Today In History with The Retrospectors

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.

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  1. 15時間前

    Candle In The Wind II

    On 1st September 1997, as Britain was still reeling from Diana Princess of Wales’ untimely death, Elton John’s Candle in the Wind 1997 turned up on a shortlist of potential music to be performed at her funeral. The song, which had been reworked and rerecorded in just a few days, had originally been written about Marilyn Monroe. The original had been a moderate success, charting at Number 5 in the UK charts and 6 in the US. The 1997 update, meanwhile, which was released the day after the princess’s funeral stormed straight to the top of the UK and US singles charts – and did the same in countless countries around the world. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly ask why people’s feelings about the song soured so swiftly; discuss which other song was being considered for funeral; and explain which lyrics from the original were thought to be too spicy to be included in the 1997 version… Further Reading: • ‘Slow Burn: How Elton John's "Candle in the Wind '97"—the Best-Selling Single in Music History—Became a Royal Relic’ (Mental Floss, 2022): https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/elton-john-candle-in-the-wind-97-princess-diana-tribute-song-history  • ‘Princess Diana: Palace did not want Sir Elton John to sing at her funeral, newly released papers show’ (Sky News, 2021): https://news.sky.com/story/princess-diana-palace-did-not-want-sir-elton-john-to-sing-at-her-funeral-newly-released-papers-show-12506086 • ‘How Elton John’s Candle in the Wind became the soundtrack of a nation’s grief’ (The Times, 2022) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/princess-diana-funeral-music-25-year-anniversary-fkf7380ph  • ‘Elton John - Candle in the Wind/Goodbye England's Rose (Live at Princess Diana's Funeral - 1997)’ (BBC; 1997): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o9rLDCfO6o  Love the show? Support us!  Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…  … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.  Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2023. #UK #1990s #Royals #Arts #Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Candle In The Wind II
  2. 1日前

    America's First Bank Robbery

    The Bank of Pennsylvania opened to discover that an astonishing $162,821 (around $3 million today) had vanished without a trace on 31st August, 1798. With no smashed windows, and no blown-apart safes, suspicion naturally fell on someone with inside knowledge. But Suspect #1 in America’s first bank robbery - Patrick Lyon, a highly respected blacksmith who had recently worked on the vault’s locks - was, in fact, completely innocent. He knew who he thought the culprits were, but his decision to head to the authorities and inform them turned out to be a tragic error... In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the yellow fever epidemic haunted Lyon throughout; consider the naivety of the true criminal, Isaac Davis, who attempted to deposit the stolen money into his own account; and reveal how Lyon used his eventual compensation to settle some scores… Further Reading: • ‘A Foolish Decision Made By America's First Bank Robber Led To His Confession’ (Grunge, 2022): https://www.grunge.com/892487/a-foolish-decision-made-by-americas-first-bank-robber-led-to-his-confession/ • ’The first major bank robbery in America happened in colonial Philadelphia and the wrong man was blamed’ (PhillyVoice, 2023): https://www.phillyvoice.com/first-bank-robbery-us-philly-carpenters-hall-patrick-lyon/ • ’The First Bank Robbery in the US Was Also the Stupidest’ (Andy J Lang, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/v-kXTgFpa7s Love the show? Support us! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    America's First Bank Robbery
  3. 2日前 • サブスクリプション登録者限定

    Sunday Special: Make Me A Google Doodle

    Google temporarily changed its homepage logo to a stick figure inspired by Burning Man on 30th August, 1998: the very first Google Doodle. Effectively an out-of-office for founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as they took time off at the Nevada music festival, the quirky marker soon evolved into an important part of Google's corporate personality, spawning its own department of artists and engineers. Halloween 2000 brought Google's first animated Doodle. The 2011 Les Paul Doodle turned the logo into a playable guitar. And the 2010 Pac-Man Doodle was so absorbing that visitors spent nearly 500 million hours playing it in just two days - enough for Guinness World Records to calculate a notional $122 million in lost productivity. In this Sunday Special, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly uncover the controversial figures who divided Doodle fans; consider the company’s somewhat confusing stance on religious holidays; and reveal what Brin was most concerned about when he came for a visit to Arion’s office… Further Reading: • ‘The Story and Evolution of Doodles’ (Google Doodles): https://doodles.google/about/https://doodles.google/about/ • ‘Google’s doodles: Who's behind them? (BBC News, 2012): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19192660 • ‘CHM Revolutionaries: The Art & Technology Behind Google Doodles’ (Computer History Museum, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLE1w47eRY0 The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.  Edit producer: Ollie Peart. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

  4. 4日前

    The Dizzy Leap From Brooklyn Bridge

    Larry Donovan made headlines by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge on 28th August, 1886: a daring feat that earned him the name of the ‘Champion Jumper of the World’ and a reputation for daredevil jumps that ultimately led to his early death. Donovan, who worked for the Police Gazette, an early men's magazine filled with sensational stories, prepared for the jump via a mix of practicality and showmanship, deploying weighted shoes to maintain his posture during the fall and padded leggings for protection, but also a black derby hat for style.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover the 1880s meme for jumping off bridges; consider why Donovan never attracted the devoted following in Britain he had managed to achieve in America; and reveal how a drunken bet brought the story of this early viral star to a tragic end…  CONTENT WARNING: reference to suicide, death by jumping Further Reading: • ‘Larry Donovan, 1880s Bridge Jumper, Lived Too Soon’ (Atlas Obscura, 2017): https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/larry-donovan-bridge-jumper • ’Steve Brodie and the Brooklyn Bridge’ (ThoughtCo, 2017): https://www.thoughtco.com/steve-brodie-and-the-brooklyn-bridge-1773925 • ‘The Infamous Eiffel Tower Death Jump of 1912’ (Content Warning: Death) (Bailey James, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUYPrKKM5M We'll be back on Monday - unless you join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast. Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    The Dizzy Leap From Brooklyn Bridge
  5. 5日前

    The Birth of Ladybird Books

    The British Museum Library registered the legal deposit of the first ever 'Ladybird Series' titles, from publishers Wills & Hepworth (later 'Ladybird') on 27th August, 1914.  The books - 'Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales' and 'Tiny Tots Travels' - didn't look at all like the classic Ladybird books we think of today - but were the beginning of a publishing legacy that changed children’s books forever. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion explain how the classic Ladybird look - fashioned from one massive sheet of paper - was a response to World War Two; review how the publisher dealt with accusations of sexism and colour-blindness in the '70s; and explain the M.O.D.’s connection to one of the most valuable Ladybirds ever published… Thanks to Ladybird collector and historian Helen Day for helping us dig up this date from the archives! Discover more about Helen and her passion for Ladybird on her excellent website: https://ladybirdflyawayhome.com/so-whats-the-story-the-kitchen-table/ Further Reading: • ‘Ladybird Books at 100: The series that inspired millions of children to read’ (Daily Mirror, 2015): https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ladybird-books-100-series-inspired-5335319 • ‘Ladybird Books: The strange things we learned’ (BBC, 2015): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-30709937 • ‘The Ladybird Books Story’ (Little Car, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ED7o4mG0lM Love the show? Support us!  Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…  … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.  Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2021. #1910s #Arts #UK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    The Birth of Ladybird Books
  6. 6日前

    The Man Who Lived in the Airport

    The inspiration for Steven Spielberg movie ‘The Terminal’, Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, began his incredible 18-year stint inside Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport on 26th August 1988. With hopes of flying to Britain, he had found himself trapped in a bureaucratic no-man’s-land after travelling without documents.  Answering to ‘Sir Alfred’, he began to carve out a new personality for himself, living on a red bench surrounded by luggage, airport shops and the relentless rhythms of international travel. He washed in the terminal toilets, ate regularly at McDonald’s using vouchers given to him by airline staff, wore donated clothes and spent hours writing. He became perhaps the world’s most famous homeless man. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Nasseri eventually came to leave - and then return - to his airport home; uncover how his Hollywood money prevented him from accessing support services; and reveal the story of a Turkish citizen who, incredibly, appears to have beaten Sir Alfred’s record for airport residency…   Further Reading: • ‘’The Terminal Man’ lived in a Paris airport for 18 years. I’ll never forget the weeks I spent with him | France’ (The Guardian, 2022): 'https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/23/terminal-man-lived-in-paris-airport-18-years-ill-never-forget-weeks-with-him• 'Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Who Inspired ‘The Terminal,’ Dies in Paris Airport’ (The New York Times, 2022): https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/world/europe/mehran-karimi-nasseri-dead.html • 'He was arguably the world's best-known homeless person' (FRANCE 24 English, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbOBZ9JVR4Q #France #Strange #Person #Iran Love the show? Support us!  Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…  … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.  Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    The Man Who Lived in the Airport
  7. 8月25日

    Noodles: The World's Convenience Food

    Nissin Chikin Ramen (日清チキンラーメン), the first marketed brand of instant noodles, launched in Japan on 25th August, 1958. The product was created by Momofuku Ando, who developed the production method of flash frying noodles after they had been made, thereby drying them and extending their shelf life. His inspiration sprung from the food scarcity in Japan after the Second World War, and the Ministry of Health’s attempts to distribute unpopular U.S.-supplied bread. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explore how Ando’s invention became the world’s emergency supply, student essential, and even prison currency… Further Reading: • ‘How Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen — and transformed Japanese cuisine’ (Vox, 2015): https://www.vox.com/2015/3/5/8150929/momofuku-ando-ramen-instant-noodles • ‘Momofuku Ando & The Rise Of Ramen In Post-War Japan’ (HistoryExtra, 2021): https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/momofuko-ando-noodles-ramen-history-postwar-japan/ • ‘How Instant Ramen Became An Instant Success’ (Insider Business, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASlx70G2x-c Love the show? Support us!  Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…  … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.  Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2023. #Food #Japan #50s #Inventions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Noodles: The World's Convenience Food
  8. 8月24日

    The Godfather of Graffiti

    Darryl McCray, better known as ‘Cornbread’, was honoured at the Graffiti Hall of Fame in Harlem on 24th August, 2013. But it was in 1960s Philadelphia that he’d made his name… by spraying it all over the city, becoming street art’s first serial ‘tagger’ in the process. Unlike gangs, who tagged to claim turf, the teenage Cornbread simply wanted to be noticed - and he was, declaring his love for a girl named Cynthia by writing “Cornbread Loves Cynthia” across the city, much to her parents’ horror. Cornbread’s antics grew ever more daring; he famously tagged an elephant at the zoo, and even the Jackson 5’s airplane, solidifying his reputation as the “Godfather of Graffiti.” In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider why this new form of self-expression particularly appealed to Philadelphia’s disenfranchised Black youth; consider the influence of tagging on later movements such as hip-hop; and reveal how Cornbread got his name… Further Reading: • ‘CORNBREAD: The Graff Pioneer who Tagged an Elephant’ (Blankslaps, 2023): https://blankslaps.com/blogs/blog/cornbread-the-graff-pioneer-who-tagged-an-elephant • ‘First graffiti artist Cornbread shows new work at Philly gallery’ (WHYY, 2019): https://whyy.org/articles/cornbread-the-first-graffiti-artist-shows-new-work-at-philadelphia-gallery/ • ‘CORNBREAD Lives’ (Mass Appeal, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXz_5TJbXr0 Love the show? Support us!  Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…  … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.  Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    The Godfather of Graffiti

予告編

4.7
5段階評価中
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番組について

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.

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