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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

13:01

I Invented The Donut 🍩

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/22

Sea Captain Hanson Gregory claimed to have first cut a hole in a donut on 22nd June, 1847, sparking an American tradition: the nation now consumes ten billion donuts per year. But Americans munched on Dutch “oily cakes” for decades prior to that, and the corporate intervention of Dunkin’ Donuts - founded in Gregory’s hometown - might help explain why Gregory’s origin story has stuck… Regardless, there were two inarguable milestones in America’s adoption of this sugary treat: volunteer women

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11:00

Making The Metropolitan Police

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/19

Sir Robert Peel received royal assent for the Metropolis Police Improvement Bill on 19th June, 1829 - leading to the creation of London's first professional police force, who were soon nicknamed ‘Bobbies’ in tribute. The Met’s first constables hit the streets that Autumn, dressed in tailcoats (to signify their role as servants of the people), and top hats (strengthened with an iron ring for protection), and all in blue to distinguish them from the red colouring used by the Army. In this episode,

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11:20

The Town Disney Built

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/18

Designed by Imagineers, and located on the outskirts of Walt Disney World, the town of Celebration, Florida welcomed its first residents on 18th June, 1996.Over 5,000 families had applied to be amongst the first ever homeowners to reside, full-time, in the grounds of a theme park. Conceptually, the town was a mash-up of the wistful nostalgia that inspired the designs of Disneyland’s original Main St, USA and Disney’s ‘utopian city of tomorrow’ vision (which, eventually, manifested as EPCOT). In

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13:51

O.J. Simpson's Car Chase

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/17

O.J. Simpson, wanted for questioning over the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, was followed by both the LAPD and the world’s news cameras on 17th June, 1994, as he sat creeping along the motorway, holding a gun to his head, in a white Ford Bronco driven by his former teammate Al Cowlings.As the SUV rolled steadily towards Los Angeles, fans gathered on bridges and roadside verges, waving and shouting to the former sports star and actor. The chase lasted about

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11:58

Humanity Dick and the RSPCA

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/16

The world’s first animal charity, the RSPCA, was set up on June 16th, 1824, by a small group of men who met in Old Slaughter’s Coffee House in St. Martin’s Lane, London. They had been brought together by Arthur Broome, a vicar and animal-welfare campaigner, but the main member of the group was Irish MP Richard Martin, widely known as “Humanity Dick” who had recently passed the first legislation of its kind against the mistreatment of horses and cattle. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly

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12:45

Dante Gets Political

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/15

Future poetic powerhouse Dante Alighieri was enshrined as one of Florence’s six priors on 15th June, 1300: a top political gig in the city’s complex guild-based government. But his beloved hometown was a powder keg, split between rival factions: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines; and the Guelphs themselves were split into “white” and “black” camps. Dante, a White Guelph, soon found himself deep in the messy middle of this feud, helping to exile leaders from both factions after street fights broke

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12:41

Meet Me At The Automat

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/12

Before McDonalds, there was the Horn & Hardart Automat - a chain restaurant featuring coin-operated glass windows, which opened its first branch in Philadelphia on 12th June, 1902. The business would grow to serve 800,000 people per day.Customers exchanged nickels for dishes including meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and cherry pie. Beautifully designed with marble counters, stained glass, and chrome fixtures, the venues had an upscale ambiance, but catered mainly to working people, with a notable cult

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11:46

Chuck Berry v the IRS

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/11

It was the THIRD time behind bars for legendary rock n’ roller Chuck Berry when he was found to have dodged $110,000 in income tax on 11th June, 1979.He insisted on being paid cash-in-hand for his sometimes shambolic personal appearances, and his propensity for stashing it was so well-known that in Australia the authorities introduced limits on the amount of cash that could be transited across their border, specifically in response to him once stuffing $50,000 in his guitar case. In this episode,

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13:12

Benjamin Franklin's Kite 🪁⚡

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/10

Benjamin Franklin’s legendary ‘kite experiment’ supposedly took place on 10th June, 1752, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the traditional account, the future Founding Father flew a kite fitted with a metal key into a storm cloud to prove that it contained electricity, leading to the creation of the lightning rod ⚡Historians, however, point out there is no detailed contemporary record proving that events unfolded exactly as later retellings claimed, and, in fact, Franklin never

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12:32

The Day Nero Died

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/09

Nero, the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, killed himself on 9th June AD 68. Having fled Rome to a suburban villa after being declared a ‘public enemy’ by the Senate, he stabbed himself through the throat. Probably. Within months of his death, rumours began that Nero still lived and would return in glory to reclaim his empire. Instead, the historians of the era - albeit never averse to embellishment to make an artistic point - documented the horrors of his reign, including his forced

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11:08

Who You Gonna Call?

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/08

‘Ghostbusters’ opened in US cinemas on 8th June, 1984, quickly becoming the highest-grossing comedy of all time. The brainchild of SNL’s Dan Aykroyd - whose great-grandfather was a 19th-century psychic investigator - the film was pitched and delivered within 13 months. Drawing inspiration from 1930s ghost comedies, the wisecracking ensemble comedy smashed the Hollywood wisdom that big-budget comedies don’t recoup their investment. In this episode, Arion, Olly and Rebecca survey some original

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12:33

When Lovelace Met Babbage

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/05

When Lord Byron’s 17 year-old daughter, Ada Lovelace, attended a soirée at the home of academic Charles Babbage on 5th June, 1833, the pair hit it off immediately. He invited her to see his ‘Difference Engine’ - an early mechanical calculator - kicking off a correspondence that lasted throughout her life.Their lively, intellectual correspondence, and Ada's deep understanding of mathematics and science, lead to her championing of Babbage’s ‘Analytical Engine’, a groundbreaking proto personal

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11:41

Crazy Frog v Coldplay

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/04

‘The Annoying Thing’ is how the begenitaled amphibian animated by Erik Wernquist was first described; but by the time he released his first single ‘Axel F’ he was universally known as The Crazy Frog, and beat Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound’ to UK #1 on 4th June, 2005.The tale of how this possibly could have happened is unique to the early days of the internet - a teenager messing about imitating motorbike noises emailed the sound to some friends, Wernquist stumbled across it and put it in his

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13:34

The Zoot Suit Riots

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/03

Los Angeles erupted in racist violence on 3rd June, 1943 in a week of riots that exposed deep tensions in wartime America.California’s Mexican-American “Pachuco” youth had adopted the zoot suit style from African-American jazz culture. But to many white Americans the fashion appeared rebellious, unpatriotic and even threatening at a time when wartime rationing had placed strict controls on fabric use. Groups of sailors started targeting zoot suit-wearing youths in downtown Los Angeles, and mob

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12:08

Who Invented The Telephone?

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/02

Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson made an important discovery, by accident, on June 2, 1875. While working on their ‘harmonic telegraph’. Watson inadvertently plucked a reed that had been tightly wound around the pole of its electromagnet, producing a twang that Bell heard on a second device next door. Meanwhile, Elisha Gray, co-founder of Western Electric Company, was working on, as his patent put it, “Transmitting Vocal Sounds Telegraphically.” Gray had been using liquid transmitters in his

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12:00

Nepal's Royal Bloodbath

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/06/01

Crown Prince Dipendra opened fire on his whole family at a family dinner at Kathmandu’s Narayanhiti Palace on 1st June, 2001. He killed nine royals, including his father, King Birendra, his mother, Queen Aishwarya, and his siblings; then reportedly turned the gun on himself. In a bizarre twist of constitutional formality, Dipendra — though in a coma — was then declared King of Nepal for three days. When he died on June 4th, his uncle Gyanendra, who hadn’t been at the dinner, was crowned king. This

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11:58

Recording 'White Christmas'

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/05/29

Bing Crosby recorded the biggest-selling single of all time, ‘White Christmas’, on 29th May, 1942. The session took just 18 minutes, and the song was not considered the standout from the album: everyone thought the Valentine’s-themed ballad ‘Be Careful, It's My Heart’ had a better chance of chart success. The songwriter, Irving Berlin, was perhaps not an obvious person to pen the quintessential American Christmas song, given that he was a Russian-born Jew, who had never celebrated the holiday until

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12:00

Super Mario Bros - The First Videogame Movie

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/05/28

Before ‘Tomb Raider’, before ‘Mortal Kombat’, before ‘Street Fighter’, there was something even WORSE. ‘Super Mario Bros’ - which opened in the United States on 28th May, 1993 - was such a critical and commercial failure that for years afterwards Nintendo kept their franchises out of Hollywood hands.Relocating the action to ‘Dinohattan’, the film inexplicably disregarded most of what had made the videogame such a smash-hit and replaced these elements with allusions to Blade Runner and Tim Burton’s

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13:19

The Prime Minister's Duel

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/05/27

William Pitt the Younger was Prime Minister when he and opposition MP George Tierney fought a duel on Sunday, 27th May 1798 on London’s Putney Heath. Standing twelve paces apart, the two politicians prepared to exchange gunfire. Both men missed with their first shots. On the second round, Pitt deliberately fired away from his opponent, signalling that he considered honour satisfied without bloodshed. The seconds intervened, and the duel ended peacefully. The fight had escalated from an argument

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12:28

When Australia Said Sorry

Today In History with The Retrospectors ·

2026/05/26

A coalition of Australian community groups came together on May 26th, 1998 for the country’s first “National Sorry Day”, an annual day of atonement for the social-engineering policy that ripped an estimated 50,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families between 1910 and the 1970s. The first Sorry Day was marked with 300 events around the nation, and more than 1,000 people attended a ceremony in Parliament House, Canberra, but it took Australia’s government another

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