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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Yes, We Have Bananas
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 Ge...
Less of the Moors
Spain began to expel Moriscos - the descendants of Muslims who had converted, often under pressure, to Christianity - on 9th April, 1609.
The Nudge Revolution
Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler’s bestseller ‘Nudge’ was released on 8th April, 2008, catapulting a new method of behavioural economics into the publ...
I'm Betty Ford, And I'm An Alcoholic
Former First Lady Betty Ford quietly marked what she would later call her “sobriety birthday” on 7 April 1978: a deeply personal victory following yea...
The Surprising History of Post-Its
3M scientist Spencer Silver created the adhesive that makes Post-It Notes sticky back in 1968 - but it wasn’t until 6th April, 1980 that the stationer...
The First Motorbike
Gottlieb Daimler's patent for his high-speed petrol engine (dubbed the "Grandfather Clock") on 3rd April, 1885, wasn't just a technological breakthrou...
Let's Legalise Pinball
With a single, deliberate shot, Roger Sharpe played pinball for the council of the New York City Council chamber on 2 April 1976, theatrically overtur...
The Spaghetti Harvest
One of the most famous hoaxes in broadcasting history aired on the BBC’s revered Panorama programme on April Fools Day, 1957: a segment purporting to...
Riot in the Concert Hall
It became known as the ‘Skandalkonzert’: an evening of expressionist, experimental pieces at Vienna’s Great Hall of the Musikverein on March 31, 1913,...
The First Ever Starbucks
When Starbucks opened in Pike Place, Seattle, on March 30th, 1971, it was a simple shop selling whole coffee beans, tea, and spices - with no creamy m...
Cleopatra ❤️ Caesar
Julius Caesar intervened to put his lover and ally Cleopatra on the Egyptian throne on 27th March, 47 BC - cementing their position as the world’s pre...
The Heaven's Gate 'Ascendancy'
The mass suicide of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult in San Diego County was discovered on 26th March, 1997. The tragedy came to light after a for...
Flour Power: The Tichborne Dole and the Biddenden Maids
Each Lady Day, the Hampshire village of Tichborne hands out bags of flour to the locals - a tradition that began on 25th March, 1150 after Lady Marbe...
The Suffragettes of Sport
The first international women’s sports event, The Women’s Olympiad, kicked off in Monte Carlo on 24th March, 1921. A hundred athletes from five nation...
Ricky Martin's Latin Explosion
Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ was released on 23rd March, 1999 - launching the singer to worldwide superstardom, and kickstarting a Latino pop...
What Caused The Black Death?
The bubonic plague was blamed on witches, Jews, God’s wrath, and, on 20th March 1345, in a new theory propagated by the King of France, the rare plane...
The Horse Bus
Blaise Pascal created the first organised public transport system: the carrosses à cinq sols (“five-sou carriages”), which had its first full day of s...
Braille For Your Feet
Tenji blocks (点字ブロック) - small raised shapes in the pavement to assist visually impaired people in crossing the road - were first installed near...
Parading for St Paddy
The first ever St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Ireland, as many people might expect, but in Spanish Florida, on March 17, 1601. It wasn’t u...
Burn The Heretics!
Over 200 people were burned at the stake on 16th March, 1244, throwing themselves on to the pyre in their refusal to accept the Catholic church.
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Fall of the Maya
The Guatemalan island of Flores, once known as Nojpetén, witnessed the final clash between Spanish conquistadors and the last independent Maya kingdom...
Yes, We Canberra
What is Australia’s capital city? Not Sydney. Nor Melbourne. It’s Canberra: so named at an official ceremony on 12th March, 1913 - when the site was l...
Meet The Luddites
Disgruntled textile workers stormed a factory near Nottingham on March 11th, 1811, kickstarting the political movement famously known as Luddism.
The Foreigners Fighting For France
The infamous French Foreign Legion was formed by King Louis Philippe on March 10, 1831, to help the French control Algeria using mercenaries who were...
Hula Hoop Mania!
The hip-swivelling Hula Hoop craze swept through America within months of its 1958 debut - yet Wham-O didn’t receive a patent for it until 5th March,...
Stalin's Daughter
Svetlana Aleluyeva walked into the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi on 9th March, 1967, and asked for political asylum. As the only daughter of Joseph Stalin...
Shutting Down Napster
Pioneering music-sharing platform Napster faced a pivotal legal showdown on March 6th, 2001, when - despite the company’s defence that it was merely a...
John Lennon's Jesus Controversy
John Lennon's controversial statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus was first published in the London Evening Standard on 4th March, 1...
Comstock's War On Obscenity
Sending rude mail was dealt a devastating blow on 3rd March, 1873, when the campaign against pornography, reproductive health, birth control, and abor...
It's King Kong!
King Kong roared onto the silver screen on March 2nd, 1933, in an extraordinary simultaneous screening at Radio City and the Roxy, New York - attracti...
Unmasking Mardi Gras
New Orleans witnessed its first modern Mardi Gras procession - kick-started by a group of students eager to revive the traditional masquerade, banned...
And The Winner Isn't
The 89th Academy Awards reached its grand finale on 26th February 2017, with a balls-up that instantly entered Hollywood lore. Presenters Warren Beatt...
The Lonely Hearts Serial Killer
Henri Landru, known as ‘Bluebeard’ to the French public, was executed by guillotine on 25th February, 1922, having murdered at least ten women he date...
Hello Francis, this is God
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone - now better known as St Francis of Assisi - attended Mass on 24th February, 1208, and heard the Gospel According to...
Get Your Specs On!
Optometry historians observe 23rd February, 1305 as the day eyeglasses were perhaps first discussed in public, when friar Giordano de Rivalto stood at...
Let's Colonise Florida
Departing from Puerto Rico with grand plans to establish a new colony, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León set out on his ill-fated second expedition...
Benedict Arnold: American Traitor
When the Second Continental Congress calmly reshuffled the revolutionary army’s high command on 19th February 1777, they couldn’t have known they were...
The Prince Who Drowned in Wine
Sentenced to death for treason against his brother King Edward IV, George, Duke of Clarence was executed on 18th February, 1478 - and, according to le...
From Hitler To Herbie: The VW Beetle
Between 1908 and 1927, the Ford Motor Company sold 15,007,033 Model Ts, making the car the best-selling automobile the world had ever seen. That recor...
Write Me A Cheque
High-rolling merchant Nicholas Vanacker wrote out a cheque for a hefty £400 on 16th February, 1659 - one of the earliest modern cheques still preserve...