Today In History with The Retrospectors

The public stocks in St Clement’s Dane’s parish (now Portugal Street in London’s Strand) were finally dismantled on 4th August, 1826. They had originally been mandated in 1351, to subjugate labourers demanding higher wages.  Not to be confused for pillories (which restrain both head and hands), stocks (which restrain only the feet) were used for lesser ‘crimes’, such as homosexuality, heresy,...

Virginia Woolf returned to her journal after a two-year hiatus on 3rd August, 1917. In the gap, she had suffered a major mental breakdown, attempted suicide, and been under intense medical supervision. Her rural retreat at Asheham in Sussex became both her sanctuary and a kind of nature-fueled therapy zone where she convalesced under a strict routine of “bed, walk, bed.” Woolf's diary captures eve...

Nine year-old ‘Little Hugh’ went missing in Lincoln on 31st July, 1255. A popular narrative emerged that local Jews (in fact gathering for a wedding) had kidnapped, tortured, and crucified him, perhaps even eating his blood; an antisemitic myth that persisted for centuries, only called out by the Church of England in 1955. A local Jewish man called Copin confessed to the crime (after being torture...

The ‘Cool Britannia’ party - held at 10 Downing Street on 30th July, 1997 - quickly became one of the most iconic events of the New Labour era. Celebrities including Helen Mirren, Eddie Izzard and Lenny Henry were invited to Britain’s seat of power to sup champagne with Tony Blair, the youngest Prime Minister since 1812. The defining image of the night was a photo of Blair chuckling away with rock...

When J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring reached British bookshops on 29th July 1954, there was little sign it would become one of the most influential novels of the century.  Britain was only just emerging from post-war austerity, food rationing had ended only weeks before, and Tolkien's hefty, 21-shilling fantasy - complete with a fold-out map of Middle-earth - looked unlike anythin...

Independent horror film ‘White Zombie’, starring Bela Lugosi, premiered in New York City’s Rivoli Theatre on July 28th, 1932. It marked the first time that zombies had featured in a Hollywood picture - albeit as the result of an evil voodoo master in Haiti rather than a condition passed on through bites, as in later zombie screenplays. Large portions of the film were shot on the Universal Studios...

Warner Brothers’ biggest animated star, Bugs Bunny, made his cartoon debut on July 27th, 1940, in A Wild Hare - though, at the time, he didn’t officially have a name… Though previous versions of the ‘wabbit had appeared in earlier Looney Tunes shorts, this incarnation - directed by Tex Avery - solidified his iconic look, voice, and attitude, including his now-legendary catchphrase, “What’s up, Doc...

American professor Hiram Bingham "discovered" Machu Picchu on 24th July, 1911 - though he initially misidentified it as Vilcabamba, the last stronghold of the Inca civilization during the Spanish conquest. Unlike Vilcabamba, Machu Picchu was built at the peak of the Inca Empire's glory. Believed to have been a winter retreat for the Inca elite, its exact purpose remains a mystery due to that civil...

Concerned that it was too London-centric, the BBC commissioned a series of pop-up outside broadcasts for its youth music station Radio 1, kicking off modestly in Newquay on 23rd July, 1973. The events exploded in popularity, and spawned an annual tour of bucket-and-spade Britain, becoming the iconic ‘Radio 1 Roadshow’. Despite the concerts pulling in massive crowds - and radio audiences of around...

Pablo Escobar dramatically escaped from La Catedral (aka ‘Hotel Escobar’, his luxurious prison compound) on 22nd July, 1992.  The drugs lord had surrendered the previous year under an extraordinary deal that allowed him to avoid extradition to the United States by serving his sentence in a bling hilltop retreat, complete with recreational facilities, fine food and contact with the outside wor...

The fire that destroyed the second Temple of Artemis - one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world - was supposedly set on the day Alexander the Great was born: 21st July, 356 BC. The story goes that the arsonist, Herosratus, was simply seeking notoriety. Herostratus was captured and tortured on the rack, where he confessed to having committed the arson in an attempt to immortalize his name. To...

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg tried to kill Hitler with a suitcase bomb on 20th July, 1944. He failed. The plan — bold, desperate, and nearly successful — was part of Operation Valkyrie, a broader scheme to take control of Germany after Hitler's death and steer the country away from what many military officers feared was total destruction. The near-success hinged on a moment of unfortunate timing...

Punch Magazine published its first edition on 17th July, 1841. Subtitled ‘the London Charivari’, the weekly periodical aimed to carve a niche in the market with less crude and bawdy satire compared to its contemporaries.  Its early days were challenging, with poor circulation and financial troubles. But, as it gained in popularity and influence, it contributed the modern use of the word "cartoon"...

Kissing was a big deal in the Middle Ages: for signing contracts, for greeting colleagues, and for showing deference to the King - a tradition that ended on 16th July, 1439, when Henry VI issued a decree imploring his citizens to stop kissing his ring. Some 400 years before the modern concepts of hygiene and germs had been scientifically established, the 18 year-old monarch clearly had an instinct...

The inventor of margarine, French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, patented his butter substitute on 15th July, 1869. Inspired by a competition launched by Emperor Napoleon III to find a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to butter for the French Navy, Mège-Mouriès called his creation ‘oléomargarine’. It combined purified beef fat with milk and water to create a spread that was more stable than bu...

Dynamite was invented by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who demonstrated it in Britain for the first time on 14th July, 1867. He had discovered that when nitroglycerin, an explosive liquid, was absorbed by kieselguhr, a porous siliceous earth, it produced a solid that was resistant to shock but readily detonable by heat or percussion, making it safer to handle. Nobel named his invention “dynamite”...

Designed as a temporary billboard for a luxury housing development, the iconic ‘Hollywood’ sign (originally spelling out ‘Hollywoodland’) was dedicated on July 13th, 1923. It was intended to last 18 months. Over a century later, it remains. Erected at cost of $21,000—about $360,000 today—and lit by 4,000 bulbs that flashed dramatically in segments (“Holly,” then “Wood,” then “Land,”), the sign fel...

The Scopes Monkey Trial - one of the most famous show trials in U.S. history - began in Dayton, Tennessee on 10th July, 1925.  Though it centred on John T. Scopes - a high school teacher put on trial for teaching evolution - he was actually a substitute teacher who may never have really taught the textbook concerned, and had put himself in the frame to test the Butler Act, a Tennessee law prohibit...

One of the BBC’s biggest-ever flops, soap opera ‘Eldorado’, broadcast its final episode on 9th July, 1993 - just one year after it had begun, at a reported cost of £10 million. Focussing on the glamorous lives of British expats - fusing the elements of ‘EastEnders’ and ‘Neighbours’ - it had seemed destined to be a sure-fire hit. So, a large permanent set for the fictional town of Los Barcos was bu...

Promenades Aériennes, the world’s first modern rollercoaster, opened in Paris on 8th July, 1817. Thrillseekers climbed a towering wooden structure before being sent gliding back down on wheeled carriages attached securely to rails; modest by modern standards, yes, but introducing many of the key features that still define coasters today. Visitors faced a lengthy climb to the summit before enjoying...

Pinocchio, ‘The Story of a Puppet’, debuted in Giornale per i bambini, an Italian weekly magazine for children, on 7th July, 1881. Its author, Carlo Lorenzini - going by the pseudonym C. Collodi - intended the tale to end with the hanging of Pinocchio, but popular demand led to the character having further, more optimistic adventures. As a young man, Collodi joined the seminary but left to support...

The Quarrymen took to the stage at a parish fête near Liverpool on 6th July, 1957: the event that first brought together the brains behind the Beatles, teenagers John Lennon and Paul McCartney. John oozed cool with his swagger, sideburns, and low slung guitar. Paul, watching in awe, was struck by Lennon’s confidence and his seeming ability to improvise lyrics to niche doo-wop tunes. The two boys w...

Captain Joshua Slocum set sail from Nova Scotia in The Spray, his revamped oyster sloop, on 3rd July, 1895: the first solo circumnavigation of the world.  Sailing alone for no reason other than pleasure was considered a fool’s errand at the time, but, motivated by the death of his beloved first wife, Virginia, Slocum sought solace in the sea. His memoir, dedicated to ‘the one who believed the Spra...

Airships had flown since the 1850s, but the first rigid airship to comfortably carry passengers - the Zeppelin - had its maiden voyage at Lake Constance on 2nd July, 1900. The passion project of German aristocrat Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the ‘golden age’ craft were freezing cold on-board, and precarious: the majority of them eventually crashed. Nonetheless, his pluckiness captured the German...

Around sixty cyclists set off from a café in Montgeron, just outside Paris, on 1st July, 1903: the start of the first ever Tour de France.  The event began as a circulation-boosting scheme by newspaper L'Auto; struggling to compete with its rival Le Vélo, they launched the race as a publicity exercise. But the challenge facing riders was extraordinary: the original route covered roughly 2,400 kilo...