Today In History with The Retrospectors
Kanaal Besonderhede
Today In History with 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...
Onlangse Episodes
1145 episodes
How '24' Changed TV
Real-time thriller ‘24’, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, debuted on Fox on 6th November, 2001. The show’s use of split screens, constant ten...
Kublai Khan's Kamikaze Climbdown
The Mongols attempted to invade Japan on 5th November, 1274. Despite having a fleet of 900 ships, they failed - in part due to a ‘kamikaze’ typhoon th...
Digging Up King Tut
Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered by a water boy who serendipitously stumbled on a buried staircase in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings on 4th November, 19...
Phil Spector's 'Phantom Voice'
The Crystals hit number one with their version of Gene Pitney’s ‘He’s a Rebel’ on 3rd November, 1962, but it was actually another of Phil Spector’s gi...
The BBC's Halloween Hoax
‘Ghostwatch’, a Halloween drama in the style of a documentary, reached 11 million viewers on its first and only UK broadcast on BBC 1, on 31st October...
The Slave Rebellion
Nat Turner, leader of the deadliest slave rebellion in U.S. history, was captured on 30th October, 1831. For over two months, he’d hidden out in the w...
The M25 - Britain's Biggest Carpark
Margaret Thatcher finally opened London’s first ring road - construction on which had begun in the 1970s - on 29th October, 1986, declaring: "I can't...
Jane Austen and the Profligate Prince
George IV’s impressive Library included all the novels of Jane Austen, for whom he had a particular fondness. But what was not known (until a receipt...
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
The brutal murder of Alan R. Schindler Jr. on 27th October 1992 revealed the harsh realities faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in the military. Schindler, a...
Mourning Jane Seymour
ing Henry VIII’s third wife, Queen Consort Jane Seymour, died aged just 29 on 24th October, 1537 - 12 days after giving birth to their son, future Kin...
Meet The Smurfs
Peyo’s comic album ‘Johan and Peewit’ provided the platform for The Smurfs’ debut on 23rd October, 1958 - a cameo that their Belgian creator considere...
Not The End Of The World
Jesus failed to show up on the day that came to be known as ‘The Great Disappointment’ - 22nd October, 1844. It was an embarrassment for the New Engla...
Madonna's Naked Photos
Berated by the tabloids as exhibitionist pornography, Madonna’s coffee table book, ‘Sex’, quickly sold out upon its release on 21st October, 1992.
Parachute!
Losing control of his monoplane at 2,000 ft, First Lieutenant Harold R. Harris made history on 20th October, 1922, when he became the first person to...
The Sound of the Circus
The traditional music for the circus, "Entrance of the Gladiators", wasn’t actually written for the circus at all, instead when it was composed on 17t...
The Baby in the Well
In front of the world’s TV cameras, 18-month-old Jessica McClure - affectionately known as “Baby Jessica” - was lifted from a disused well in Midland,...
How Lincoln Got His Beard
Future President Abraham Lincoln had yet to grow his iconic facial fuzz when he received a letter from Grace Bedell - an 11 year-old resident of Westf...
Mary Queen of Plots
Accused of planning the assassination of her cousin Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots stood trial for treason on 14th October, 1586.
Mary’...
Suffragettes... in the House!
Margaret Travers Symons was the first woman to make herself heard in the British House of Commons - albeit without permission - on 13th October, 1908....
Governing Outer Space
On 10th October, 1967 a treaty went into force that has gone on to become the backbone for all international space law – a United Nations-approved agr...
When Sumo Came To London
The Royal Albert Hall was the unlikely venue for the biggest Sumo wrestling tournament ever staged outside of Japan on 9th October, 1991. Around forty...
The Permanent Wave
Hairdressers descended upon Oxford Street on October 8th, 1906 to witness Karl Nessler’s first public demonstration of his pioneering new ‘perm’ - a s...
TV's Greatest Salesman
Ron Popeil, inventor of The Pocket Fisherman, the Amazing Smokeless Ashtray, and the Inside-The-Shell Egg Scrambler, was (satirically) awarded an Igno...
America’s 1st Train Robbery 🚂💰
The Reno Brothers pulled off the first moving train robbery in U.S. history in Jackson County, Indiana, on 6th October, 1866.
Overpowerin...
When Sinéad Shocked America
Irish popstar Sinéad O’Connor tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II during her performance of Bob Marley’s ‘War’ on NBC’s TV show ‘Saturday Night Live’...
Meet Charlie Brown
Happy 75th birthday, ‘Peanuts’! Charles Shulz’ iconic comic strip made its debut (although Snoopy had yet to appear) on 2nd October, 1950.
Postcards - The Poor Man's Telephone
A 12 x 8.5cm ‘Correspondenzkarte’, the earliest progenitor of the modern-day postcard, was created by the Austrian Post on 1st October, 1869.
The Shipwrecked Mr. Crusoe
Literature’s most famous castaway, Robinson Crusoe, was washed up on a desert island - where he would remain for 28 years - on 30th September, 1659.
What Happened To Couto Misto?
A tiny microstate nestled between Spain and Portugal, Couto Misto existed for centuries until its dissolution on 29th September, 1864. The final act o...
Yves Rossy: Rocketman
Pushing the boundaries of human flight to hitherto unknown extremes, Swiss aviator Yves Rossy entered the record books on 26th September, 2008, becomi...
The Falcon Clause: Dividing Britain
Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland met in York to settle the whole "where does England end, and where does Scotland begin?" question on...
America's Transgender Celebrity
Christine Jorgensen began gender reassignment surgery in Copenhagen on 24th September 1951. The New York Daily News later heralded the event with a he...
See Facts? Ceefax!
The BBC’s teletext information service, Ceefax, launched on 23rd September, 1974 - providing the British public with a way to look up headlines, footb...
The Candy Bomber of Berlin
Operation Little Vittles" - an initiative during the Berlin Airlift to drop Allied sweets and chocolates from planes as a gift to the German children...
Discovering The Iceman
When German hikers Erika and Helmut Simon stumbled upon a dead body in the Oertzel Alps on 19th September, 1991, they believed it to be a recently fal...
Welcome To Tiffany's
Tiffany, now a $16 billion jewelry empire, opened their first store at 259 Broadway, New York, on 18th September, 1837. Their first day’s sales total...
Vanessa Williams vs. Miss America
The first Black Miss America, Vanessa Williams, was crowned in Atlantic City on 17th September, 1983, with the usual fanfare. But within ten months, s...
The First Student Newspaper
The Cornell Daily Sun - the oldest continuously independent college daily newspaper in the United States - published its first issue on 16th September...
Digging the Trenches
The start of World War I featured officers in white gloves, leading troops in neat lines, and cavalry charges complete with sabres and lances. But thi...
Barrett ❤️ Browning
The secret wedding of poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning on September 12th, 1846, was witnessed by just two people. Elizabeth was so nervous...