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. 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.
Episodes
December 18, 2025 • 27 mins
How much have YOU learned from this year’s show? It’s time for our annual trivia test, as Arion and Rebecca face Olly’s fiendishly difficult questions for 2025.
And, for the first time, this year you can PLAY ALONG! Just click the link here 👇
https://forms.gle/ytZpWTei392F7YvCA
Have an amazing festive season, and thanks so much for listening to the podcast this year. We’ll be back with new episodes from Monday 5th January - or...
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December 18, 2025 • 11 mins
Mistletoe and Wine became the UK’s Christmas Number One on 18th December, 1988; the first of three singles Cliff Richard would take to the top of the festive charts.
What makes its triumph so curious is that the song began life as a sardonic showtune written in 1976 for a small musical based on The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. Originally, it underscored a scene in which the impoverished heroine is literally kicked...
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December 16, 2025 • 12 mins
The debut episode of the world’s longest-running animated sitcom - 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' - aired in the U.S. on 17th December, 1989; attracting the Fox network’s highest ever Sunday night ratings.
It was an instant sensation, with many contemporary critics remarking that the ‘dysfunctionality’ of The Simpsons was in-keeping with other 90s hits Roseanne and Married… With Children, while conservative voices including G...
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December 15, 2025 • 11 mins
The Hideaway Club, now part of London’s Chinatown, opened on 16th December, 1964. Ronnie and Reggie Kray didn’t turn up for the big night, even though they had booked a table.
It was an opening gambit in a war of intimidation against the manager of the club, Huw Cargill McCowan - to whom the gangsters had proposed a protection racket; threatening him when he turned down their offer.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explai...
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December 14, 2025 • 12 mins
The world’s most famous bandleader, Glenn Miller, was last seen on December 15th, 1944 - after hitching a ride on a small plane to Paris. Desperate to ensure his band could perform for Allied troops, Miller had flown from Britain against advice, his early death shocking fans around the world.
Glenn Miller wasn’t just a celebrity; he was a musical juggernaut. Leading the Army Air Forces Band during WWII, Miller assembled what is no...
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December 11, 2025 • 12 mins
Inspired by a dream, Prince Charles of Provence ordered an excavation that uncovered a sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of Mary Magdalene on 12th December, 1279.
The evidence presented included a papyrus note, a sweet rose fragrance filling the air, a wax-covered tablet proclaiming Mary's identity, and even a piece of skin where Jesus supposedly touched her after his resurrection.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and ...
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December 10, 2025 • 13 mins
‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ underwhelmed at the box office when it was first released on 11th December, 1992 - but found its audience on video and DVD in the decades later, becoming a gold-plated Christmas classic, re-watched by families, year after year.
There was darkness behind the scenes - from the sudden death of Muppets creator Jim Henson, to the legal wrangling over Disney’s acquisition deal for his company, and composer ...
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December 9, 2025 • 11 mins
19 year-old singer Frank Sinatra, Jr was snatched from his casino dressing room on 10th December, 1962. His famous father was willing to pay the kidnappers a $1 million ransom - but they insisted they only required $240,000.
When the case went to trial, the defence suggested that the Sinatras may have been in on the crime - a slur that damaged Frank Jr’s reputation for the rest of his life.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Ol...
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December 8, 2025 • 11 mins
Now a 900 strong pub chain, with an annual turnover of £1.6 billion, J.D. Wetherspoon is a big name on the British high street. But when entrepreneur Tim Martin flung open the doors of the first branch in London’s Muswell Hill on 9th December, 1979, it was known as ‘Tim’s Free House’ - and closed down on its opening night.
He built up the business by taking over leases at old buildings such as churches and cinemas, and converting ...
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December 7, 2025 • 12 mins
A woman played a female role on the London stage for the very first time on December 8th, 1660, as Desdemona in a revival of Shakepeare’s Othello. The actress was probably Margaret Hughes - though nobody bothered to record this at the time, so we can’t be sure.
After the 1660 restoration of King Charles II, theatres opened their doors for the first time after 16 years of Puritan suppression. Charles, who had been exiled in Franc...
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December 4, 2025 • 12 mins
Queen Elizabeth II made Britain’s first long-distance automated phone call on 5th November, 1958 - when, from Bristol, she spoke directly to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 300 miles away, without the need for an Operator.
Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD) transformed the telephone network, but was not without its challenges: automation brought efficiency but also led to job losses, sparking some labour disputes, and the roll-out was...
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December 3, 2025 • 12 mins
The ‘ghost ship’ Mary Celeste was discovered drifting in the Atlantic by Captain David Morehouse of the Dei Gratia on 4 December 1872. On board there were intact provisions, undisturbed cargo, no evidence of violence or theft… and zero crew.
Although some damage to the rigging and open hatches hinted at recent rough weather, nothing suggested a crisis severe enough to justify taking to the lifeboat. One pump had been dismantled an...
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December 2, 2025 • 11 mins
Renaissance Man Thomas Harriot was noted for many things - devising the theory of refraction, creating mathematical symbols including ‘greater than’ and ‘lesser than’, and being the first person to draw the Moon through a telescope. But the contribution for which he’s most remembered is bringing back the potato to Britain - an event commonly credited to 3rd December, 1586.
On first spotting the vegetable on Roanoke Island, he wrot...
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December 1, 2025 • 11 mins
Tinseltown’s most notorious pimp was convicted of providing high-class ‘call girls’ to undercover police officers on 2nd December, 1994.
It followed a dramatic sting involving the LAPD, the Beverly Hills police department, the state alcoholic beverage control agency and the state attorney General's office. They seized her ‘little black book’ (actually a red Gucci diary) full of high-profile names, but the only celebrity client of ...
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November 30, 2025 • 12 mins
Which young men should be sent to fight in Vietnam? Amidst a growing public outcry against the biases in the system, the United States instituted a live televised lottery draft on December 1st, 1969.
In a sombre spectacle, plexiglass drums and capsules containing birthdates were drawn live on CBS, dictating the order in which men born on that day might be conscripted. Youth delegates participated to symbolize approval from the dra...
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November 27, 2025 • 11 mins
In the annals of automotive innovation, November 28th, 2018 marked a peculiar milestone: the birth of the Lincoln Chimes. The brainchild of Jennifer Prescott, overseer of "Vehicle Harmony" at the motor company, this warning system replaced the synthetic sound of in-car emergency alerts with a blend of violin, viola, and marimba played by The Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Lincoln's endeavour followed in the wake of Bentley revamping ...
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November 26, 2025 • 13 mins
The most notorious accused spy of the early Cold War, Alger Hiss, emerged from Lewisburg Penitentiary on 27th November, 1954; calm, composed, and determined to reclaim his reputation. Surrounded by a scrum of journalists, he insisted fear had shaped his conviction, and vowed to vindicate his name.
A reserved, cultured “grey man” who had risen through the New Deal, attended the Yalta Conference with Roosevelt, and served as acting ...
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November 25, 2025 • 11 mins
Your TV signal wobbles. An alien voice (albeit one with a Southern English accent...) seizes control of your set. And, instead of newsreader Andrew Gardner reporting on the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, you hear a voice claiming to be ‘Vrillon’, of Ashtar Galactic Command, with a message for humanity.
Such was the experience for viewers attempting to watch the ITV Evening News on Southern TV on 26th November, 1977 - a...
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November 24, 2025 • 11 mins
Wearing an armoured breastplate, clasping a silver cross and seizing an Army spontoon, 31 year old Elizabeth Petrovna appeared at the HQ of the elite Preobrazhensky Regiment guards in St. Petersburg on 25th November, 1741 - intent on over-throwing Tzar Ivan VI (a baby), and seizing the Russian throne for herself.
Although she was the daughter of Peter The Great, she was also illegitimate, and overlooked in the line of succession. ...
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November 23, 2025 • 11 mins
Dr. Vincenz Czerny performed the world’s first breast augmentation in Vienna on 24th November, 1893. After removing a benign tumour via a mastectomy, Czerny addressed the asymmetry left behind by innovatively transplanting a non-cancerous lipoma from his patient’s lower back to reconstruct her breast.
Czerny’s work was cutting-edge for its time (pun intended): it wasn’t until the Second World War, in the era of curvier pin-up gir...
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