million people and 12 million cars crossed the Channel

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13:16

The Aussies Who Outswam The Soviets

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/24

The ‘Quietly Confident Quartet’ of Mark Tonelli (backstroke), Peter Evans (breaststroke), Mark Kerry (butterfly), and Neil Brooks (freestyle) won Gold in the 4 × 100 metres medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Moscow on 24th July, 1980: the only time the United States had not won the event.It was Australia’s first Gold medal for eight years, but reaction back home to the swimmers’ astonishing victory was mixed, because some of their countrymen - including the Australian government - believed the

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11:38

Inside The Molly House

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/23

Margaret "Mother" Clap stood before a London court on 23rd July, 1726, accused of running a “Molly house” - a social club for gay men that was part-brothel, part-safe haven. She argued, perhaps naively, that as a woman she couldn’t possibly be involved in such "unnatural" practices, but the jury was unconvinced: she was fined, sentenced to two years in prison, and subjected to public humiliation on the pillory, where the crowd’s abuse was so severe she reportedly fainted multiple times. In the

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11:36

The World's First Motor Race

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/22

Billed as a concours for ‘horseless carriages’, the Paris–Rouen competition which took place on 22nd July, 1894, is now widely considered the world’s first motor race. Only 21 vehicles qualified. Some of them had solid iron tyres. One was an eight passenger wagonette that weighed four tonnes. The car that came in first - a 20 horsepower steam tractor - was ruled ineligible. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the wisdom of interrupting proceedings for a 90 minute luncheon, ask

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11:54

Let's Build Central Park

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/21

New York City's iconic green space, Central Park - larger than Monaco and Vatican City combined - was legislated for on 21st July, 1853. Over 750 acres of Manhattan were allocated for America's first major landscaped public park; a grand plan which aimed to rival European cities. Rocky and swampy land, previously home to small farms and settlements, was bulldozed - at a cost that exceeded the purchase of Alaska. A competition produced Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s winning design, a

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10:45

The Web's First Image

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/18

Tim Berners-Lee uploaded a photo of parody doo-wop group Les Horrible Cernettes on 18th July 1992 - the first image to be shared online.The photograph was taken at the CERN Hardronic Festival by Silvano de Gennaro, an analyst in the Computer Science department. The girlband were striking a pose for their forthcoming CD cover, little realising their comedy love songs about colliders, quarks, liquid nitrogen, microwaves, and antimatter would soon go down in internet history. In this episode, Arion,

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11:38

Rebranding the Royal Family

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/17

Windsor became the official surname of the British Royal family on 17th July 1917, when King George V issued a proclamation declaring that “The Name of Windsor is to be borne by His Royal House and Family and Relinquishing the Use of All German Titles and Dignities.”The decision to change the family name came amid strong anti-German feeling following air raids over London, and in particular the bombing of a school in the East End by Gotha bombers - by coincidence, the same name as the royal

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13:03

The Kennedy Curse

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/16

John F. Kennedy Jr., son of JFK and Jackie Onassis, disappeared off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard on July 16th, 1999. He had crashed his private plane, killing his wife, his sister-in-law and himself.President Bill Clinton called it “a very sad time,” and for good reason — it was déjà vu for America. The Kennedy legacy was playing out once more, not with gunshots in Dallas or Los Angeles, but in slow, quiet dread over a radar blip gone missing. Search crews eventually found the wreckage, and the

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11:35

The Red Planet Gets Closer

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/15

The first images of Mars found their way back to Earth from NASA’s Mariner 4 mission on 15th July, 1965 - and were simultaneously revelatory and disappointing. Delivered as binary code, rendered in black and white, and revealing only 1% of the planet, the photos were coloured in by hand and showed no evidence of life. But they played a significant part in the scientific understanding of the Red Planet for years to come. In this episode, Arion, Olly and Rebecca compare the computing power of the

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12:37

Catching Billy The Kid

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/14

Cold-blooded killer? Folk hero? Petty thief? Billy The Kid, who met his end on 14th July, 1881, was all of the above. His luck finally ran out in a dark bedroom in New Mexico, where his old friend, Sheriff Pat Garrett, ensured that he would be the one to live to tell the tale. Born Henry McCarty but also known by numerous aliases like William H. Bonny and Kid Antrim, ‘The Kid’ was just 21 when he died, having killed at least four men. The media of the time glamorised his escapades, creating a

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12:15

Blasphemy!

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/11

Mary Whitehouse successfully sued Gay News and publisher Denis Lemon at the Old Bailey in a trial that began on 11th July, 1977 - Britain’s last conviction for blasphemy. What had ired the notorious Christian campaigner was the magazine’s publication of “The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name”, a poem by James Kirkup written from the perspective of a Roman centurion who graphically describes having sex with Jesus after his crucifixion. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the poem

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12:25

Adventures of the Boy Horsemen

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/10

The ‘Abernathy Boys’, Temple and Louis, were aged just 5 and 8 respectively when they departed Guthrie, Oklahoma for a 1,300-mile horseback trip to Roswell, New Mexico on July 10th, 1909. Alone.Sons of widower John Abernathy, himself the youngest-ever U.S. Marshal, the boys encountered wolves, outlaws and vast stretches of untamed plains on their journey - but survived the trip and became national celebrities and friends with Teddy Roosevelt. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how,

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13:25

Bill Haley's Teenage Anthem

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/09

Rock Around The Clock was a moderately successful B-side - until its inclusion in the teen rebellion movie Blackboard Jungle - following which, on 9th July, 1955, Bill Haley and the Comets’ earworm became the first rock n’roll song to hit US No.1.But Haley was no teenage rebel. He was already in his late 30s, balding, and rocking a curl on his forehead that screamed “respectable uncle”. But he was smart. He had rebranded his country-western band, The Saddlemen, as a rock outfit; raided high

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11:35

The Miracle in the Ashes

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/08

‘Our Lady of Kazan’, a painting of the Virgin and Child, was discovered in the ashes of a fire in the Russian town of Kazan on 8th July, 1579. The icon quickly became associated with miracles after two blind men were said to have their sight restored by standing in front of it. The original was stolen in 1904, but the copies still represent one of Russia’s most important pieces of religious art - credited by some with thwarting Napoleon’s invasion of 1812. In this episode, Rebecca, Arion and Olly

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11:56

America's Child Ambassador

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/07

Samantha Smith, an 11 year-old from Maine, New England, left for the USSR on 7th July, 1983, as the personal guest of Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov. Her adventure began with a letter she wrote him, bluntly asking if he intended to start a war or conquer the United States. After the letter was published in Pravda, Andropov invited her to visit Russia, attending the Bolshoi Ballet, touring Lenin's Tomb, and staying at the Artek summer camp in Crimea. In this episode Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain

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1,116 results

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