Today In History with The Retrospectors
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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...
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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...
Let's Build The Pentagon
Construction of the Virginia headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense began on September 11th, 1941 - spookily, the same date it was attacked by...
France's Last Execution
The guillotine claimed its last victim on 10th September, 1977, when murderer Hamida Djandoubi was executed in Marseille, his grim end marking the clo...
Laughter, Uncanned
'The Hank McCune Show' - an otherwise unremarkable footnote in American TV history - became the first single-camera sitcom to deploy a pre-recorded la...
Making Michelangelo's David
Now celebrated as the most famous statue in the world, Michelangelo's David was first unveiled in Florence's Piazza della Signoria on 8th September, 1...
Welcome To Bavaria, U.S.A.
oday, the small town of Leavenworth in Washington is known for its Bavarian-themed hotels, restaurants, shops and festivals, but when it was incorpora...
The Quiz Show That Won The Jackpot
On 4th September, 1998, the debut episode of the world-conquering game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? aired in the UK.
Initially ti...
Who Invented The Air Fryer?
Fred van der Weij, a Dutch electronics engineer with a craving for healthier chips, spent years tinkering in his garage to create the “frit air” - lau...
Queen Of The Cuban Sea
Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad was 64 years old when she became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the use of a shark cage for protec...
Why Japan Loves Baseball
How come baseball, that most American of games, is even more popular in Japan than in its home country?
It’s a story with roots into the...
The Last Of His Tribe
Ishi, a native American man who was widely acclaimed as the “last wild Indian” emerged from the wilderness on 29th August, 1911.
His arri...
The First Gay Games
Over 1,300 athletes from 12 countries gathered at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco for the first-ever Gay Games, on 28th August, 1982.
Int...
The 38 Minute War
The shortest war in history began at 09:02 on 27th August, 1896 - and was over 38 minutes later - when The British Empire, at the peak of its power, f...
Colin The Caterpillar - A Cultural Odyssey
Equally beloved at office boardrooms and toddler birthday parties, Colin the Caterpillar - a £7 swiss roll cake with white and milk chocolate and butt...
Beavers on the Moon
The ‘Great Moon Hoax’ was published by the New York Sun on 25th August, 1835, claiming over six instalments that renowned English astronomer John Hers...
Leaving Devil's Island
Established in 1852, Devil’s Island, one of six penal colonies in French Guiana, was finally closed on 22nd August, 1953. Nicknamed the ‘Green Hell’ a...
Cat Bin Lady, Internet Villain
CCTV footage captured middle-aged bank worker Mary Bale dropping friendly tabby cat Lola into a Coventry wheelie bin on 21st August, 2010. The video w...