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Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors
  • 4.5 (103)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED DAILY

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.

  1. 5H AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Sunday Special: The Mother Teresa Phenomenon

    The world’s most famous nun, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19th October, 2003, putting her on a fast-track to sainthood. (Normally, a would-be saint has to wait five years after death). A quarter-of-a-million pilgrims flocked to St. Peter’s Square to see her giant portrait unveiled, while the frail Pope, celebrating his 25th year in office, declared her “an icon of the Good Samaritan.” The city was overflowing with blue-and-white habits, souvenir figurines, and ‘Mother Teresa: The Musical’ was playing nearby. In this Sunday Special for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly review the ‘miracle’ Teresa performed from heaven; reveal the private letters that suggested she may have had doubts about her faith; and explain (one of the reasons) why her trademark white sari with blue trim has not crossed over to the catwalk… Further Reading: • ‘Pope Beatifies Mother Teresa’ (The New York Times, 2002): https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/international/europe/pope-beatifies-mother-teresa.html • ‘The Miracles That Made Mother Teresa a Saint’ (Biography, 2025): https://www.biography.com/religious-figures/a64717173/mother-teresa-miracles-sainthood • ‘Ceremonies to mark beatification of Mother Teresa’ (AP, 2002): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuuma-Ft7K0 #Catholic #Person #2000s #Religion 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 2025.

    10 min

  2. 2D AGO

    The Sound of the Circus

    The traditional music for the circus, "Entrance of the Gladiators", wasn’t actually written for the circus at all, instead when it was composed on 17th October, 1899, it was in fact intended to be a military march.   Julius Fučík composed it, in part, to showcase the cutting-edge capabilities of the era's brass instruments, which had become quicker and more precise than ever before.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly investigate how a sober military march ended up being associated with clowns and trapeze artists; explain what circus music would have sounded like before big bands took over; and reveal which song you should listen out for that traditionally tells circus performers if there is a fire or an escaped wild animal…   Further Reading: • ‘Julius Fučík ‘Entrance of the Gladiators’: Roll Up Roll Up!’ (Clasicalexburns, 2020): https://classicalexburns.com/2021/10/15/julius-fucik-entrance-of-the-gladiators-roll-up-roll-up/  • ‘Circus Music History and Facts’ (History of Circus, 2020): https://www.historyofcircus.com/circus-facts/circus-music-history-facts/  • ‘Julius Fucik - Entry of the Gladiators’ (The Wicked North, 2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0CyOAO8y0  This episode first aired in 2023 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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    12 min

  3. 2D AGO

    The Baby in the Well

    In front of the world’s TV cameras, 18-month-old Jessica McClure - affectionately known as “Baby Jessica” - was lifted from a disused well in Midland, Texas on 16th October, 1987, having been trapped down there for two and a half harrowing days.  Jessica had slipped into the eight-inch-wide shaft while playing in her aunt’s backyard. The hole was too narrow for adults to enter, and too deep for a simple rescue; within hours, the local emergency had turned into a media storm. CNN, still a young network at the time, broadcast the event live to millions, cementing the story of Baby Jessica as one of the first true 24-hour news sensations. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the rescue operation took shape, with a heady mix of engineers, miners, firefighters, and volunteers; reveal that the hero of the day, paramedic Robert O’Donnell, never recovered from the trauma of the rescue; and check-in with ‘Baby’ Jessica now, forty years on… Further Reading: • ‘RESCUE WORKERS FREE CHILD TRAPPED 2 1/2 DAYS IN WELL’ (The Washington Post, 1987): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/10/17/rescue-workers-free-child-trapped-2-12-days-in-well/53916dc9-3911-4352-9b63-8b92b93ac302/ • ‘Opinion: How 58 hours in Midland, Texas, changed the future of TV news’ (CNN, 2021): https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/30/opinions/baby-jessica-cnn-films-shorts-mark-bone-opinion • ‘Baby Jessica: 30 Years After Being Rescued From The Well’ (People, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksZMIvHNeJ0 #Strange #80s #US #Child 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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    12 min

  4. 4D AGO

    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 Westfield, New York - dated 15th October, 1860.  “I have yet got four brothers... and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin”, she wrote. “All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.” When Lincoln returned to Westfield (having just been elected), he had grown a beard - and thanked Bedell personally for the suggestion. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how jibes about Lincoln’s appearance had become part of his Presidential campaign; explain the origin of ‘sideburns’; and uncover the surprising story of how Lincoln’s beard lead to the creation of MB Games… (Plus, for our supporters on Patreon* and our paid subscribers on Apple Podcasts, we discuss the SECOND letter Grace Bedell wrote to Lincoln in 1864, requesting his help gaining a job with the Treasury so that she could financially support her parents. Sign up now to hear it at patreon.com/Retrospectors) *top two tiers only. Further Reading: • ‘The Surprising Reason Abraham Lincoln Grew a Beard’ (Biography, 2020): https://www.biography.com/news/abraham-lincoln-beard • ‘Grace Bedell: Abraham Lincoln grew beard after girl, 11, wrote to him and said 'all the ladies like whiskers'’ (Mail Online, 2012): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2240765/Grace-Bedell-Abraham-Lincoln-grew-beard-girl-11-wrote-said-ladies-like-whiskers.html • ‘The Interesting Story Behind Lincoln's Beard’ (Today I Found Out, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJRrusMBGxU  This episode first aired in 2021 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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    12 min

  5. 5D AGO

    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’s coded letters, delivered to her co-conspirators in beer barrels, had been intercepted by Sir Francis Walsingham, who had deciphered and copied them and built a case against the former Scottish monarch. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Mary had come to be exiled in not one, but two, palaces; consider her pleas of innocence, in the light of her apparent propensity for plotting; and paint a memorable picture of her decapitation at the hands of the State…  Further Reading: • ‘Mary, Queen of Scots: Life Story (The Babington Plot)’, (Tudor Times, 2017): https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/mary-queen-of-scots-life-story/the-babington-plot • ‘Facts about the execution of Mary Queen of Scots’ (History Scotland, 2020): https://www.historyscotland.com/history/facts-about-the-execution-of-mary-queen-of-scots/ • ‘The Babington Plot’ (Russel Tarr, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1siZxHuzkdU This episode first aired in 2021 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    11 min

  6. 5D AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    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’s coded letters, delivered to her co-conspirators in beer barrels, had been intercepted by Sir Francis Walsingham, who had deciphered and copied them and built a case against the former Scottish monarch. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Mary had come to be exiled in not one, but two, palaces; consider her pleas of innocence, in the light of her apparent propensity for plotting; and paint a memorable picture of her decapitation at the hands of the State…  Further Reading: • ‘Mary, Queen of Scots: Life Story (The Babington Plot)’, (Tudor Times, 2017): https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/mary-queen-of-scots-life-story/the-babington-plot • ‘Facts about the execution of Mary Queen of Scots’ (History Scotland, 2020): https://www.historyscotland.com/history/facts-about-the-execution-of-mary-queen-of-scots/ • ‘The Babington Plot’ (Russel Tarr, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1siZxHuzkdU This episode first aired in 2021 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 2025.

    10 min

  7. 5D AGO

    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. During a tour of Westminster, the suffragette campaigner escaped her escort and interrupted a debate on children’s issues, making a bold demand for votes for women. Meanwhile, outside Parliament, some 60,000 people were protesting for the cause. Symons’ act of defiance occurred during a pivotal time for the women’s suffrage movement. The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), founded by Emmeline Pankhurst, were turning to ever-more extreme and direct forms of action, in pursuit of their motto of ‘Deeds, not Words’. Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the movement then escalated into acts of vandalism, arson, and even bombings; consider just how ‘equal’ equal voting rights were when they finally arrived; and discover the day suffragettes dispatched the grille on Parliament’s ‘women’s gallery’ in spectacular style… Further Reading: • ‘First woman to speak in UK parliament’ (Bangladesh Post, 2019): https://bangladeshpost.net/posts/first-woman-to-speak-in-uk-parliament-14420 • ’Suffragettes History Facts: A Guide To The Votes for Women Campaigners’ (HistoryExtra, 2024): https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-suffragettes/ • ’Suffragettes vs Suffragists: Did violent protest get women the vote?’ (Channel 4 News, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw0IAFIhVfA This episode first aired in 2024 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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    13 min

  8. OCT 11 · BONUS • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    EXTRA: Oktoberfest Pub Trivia 🍻

    When was Oktoberfest cancelled? Which event led to twelve deaths? And how did the LGBT “Pink Sunday” tradition begin in 1977? Arion, Rebecca and Olly investigate, in this bonus five minutes of extra content for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon. Thanks for supporting the show!

    5 min
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out of 5
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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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