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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

12:44

Defeat of the Great White Hope 🥊

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/04

Jack Johnson, the first Black world heavyweight champion, and Jim Jeffries, the so-called "Great White Hope", slugged it out in Reno, Nevada on 4th July, 1910 - in one of the most explosive sporting events in American sports history. Literally billed as a battle for racial supremacy, the fight attracted 20,000 paying fans - and sparked the biggest race riots in the United States until the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Jeffries came out of retirement for a fat paycheck. Johnson danced circles

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12:05

When Bowie Killed Ziggy

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/03

David Bowie retired his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust live on stage at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 3rd July, 1973. To the surprise of most of his band, the Spiders From Mars, he announced to a devastated crowd that the gig was “the last show we’ll ever do.” Bowie’s management company had plans to take Ziggy on an international tour, but being Ziggy Stardust had taken a mental and physical toll on the singer. “I really did want it all to come to an end,” he wrote in Moonage Daydream. In this

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12:12

Cecil The Lion: Trophy Kill

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/02

Minnesotan dentist Walter Palmer killed Cecil The Lion on 2nd July, 2015; ending the life of a beloved and photogenic big cat, and kickstarting his career as the internet’s most vilified trophy hunter.Cecil, who lived in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, wasn’t just any lion - he was being tracked by Oxford scientists, and was a hit with tourists, known for his majestic black mane and his chill attitude toward safari vehicles. Palmer used a bow and arrow, returning 11 hours later to finish the

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11:42

The Walkman Effect

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/07/01

Sony’s revolutionary cassette player, the Walkman, debuted in the USA on 1st July, 1979, costing $150. It went on to shift a staggering 450m units. Boasting a classy aluminium chassis, audio splitter, and novelty ‘Hotline’ button for dance parties, the device took off after an advertising campaign featuring sexy models and an elderly Japanese monk. In this episode, Olly, Arion and Rebecca reveal the genesis of the Walkman’s brand name; consider whether it deserved an even HIGHER place in TIME’s

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12:12

Writing 'Gone With The Wind'

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/30

Margaret Mitchell’s first and only novel, Gone With The Wind, was released on 30th June, 1936, and delighted readers and critics alike, shifting millions of copies and scooping the Pulitzer Prize. But its romanticised tales of life in the South - complete with glorified depictions of slave labour and the Confederate Army - was divisive for African-Americans at the time, and is now recognised as overtly racist. Mitchell, a ‘flapper’ who had a racy private life compared to her cohort, died

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12:45

Meet The Black Donnelleys

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/27

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 squatting on had been previously leased by Farrell. A judge had ruled that the lot be split 50/50, but, at a barn raising bee, Donnelly chucked a handspike at Farrell, who died two days later. Decades later, the Donnelly family’s homestead was attacked by a vigilante mob, leaving five of their family

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12:39

Scanning The First Barcode

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/26

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 training of his Boy Scout days, Norman Joseph Woodland first sketched out a barcode on a Florida beach in 1948, drawing dots and dashes in the sand. Together with fellow Drexel Institute graduate student Bernard Silver, he received a U.S. Patent in 1952 - but it would be another 20 years before IBM

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13:15

The Playboy, the Architect and the Showgirl

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/25

Architect Stanford White was shot three times at close range by millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw during a performance of Broadway comedy ‘Mamzelle Champagne’ on 25th June, 1906. At first, the stunned audience thought it was part of the show.Thaw claimed White had “ruined” his wife, showgirl Evelyn Nesbit - often called America’s first ‘It Girl’ - who at just 16 had been lured into White’s orbit and ‘seduced’ by White - though a reading of Nesbit’s diary makes it sound a lot more like rape. But

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11:32

The Town That Danced To Death

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/24

‘Dancing Mania’ - in which people spontaneously danced to exhaustion, some until they broke their ribs and subsequently died, took hold of Aachen, Germany on 24th June, 1374. We still don’t really know why. Had the victims ingested ergot, a mould from rye bread that can inspire hallucinations? Was it a hysterical mass response to a stressful and traumatic environment? Or a kind of pre-smartphone flashmob? In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the likely causes and cures for this

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12:39

Busting 'The Teflon Don'

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/23

John Gotti, the infamous ‘Teflon Don’ boss of New York’s Gambino crime family, smiled as he received a life sentence in a Brooklyn courthouse on 23rd June, 1992. Outside, chaos reigned as nearly a thousand supporters flipped over a federal marshal’s car and chanted in defence of the mobster, framing his conviction as an anti-Italian injustice. But the FBI had been determined to bring Gotti down. After multiple failed attempts - including a memorable trial with a bribed juror - they finally found

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12:21

Inside The Black Hole of Calcutta

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/20

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 and 14ft wide, with just two tiny windows - ‘the Black Hole of Calcutta’.Among the prisoners was John Zephaniah Holwell, whose pamphlet describing the terrors of the airless room caused a sensation back in Britain and became a cause célèbre in the idealization of imperialism in India. Holwell claimed

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13:22

It's A Royal Cock-up

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/19

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 of the then 23 year old Prince Edward, the slapstick spectacle featured the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of York captaining rival teams in a series of preposterous rounds involving celebrities including Rowan Atkinson, Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, John Travolta and Les Dawson. In this episode,

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13:11

Amelia Earhart Flies To Fame

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/18

Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air on June 18th, 1928… but on this occasion didn’t actually fly the plane; she was a passenger aboard the Friendship, a three-engine seaplane piloted by Wilmer Stultz and co-piloted by Louis Gordon. Originally, a wealthy heiress was meant to take the flight, but her family vetoed it as too dangerous. So Earhart, smart, skilled, and camera-ready, was chosen to be “Lady Lindy”, and that one journey launched her into the

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10:22

The Arrival Of Lady Liberty

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/17

Still the tallest statue in the USA, the Statue of Liberty arrived from France - in no less than 214 crates - in New York City on 17th June, 1885. Costing just $10m in today’s money, the Lady went on to symbolise the immigrant journey - even though the designers and engineers behind it had no such intention. And it wasn’t supposed to be green, either - that’s because it’s oxidized. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion consider whether NYC bagged themselves a bargain, reveal the origins of the

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10:07

'Nureyev's 'Leap To Freedom'

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/16

Russia’s brightest ballet star, Rudolf Nureyev, evaded his KGB minders and defected from the USSR on 16th June, 1961. According to feverish newspaper reports, the dancer dashed towards the barrier, proclaiming in English, "I want to be free," and was swiftly escorted to the airport police station, marking the start of his life in the West. His defection, while fraught with personal sacrifice - including a potential permanent separation from his family and homeland - became a major propaganda

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12:51

Marion Donovan: Housewife Inventor

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/12

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 the US inventor Marion Donovan patented a new kind of nappy, with an envelope-like plastic cover and an absorbent insert.Her invention ultimately netted her a million dollars (nearly $10 million in today’s money) and paved the way for the development of disposable nappies which have become ubiquitous

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12:41

The Second Mrs McCartney

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/11

Paul McCartney married Heather Mills in an extravagant ceremony at Castle Leslie in County Monaghan, Ireland, on 11th June, 2002. 300 VIP guests were in attendance, including Elton John, Eric Clapton, and Ringo Starr, but only one official photo was ever released - so local teens with disposable cameras became unlikely paparazzi for hire. The couple’s doomed love story began in 1999 at the Pride of Britain Awards, but when the tabloid press got hold of their relationship, eyebrows were raised

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11:49

The Very First 'Boat Race'

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/10

The Oxford v Cambridge Men’s Boat Race has been an annual tradition since 1856 - but the first one was the result of a light-hearted bet between two friends called Charles on 10th June, 1829. When Wordsworth (Christ Church College, Oxford) and Merivale (St. John’s, Cambridge) challenged each other to race up the Thames in Henley, they never could have known their schoolboy jape would attract 20,000 spectators, nor that it would go on to become one of the major sporting events in the British

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11:33

Meet Donald Duck

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/09

The Wise Little Hen’, the Silly Symphonies short from was released on 9th June, 1934 and introduced a new Disney character: Donald Duck. With his distinctive strangled quacking (born from the unique talents of Clarence Nash - a man who’d spent his childhood mimicking barnyard sounds), Donald's hot-tempered, accident-prone slapstick sensibilities brought a welcome unpredictability to the sanitised world the studio had constructed around their hero, Mickey Mouse. But Donald wasn’t just a

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12:43

Digging Up Josef Mengele

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2025/06/06

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 grave of a man named “Wolfgang Gerhard” - later proven to be Mengele, who’d drowned at a beach resort at the age of 68.Mengele, responsible for sending up to 400,000 Jews to their deaths at Auschwitz, was able to escape to Argentina via Italy after the War, even living freely under his real name for a

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1,116 results

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