Today In History with The Retrospectors The Retrospectors

In this week’s Sunday’s episode, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly recall the shocking events of the Heysel Stadium disaster, which lead to all English football clubs being banned from European competitions for five years from 2nd June, 1985.

The tragedy occurred during the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, when hooligans from both clubs had infiltrated the neutral sections. The policing was inadequate, with officers diverted by minor thefts, and the stadium's security measures woefully insufficient.

39 fans died, and 600 were injured, but, astonishingly, the match continued - with Juventus winning 1-0.

In this episode, The Retrospectors discover how the ban led to the creation of the ill-fated ‘Screensport Super Cup’; consider how Rupert Murdoch's investment in rights transformed the sport; and reveal how the ban affected English clubs’ ability to attract international talent…

Thanks so much for supporting the show! We massively appreciate it.
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 2024.

Rerun. John Harvey Kellogg believed his corn flakes had a future as a sexual suppressant when he filed a patent for "Flaked Cereals and Process of Preparing Same" on 31st May, 1895.
What the Seventh Day Adventist and eugenicist hadn’t counted on was his brother Will - who combined his discovery with sugar; effectively creating the Kellogg company that still exists to this day. 
In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion reveal the origins of the word ‘Sanitarium’, explain what Dr. Kellogg got up to on honeymoon; and revisit his alarming prescription for yoghurt...
Content Warning: references to eugenics, masturbation, sexual content
Further Reading:
• ‘John Harvey Kellogg, MD: Health Reformer and Antismoking Crusader’ at the U.S. National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447485/
• NPR’s Fresh Air on ‘How The 'Battling' Kellogg Brothers Revolutionized American Breakfast’ (2017): https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/08/542145177/how-the-battling-kellogg-brothers-revolutionized-american-breakfast?t=1621942499296
• Discovery’s ‘How It’s Made’ visits a cereal factory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPpMV_vcVEg
‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’
Each Thursday and Friday we repeat stories from our archive of 800+ episodes, so we can maintain the quality of our independent podcast and bring you fresh, free content every Monday-Wednesday… 
… But 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴members get an additional full-length episode each Sunday! 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: Emma Corsham
Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rerun. Hersheypark was created as a recreation ground for the workers and families who staffed the Hershey chocolate factory in Pennsylvania when it opened on 30th May, 1906. But visitors from across the State soon came to marvel at its playgrounds, boating lake and band-stand… and, before long, the environs began to morph into the chocolate-themed amusement park it remains to this day.
Its success exemplifies the ‘Company Town’ phenomenon: at one point, 3% of the USA’s entire population lived in a town that was owned and run by the company that they worked for.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how caramel, not chocolate, first paved the way to Hershey’s success; debate whether Hersheypark was a philanthropic gift to his employees, or a cynical bid to keep them from leaving; and explain to Americans why Brits would prefer an attraction with less butyric acid… 
Further Reading:
• ‘More Than 110 Years of Hersheypark Happy’ (Hershey, 2022): https://www.hersheypa.com/about-hershey/history/hersheypark-history.php
• Milton Hershey, The Man Who Built A Chocolate Empire (All That’s Interesting, 2022): https://allthatsinteresting.com/milton-hershey
• ‘From Sweet To Sweeter: The Legacy of Hersheypark’ (Hersheypark Enthusiast, 2021):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIJlIYlPo38
‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’
Each Thursday and Friday we repeat stories from our archive of 800+ episodes, so we can maintain the quality of our independent podcast and bring you fresh, free content every Monday-Wednesday… 
… But 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴members get an additional full-length episode each Sunday! 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: Sophie King.
Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bing Crosby recorded the biggest-selling single of all time, ‘White Christmas’, on 29th May, 1942. The session took just 18 minutes, and the song was not considered the standout from the album: everyone thought the Valentine’s-themed ballad ‘Be Careful, It's My Heart’ had a better chance of chart success.
The songwriter, Irving Berlin, was perhaps not an obvious person to pen the quintessential American Christmas song, given that he was a Russian-born Jew, who had never celebrated the holiday until his arrival in the United States. But the record’s airplay on US Army overseas radio stations during World War II struck a chord with homesick soldiers, and helped embed the tune deeply into the American psyche.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal why the version you’re almost certainly thinking of is NOT the version with which Bing initally topped the charts; unpick the confusing Russian Doll stack of genres into which the song has been repurposed; and explain why Berlin’s Oscar win became a pivotal moment in the Academy Awards ceremony… 
Further Reading:
• ‘'White Christmas' at 75: A Snapshot of the Most Successful Song In Music History’ (Billboard, 2017): https://www.billboard.com/culture/lifestyle/white-christmas-bing-crosby-history-8071111/#!
• ‘Is White Christmas the Best Popular Song Ever Written?’ (Smithsonian Magazine, 2012): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/is-white-christmas-the-best-popular-song-ever-written-165989545/
• ‘Holiday Inn | Bing Crosby Sings "White Christmas"’ (Universal Pictures, 1942): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ36gbGlm8Y
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‘Miracle babies’ the Dionne Quintuplets - Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and Marie, the first known quintuplets to survive infancy - born on 28th May, 1934 in rural Canada.
Fearing private exploitation, the Ontario government removed them from their parents and placed them in a specially built hospital under the care of Dr Allan Roy Dafoe, who had delivered them. Oliva Dionne fought a nine-year battle to regain them. In the interval, they became the country’s biggest tourist attraction, as three million visitors flocked to “Quintland” to watch the babies at play behind a one-way screen.
In this episode, The Retrospectors reveal how news of the quints’ birth spread so very quickly; explain the tragic events of their eventual reunion with their parents; and ask whether a ‘child zoo’ could ever happen in our more enlightened age…
Further Reading:
‘Dionne Quintuplets: Inside The $500 Million "Freak Show" Of Mid-1900s Canada’ (All That’s Interesting, 2016): https://allthatsinteresting.com/dionne-quintuplets‘Whatever Happened to the Dionne Quintuplets? - Canada's First Quintuplets’ (Country Living, 2017): https://www.countryliving.com/life/kids-pets/a42542/dionne-quintuplets/‘Miracle Babies - The Story of the Dionne Quintuplets’ (BBC, 1998): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GTAWlfjssY&t=2461s
This episode first premiered in 2023, for members of 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 - where you can also DITCH THE ADS and get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 100 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast. Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!
 
We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/retrospectors
 
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 2024.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s Sunday’s episode, exclusively for 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly uncover the major political upheaval that befell Italy on 26th May, 1981, when Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his entire cabinet resigned.

This followed the exposure of a secretive Masonic lodge, known as P2 or Propaganda Due, intent on creating a shadowy state-within-a-state. Its 962 elite members included high-ranking military officers, civil servants, bankers, and a certain Silvio Berlusconi.

The mastermind behind the sect, Licio Gelli, was a former fascist functionary who had reinvented himself as a powerful and well-connected businessman. Gelli fled to Switzerland, but despite being eventually arrested and later extradited to Italy, spent no time behind bars.

In this episode, The Retrospectors unpick the involvement of ‘God’s Banker’, Roberto Calvi; consider Gelli’s lengthy involvement with fascism; and discover a surprising use for old flowerpots…

Further Reading:
• ‘Licio Gelli, fascist and masonic chief’ (FT, 2015): https://www.ft.com/content/7d3fdd08-a418-11e5-8218-6b8ff73aae15
• ‘Licio Gelli: Businessman who became the 'puppet master' of the sinister right-wing organisation, P2 (The Independent, 2015):
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/licio-gelli-businessman-who-became-the-puppet-master-of-the-sinister-rightwing-organisation-p2-a6783576.html
• ‘PBS Newshour’ (PBS, 1981): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3yV8L3s7QQ