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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

10:38

Killing King Carlos

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/02/01

The only Portuguese monarch to be assassinated, King Carlos I, was shot through the neck by Republican activists on 1st February, 1908, as his open carriage rode through Lisbon. His elder son Luis Filipe was also killed, leaving 18 year-old Manuel to become the last King of Portugal.The murder followed Portugal’s former colony Brazil deposing its emperor; a politically disastrous agreement with the British over African expansion; and the appointment of the dictatorial João Franco as Portuguese Prime

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10:40

Chimps In Space!

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/31

Before Yuri Gagarin, before Alan Shepard… a chimp called Ham was blasted into space for six-and-a-half minutes of weightlessness on 31st January, 1961. He successfully returned to Earth without serious physical injury, albeit over 100 miles away from NASA’s intended splashdown location.Travelling at 5,857 m.p.h, Ham was seated in a special chair called a ‘biopack’, which administered electric shocks to the soles of his feet if he failed to complete basic tasks in orbit.In this episode, Arion,

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10:03

Hannah Hauxwell: Britain’s First Reality Star

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/30

Running a remote Yorkshire farm, with no flushing toilet and no electricity is an unlikely route to TV stardom, but 46 year-old spinster Hannah Hauxwell managed it on 30th January, 1973, when ITV aired the landmark documentary ‘Too Long A Winter’.Speaking lyrically about her singlehood, how she braved the bitter Winter, and how she survived on a grocery budget of just £5 per month, Hauxwell’s story inspired thousands of viewers to send her food parcels and arrange for her homestead to be modernised

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10:24

Let’s Embalm Lenin

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/27

The corpse of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, was placed on display in Moscow's Red Square on 27th January, 1924 - where, astonishingly, he remains viewable to this day.He’d wanted to be buried next to his mother in Saint Petersburg, but after he suffered a series of strokes, the Soviet government instead secretly planned to build a mausoleum for his body, in part to deify him as a quasi-religious figure.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how pioneering embalming

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10:34

Brides on the Move

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/26

Rerun. Sometimes termed ‘The Diaper Run’ due to the large number of babies on-board, the S.S. Argentina set sail from Southampton to New York City on 26th January, 1946 – transporting 456 ‘War Brides’ and their 170 children from Britain to the USA.Each was permitted to bring 200lb of luggage, and faced an uncertain future on arrival in the States – some reuniting with their one true love; others finding themselves shacked up with in-laws who resented their existence.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca

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10:41

The Nellie Bly Express

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/25

Pioneering journalist Nellie Bly returned from her 72-day trip around the world on 25th January, 1890. The final leg of the journey was upon a chartered train to New Jersey, nicknamed ‘the Nellie Bly Express’, and Bly was greeted by adoring fans as she traversed the country.Inspired by Jules Verne’s novel, Bly had a year earlier pitched to her editors at The World that she should be given the opportunity to try and travel the globe in under 80 days - but they’d felt it was a journey only a man could

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10:27

27 Years in the Jungle

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/24

Japanese ‘holdout’ Shoichi Yokoi had been hiding out in the jungles of Guam since the Second World War when he was discovered by hunters on 24th January, 1972, dressed in clothes woven from tree fibre.The 57 year-old soldier had endured 27 years living in an underground shelter he dug himself, eating toads, river eels and rats. Although he had heard the War was over, he believed it would be a disgrace to surrender to the Americans.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Yokoi survived

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10:40

Rock N Roll’s Big Night

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/23

The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame welcomed its first inductees in a star-studded event at the Waldorf Astoria, New York on 23rd January, 1986. But the ceremony was not the glamorous HBO spectacular we have come to expect today: the audience was mostly music executives, and it was not filmed for television.Conceived by Atlantic Records chairman Ahmet Ertegun, the nonprofit foundation initially had lofty ambitions of recognising unsung heroes of the genre, and redressing racial injustice.In this episode,

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10:32

Lalli and the Axe

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/20

According to Finnish legend, a peasant farmer named Lalli murdered the Christian missionary Bishop Henry on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi on January 20, 1156, dispatching him with an axe blow to the head.It is fair to say things didn’t go terribly well for Lalli after that. He met a gruesome fate that takes various forms depending on the tale you read, but in general Lalli takes the bishop's mitre to wear and when he tries to remove it, it tears his scalp off. The bishop, meanwhile, fared rather

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10:23

Introducing the BlackBerry

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/19

Rerun. Research In Motion were once the world’s most popular maker of smartphones, but when they launched the BlackBerry 850 on 19th January, 1999, the device had no phone functionality: it was marketed as a two-way pager.However, the gadget’s ability to bounce emails from a desktop server to its users on the move, and its bespoke instant messaging service, BBM, ensured it soon became an essential tool in the executive businessperson’s arsenal. Until the iPhone came along, anyway…In this episode,

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10:35

The 17th Century UFO

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/18

One of earliest recorded UFO sightings in America happened on 18th January, 1644 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony when lights rose out of the water near Boston, zoomed across the sky and vanished over the horizon.The events, as documented by the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony John Winthrop in his journal, took place a good 300 years before Roswell, contradicting the idea that UFO sightings in the US are an exclusively 20th Century phenomenon.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain

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10:09

The Last Queen of Hawaii

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/17

On January 17, 1893, Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate, the first step towards the islands’ annexation as a US territory and eventual admission as the 50th state in the union.Interest in Hawaii began in America as early as the 1820s, when New England missionaries tried in earnest to spread their faith there, but only really became serious in 1880s when Queen Liliuokalani began trying to return power to the indigenous

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10:39

Meet Don Quixote

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/16

Prior to the release of his book Don Quixote on 16th January, 1605, Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes had previously been a soldier, a royal messenger, a tax collector and – for a spell – a slave.But perseverance paid off for the aspiring author who, at the age of 57, produced a book that has been called “the greatest piece of literature ever written”.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss why Cervantes’ poetry and plays weren’t as successful as his first novel; reveal how his characters

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10:31

Henry IV and the Philosopher's Stone

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/13

It was today in history in 1404 that Henry IV issued the Act Against Multipliers, a ban on the mysterious art of creating or duplicating gold, more commonly known as alchemy.It came at an odd time for European science because the widespread efforts to transform so-called base metals, such as lead or copper, into noble metals, such as silver or gold, while futile, actually aided the discovery of things like combustion and gunpowder.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss the connection

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10:41

The Cryogenic Rush Job

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/12

Rerun. Dr James Bedford became the first dead body to be cryogenically frozen on 12th January, 1967 –a day still commemorated in the ‘suspended animation’ community as Bedford Day.But in this burgeoning (pseudo)science, there were plenty of preparations yet to be made.Which meant that the freezing team – lead not by scientists but enthusiasts – ran out of ice, and forgot to drain his blood.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly dive into the legal cases that sprang from this early period of

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10:43

BA's 'Dirty Tricks'

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/11

British Airways paid out one of the largest libel settlements in UK history on 11th January, 1993, for engaging in disreputable business practices, including shredding documents, poaching passages, and circulating hostile and discreditable stories about their upstart rival Virgin Airlines.The so-called Dirty Tricks revealed that British Airways had created a secret unit within a secure office in Gatwick dedicated to destroying Richard Branson’s new airline through a range of nefarious strategies.In

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10:26

How Rockefeller Got Rich

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/10

On 10th January, 1870 John D. Rockefeller took his first steps towards becoming the world’s richest ever person by forming his company, Standard Oil.He had arrived in the oil industry at a time of wild instability when oil refining was almost a cottage industry. Rockefeller quickly realised that if he had control over not just the refineries but also the output and distribution of refined oil he could keep prices as high as he liked – a mode of thinking that his critics and rivals declared

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10:44

Introducing Income Tax

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/09

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, the American statesman Benjamin Franklin once said, but until 9 January, 1799, taxation looked very different to the way it does today, because this was the day the world was first introduced to income tax.Its introduction by British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger was not one of his most popular innovations, but he had good reason to be wanting to bring more money into the government’s coffers, given the national

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10:06

Rink-O-Mania!

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/06

Roller skates, most readily associated with the 1970s, were actually first patented in the US on 6th January, 1863, by New York furniture salesman James Plimpton.Plimpton developed the shoes after being advised by his doctor to take up ice skating, yet finding himself with nowhere to skate in the Spring and Summer months. He guarded his innovation zealously, and created a leasing model for the novelty boots in specially sanctioned roller parks. America’s first ‘rinking’ craze - dubbed by the press

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10:28

When Bonnie Met Clyde

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2023/01/05

America's most notorious outlaws, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, first bonded over a cup of condensed milk hot chocolate on 5th January, 1930.The couple went on to traverse the States on a shooting spree, committing up to thirteen murders, before being ambushed and gunned down in Louisiana four years into their relationship.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how Barrow’s descent into criminality began with the most unlikely of offences; explain how the pair’s devotion to their families

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