Today In History with The Retrospectors

Bram Stoker’s Dracula was first introduced to the world NOT via his canonical novel, but rather in the pages of a seldom-performed - and by all accounts appalling - play-reading at London's Lyceum Theatre on 18th May, 1897. The stage version was not intended to reach a mass audience; but was rather a clever wheeze of Stoker’s to ensure he was recognised as the creator of his iconic characters - as...

Gun totin’, horse ridin’ spectacular ‘Buffalo Bill’s Wild West’ opened in Omaha, Nebraska on 17th May, 1883 - the start of a multi-decade run.   With a cast of hundreds, including Calamity Jane, Sitting Bull, and Annie ‘Get Your Gun’ Oakley, it toured the world - and forever shaped the way cowboys and Indians were represented in popular culture.    In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion reveal t...

Can ‘mesmeric’ mental powers harm you from afar? Well, no. But that didn’t stop Lucretia L. S. Brown accusing fellow Christian Scientist Daniel H. Spofford of ‘malicious animal magnetism’ in court; a case that concluded on 14th May, 1878.   No doubt bolstered by the fact it took place in Salem, Massachusetts - home of the historic American witchcraft trials, in the 1690s - the case aroused public...

‘WannaCry’, the biggest cyberattack the world has seen, was stopped in its tracks on 13th May, 2017. British blogger Marcus Hutchins found the 'kill switch'. He was 22.   The ransomware had attacked the NHS, Renault, Telefónica, FedEx, and Boeing - causing damage estimated at up to $8 billion.    In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion revisit Hutchins’ incredible story, from childhood computer p...

When Bill Wilson met Dr Robert Smith on 12th May, 1935, they could not have known that the 12-step plan they’d devised for treating addiction would spawn the world’s largest support group.    Despite their initially low success rate, they persisted to aid recovering alcoholics and their names went down in history - to the extent that A.A. members still sometimes identify each other by asking, ‘......

At a cost of £2m, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical ‘Cats’ premiered at the New London Theatre on 11th May, 1981 - and the world had never seen anything like it.    With a cast including Brian Blessed and Elaine Paige, the original production was innovative, sexy, creepy, bizarre - and an enormous gamble for the impresarios who backed it.   In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion look back at the ori...

As Annette Sorensen drank margaritas in a New York BBQ restaurant on May 10th, 1997, she left her 14 month-old daughter outside, in a stroller.    She spent two days in jail, was accused of child neglect, and was separated from her baby for four days. But Sorensen, a Danish visitor to the States, claimed she was following Scandinavian norms, and tried to sue for $20m.   In this episode, Olly, Rebe...

The theft of Edvard Munch’s iconic painting ‘The Scream’ sullied the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer - but, on 7th May, 1994, the iconic work was recovered.   The painting, which has been stolen multiple times, was returned on this occasion thanks to the involvement of Britain’s Metropolitan Police - and the comic ineptitude of the thieves. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Ario...

Queen Victoria thrilled the locals with a personal appearance on May 6th 1882, to dedicate Epping Forest, near London, as ‘the people’s forest’.    It was a pivotal moment in the preservation of green space for public recreation - as industrialisation around the capital lead to increasing swathes of land being developed for profit. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion explain how, at one time,...

It was standing room only at Birmingham Town Hall on May 5, 1964 - the day legendary anti-smut campaigner Mary Whitehouse launched her ‘Clean Up TV’ campaign.   Claiming the BBC’s Director-General was “responsible for the moral collapse in this country”, she went on to attract 366,355 signatures to her petition opposing the “disbelief, doubt and dirt that the BBC projects into millions of homes th...

Thirteen years before ever being broadcast, the Grammys took their first steps into rock n’ roll history on May 4, 1959 - when, curiously, they were held in two separate cities on the same night.   If you were a fan of rock n’roll, however, you’d have been sorely disappointed by the winners - ‘Tequila’ by The Champs, Perry Como’s ‘Catch A Falling Star’, and, bizarrely, David Seville & The Chipmunk...

Eva Gabor’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on May 3rd, 1966 introduced the party game ‘Twister’ to an appreciative nation.  Previously considered too racy for toy distributors, who nicknamed it ‘sex in a box’, the game went on to sell an astonishing three million copies in that year alone. But it was also greeted with moral panic, following news reports that teenagers were havin...

Revisiting remarkable moments from history - with considerably less respect than that suggests. new daily entertainment show from Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina, and Arion McNicoll. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices