Today In History with The Retrospectors

Rerun: Freda Payne’s banger ‘Band Of Gold’ sounds like a Motown record, but actually isn’t. Although written by Berry Gordy’s hit-making trio Holland-Dozier-Holland, it was released on their breakaway label, Invictus, on 25th April, 1970.

Ever since, fans have speculated as to the meaning of its lyrics and the nature of the crumbled relationship within. “That night on our honeymoon / We stayed in separate rooms,” Payne sings. Was he...

Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda expanded her repertoire beyond acting and activism into exercise videos on 24th April, 1982, with the release of her bestselling aerobics VHS, "Workout." 

What seemed like a small venture at the time swiftly captivated the nation, revolutionising fitness trends and catapulting household VCR ownership. Extraordinarily, all profits from the enterprise went to her and her husband’s leftist pressure...

On 23 April 2005, software engineer Jawed Karim posted an 18-second clip of himself standing in front of some elephants at the San Diego Zoo – a video which is largely unremarkable, except for the fact it was the first ever clip uploaded to the site Karim cofounded: YouTube.

The video has since received 260 million views, 13 million likes, and 11 million comments. Not bad for a clip whose only interesting feature is the innuendo...

Extracts from Adolf Hitler's long-lost diaries were brought to the world’s attention on 22nd April, 1983, provoking an international sensation - until they were quickly exposed for being a hoax. 

Respected World War Two historian Hugh Trevor Roper had authenticated the diaries, leading Rupert Murdoch to personally negotiate a $1.2 million serialisation in The Sunday Times, which went to press as Roper changed his mind.

In this e...

Katherine Switzer became the first woman to officially participate in the Boston Marathon on 19th April, 1967, when, disguised in a hooded sweatshirt and joggers, she ran under a race number she’d registered for without disclosing her first name. 

Her gender was revealed mid-race, prompting a bizarre fracas as co-director Jock Semple, known for his stringent adherence to tradition, attempted to forcibly remove her from the even...

Milanese Princess Bona Sforza married the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund the Old, in Krakow Cathedral on 18th April, 1518 - making her the first Italian Queen of Poland, and one of the world’s most powerful women.

There followed a 29-course wedding feast, a bawdy consummation ritual …and decades of resentment, as the Polish aristocracy came to terms with the influence she would have upon her husband’s decision-making.

In this epi...

A 335-year-long ‘war’ (in which not a single shot was fired) officially ended on 17th April, 1986, when the UK’s Dutch ambassador landed on the Isles of Scilly and declared an end to hostilities between the Netherlands and this tiny archipelago off the coast of Cornwall. 

The origins of this eccentric conflict date back to 1651, during the English Civil War, where the Dutch found themselves indirectly involved due to their supp...

When ‘Roots: The Saga of an American Family’ made novelist Alex Haley an international sensation, he revisited Juffure, Gambia - the village where he claimed his 18th-century ancestor Kunta Kinte had been captured into slavery. On 16th April, 1977, he was welcomed ‘home’ as a hero by the villagers.

But his hit novel had begun to attract criticism for blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction - a genre Haley came to refer...

Tommy Cooper's unexpected death on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre on 15th April, 1984 remains one of the saddest and most surreal moments in UK comedy history. 

Known for his slapstick humour and botched magic tricks, family favourite Cooper collapsed mid-act due to a massive heart attack. 

The audience, initially assuming it was part of his act, roared with laughter as he lay on the stage emitting what sounded like snoring...

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin left Kazakhstan for space on 12th April, 1961 - the first human to venture beyond the confines of Earth's atmosphere. As the rocket roared into the sky, Gagarin's now-famous exclamation of "Poyekhali!" ("Let's go!") echoed through the cockpit.

Despite the anticipation surrounding Gagarin's historic flight, the actual experience was relatively brief, lasting a mere 108 minutes. Within that fleeting wind...

Rerun: The first holiday camp in Britain, Butlin’s Skegness, opened to the public on 11th April, 1936 - although one member of the public, a certain Freda Monk from Nottingham, was so keen to attend that she arrived a day early. It cost 35 shillings per week to attend. 

South Africa-born Billy Butlin had created the camp after holidaying in Barry Island and feeling “sorry for the families with young children as they trudged alo...

Bananas, the world’s favourite fruit, were first displayed in London on 10th April, 1633, in the shop window of botanist Thomas Johnson, editor for Gerard’s Herball.

Despite societal taboos surrounding the banana's suggestive shape, its journey from obscurity to ubiquity was later propelled by Minor Cooper Keith, whose entrepreneurial endeavours in Costa Rica transformed the fruit into a global commodity - albeit one entangled i...

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles broke royal norms by having a modest civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall on 9th April, 2005. Against a turbulent backdrop of past scandals and public opinion, the couple's union marked a delicate dance toward Britain’s eventual acceptance of them as King and Queen.

Queen Elizabeth did not attend the ceremony, for fear of compromising her position as head of the Church of England, but did tu...

Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler’s bestseller ‘Nudge’ was released on 8th April, 2008, catapulting a new method of behavioural economics into the public psyche - and the hands of policymakers, including David Cameron and Barack Obama.

The book challenged the notion of humans as rational decision-makers, and explained how companies, governments and individuals can ‘nudge’ people towards healthier habits, responsible financial dec...

A frozen Lake Peipus played host to a dramatic fight between 2,000 Catholic Crusaders and 6,000 Orthodox Christians on 5th April, 1242.

The invading forces were the Teutonic Knights, armed with spears and swords to ‘Christianize’ what they saw as a Pagan society. Novgorod’s defender, Prince Alexander Nevsky, lured the Germans to the lake, where his troops could take them down one by one, in a battle that went down in Russian lor...

Rerun: MSG, the umami seasoning frequently added to Chinese cuisine, came under fire on 4th April, 1968 - when Dr Robert Ho Man Kwok wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine musing about the possible causes of a ‘syndrome’ he experienced whenever he ate at Chinese restaurants in the US.  

“The most prominent symptoms are numbness at the back of the neck, gradually radiating to both arms in the back, general we...

Gottlieb Daimler's patent for his high-speed petrol engine (dubbed the "Grandfather Clock") on 3rd April, 1885, wasn't just a technological breakthrough—it inadvertently birthed the motorbike. 

Teaming up with Wilhelm Maybach, the duo had crafted a compact engine featuring float-metered carburetors and mushroom intake valves, all powered by hot tube ignition. This engine found its way into their first vehicle prototype, the...

Johnny Weissmuller made his debut as ‘Tarzan The Ape Man’ on April 2nd, 1932, when MGM released the first talkie to feature the jungle hero - spawning a Tarzanmania craze.

The blockbuster, loosely based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 novel, was commissioned in part because the studio held additional footage from their African-set hit from the previous year, ‘Trader Horn’. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal h...

Rerun: Edward Lawrence Levy, a bald and bespectacled 40 year old choir-master from Birmingham, became the first ever winner of an international weightlifting contest at Cafe Monaco in London on 28th March, 1891. 

The event was an attempt to separate the serious sport of dumbbell lifting from the popular performing ‘strongmen’ at sideshows and variety halls, but it did not immediately take hold: the competition was described by ...