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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

10:11

I Say, Boy, It's Foghorn Leghorn

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/31

Rerun. 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 McKimson and voiced by Mel Blanc, the character – who was inspired in part by popular radio character ‘Senator Claghorn’ from The Fred Allen Show – proved an instant audience favourite.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider whether Foghorn’s Antebellum expressions put him on the

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11:13

The Grouse Massacre

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/30

Lord Walsingham shot 1,070 grouse on 30th August, 1888 – a number that remains a world record, and, one feels, is unlikely to ever be bettered.To achieve this astonishing figure Walsingham started shooting at 5:12 AM and kept going until just before 7:00 PM. And just for good measure he shot another 14 birds on his walk home. At this pace, he would have been shooting one grouse every 13 seconds.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly ask whether driven shoots are fundamentally unsporting; discuss

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10:18

The Last Of His Tribe

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/29

Ishi, a native American man who was widely acclaimed as the “last wild Indian” emerged from the wilderness on 29th August, 1911.His arrival came as a huge surprise to the people of Oroville, California, who had thought that his entire tribe had become extinct a good 40 years earlier. He was immediately taken to a jail cell and locked up, not because he had committed a crime but because authorities simply had no idea what to do with him.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explore the

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10:33

Noodles: The World's Convenience Food

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/25

Nissin Chikin Ramen (日清チキンラーメン), the first marketed brand of instant noodles, launched in Japan on 25th August, 1958.The product was created by Momofuku Ando, who developed the production method of flash frying noodles after they had been made, thereby drying them and extending their shelf life. His inspiration sprung from the food scarcity in Japan after the Second World War, and the Ministry of Health’s attempts to distribute unpopular U.S.-supplied bread.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly

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10:16

The End of the Pirate Monk

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/24

Rerun. Bandit, Admiral, wizard, pirate... ‘Eustace The Monk’ did it all - and was decapitated for his troubles, at the Battle of Sandwich on 24th August, 1217.Previously a licensed criminal for the court of King John, he became an enemy of England by switching sides and battling on behalf of the French - an extraordinary end to a remarkable career which took in black magic, robbery, and farting in a Benedictine monastery.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider why Eustace’s story has yet

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10:45

When The Baltics Held Hands

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/23

A colossal human chain, stretching 430 miles, spanned across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 23rd August, 1989 - the anniversary of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact that covertly carved up the region fifty years earlier.Around two million people held hands for 15 minutes, synchronised at 7pm and photographed from helicopters above. Organised by Rahvarinne of Estonia, the Tautas fronte of Latvia, and Sąjūdis of Lithuania, the event drew global attention to the three nations’ desire for independence.In

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10:10

Leaving Devil's Island

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/22

Established in 1852, Devil’s Island, one of six penal colonies in French Guiana, was finally closed on 22nd August, 1953. Nicknamed the ‘Green Hell’ and the ‘Dry Guillotine’, it earned a reputation as ‘The Alcatraz of South America’: the world’s most brutal prison.Established by Emperor Napoleon III to remove political opponents and jumpstart France’s programme of colonisation, the horrors of the islands became more understood in France following the publication of memoirs by René Belbenoît and

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11:17

Cat Bin Lady, Internet Villain

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/21

CCTV footage captured middle-aged bank worker Mary Bale dropping friendly tabby cat Lola into a Coventry wheelie bin on 21st August, 2010. The video went viral, and Bale was disgraced on the front page of The Sun.Despite her initially nonchalant response, Bale faced the full force of internet mob mentality, not to mention a court trial for animal cruelty. One tantalising, unanswered question remained: WHY DID SHE PUT THE CAT IN THE BIN?In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider whether Bale’s

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9:35

Discovering Helium

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/18

French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen became the first person to observe helium, an element never before seen on Earth, on August 18th, 1868.Janssen had been observing a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India when he noticed a bright yellow line with a wavelength of 587.49 nanometers in the spectrum of the chromosphere of the Sun. He initially assumed the line to be sodium, but, upon further investigating his hunch that it might be a new element, concluded he had stumbled upon something

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10:28

The Dingo Baby-Snatcher

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/17

Rerun. When two month-old Azaria Chamberlain was taken from her tent by a dingo on the night of August 17th, 1980, the majority of the Australian public believed that her mother, Lindy Chamerlain, had done the deed herself.Prosecuting authorities charged her with murder. She was imprisoned, but in 2012, a coroner found Azaria’s death was “the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo”.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly ask why the Australian public were so inclined to disbelieve Lindy’s

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10:36

The First Accidental President

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/16

Angry protestors gathered outside The White House on 16th August, 1841, burning an effigy of President John Tyler, the first Vice-President to assume the Presidency (following the death of William Henry Harrison, just 31 days into his term). The mob, largely consisting of Tyler’s fellow Whigs, opposed his veto of a national banking bill.Although no serious scuffles or bloodshed occurred, the incident highlighted the vulnerability of the White House and the lack of a proper security detail during

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11:07

The Real Macbeth

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/15

Immortalised by Shakespeare, Scottish king Macbeth was killed in battle near Lumphanan, Aberdeenshire on 15th August 1057; a demise that brought significant changes to Scotland's monarchy.But the real Macbeth, contrary to his portrayal in the play, ruled for 17 relatively peaceful years and displayed generosity toward the church. That said, his relationship with the real Lady Macbeth - Gruogh, widow of Gilear, the previous king - was, let’s agree, rather complicated.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca

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11:13

Capturing Carlos The Jackal

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/14

A decades-long manhunt closed in on international terrorist Illich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos the Jackal, on 14th August, 1994 - when he was sedated and kidnapped by French intelligence agents in Khartoum, Sudan, following a tip-off by the CIA.Affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Organization for Armed Arab Struggle, and the Japanese Red Army, the Venezuelan militant had been responsible for a slew of major terrorist attacks in the 1970s and 80s, notably the

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9:51

America's Biggest Mall

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/11

The Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota, opened on 11th August, 1992, with more than 10,000 employees, 330 stores, and a Camp Snoopy theme park.With a gross area of 4.8 million square feet, the mall remains the largest in the United States; its roughly 40 million annual visitors equal to around eight times the population of the state of Minnesota.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how the mall is heated, despite having no central heating system; explain how the modern American

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9:56

The Slap Heard Around The World

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/10

Rerun. Whilst visiting traumatised U.S. soldiers in an evacuation hospital on 10th August, 1943, General George S. Patton encountered a man he believed to be a coward. So he slapped him in the face with his gloves, and waved a pistol in his face.On Eisenhower’s insistence, Patton apologised to the soldier, but never exhibited genuine remorse for his actions. He wrote in his diary, ‘It is rather a commentary on justice when an Army commander has to soft-soap a skulker to placate the timidity of those

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10:54

India's First Christians

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/09

Quilon, in present-day Kerala, became India’s first diocese on 9th August, 1329. In response to Marco Polo's accounts about an extant Christian community there, Pope John XXII had dispatched missionary Jordan Catalani to oversee the region.According to local legend, St. Thomas the apostle reached India around A.D. 50, where he established several churches. The story is not implausible, since the area enjoyed a long history of Middle Eastern migrations, due to its ideal conditions for spice

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9:28

I Need A Dollar

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/08

The dollar emerged as the official currency of the United States at a meeting of the Continental Congress on 8th August, 1786. During the American Revolution, various international coins had remained in circulation - alongside commodities like tobacco and cod.The transition to paper money faced challenges due to counterfeiting concerns, which persisted until the Civil War. The green colour was chosen to prevent easy replication using black and white photography. The value of the dollar was linked to

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10:56

The Aryan Polynesian Hypothesis

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/07

The Kon-Tiki expedition, led by Norwegian explorer and ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl, reached Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelag near Tahiti, on 7th August, 1947. The 45-foot-long balsa wood raft, with a five-man crew, had completed a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru.Heyerdahl wanted to prove his (now discredited) theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands by drifting on ocean currents. The Kon-Tiki was made of indigenous materials and designed to resemble

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10:33

Put Him in the Stocks!

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/04

The public stocks in St Clement’s Dane’s parish (now Portugal Street in London’s Strand) were finally dismantled on 4th August, 1826. They had originally been mandated in 1351, to subjugate labourers demanding higher wages.Not to be confused for pillories (which restrain both head and hands), stocks (which restrain only the feet) were used for lesser ‘crimes’, such as homosexuality, heresy, and drunkenness. The treatment of prisoners was essentially at the crowd’s discretion: at the minor end of the

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9:19

The Fake Critic

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/08/03

Rerun. Eyebrows were raised when Dave Manning - a previously unknown film critic - was suddenly receiving star billing on Hollywood movie posters. He turned out to be fictional. This climaxed with a lawsuit, settled by Sony on 3rd August, 2005.Manning had been created by Columbia Pictures executive Matthew Kramer, who’d co-opted the name David Manning from a friend in his hometown of Ridgefield, Connecticut. The public were entitled to a $5 refund if they’d attended a movie as a result of the

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1,248 results

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