Today In History with The Retrospectors

A roaring wave of syrup swept through the North End of Boston on 15th January, 1919, in an event that claimed 21 lives, including 2 children, and came to be known as the “Great Molasses Flood”.  At the heart of the disaster was a rushed, badly built industrial tank: the steel was too thin, the materials were faulty, leaks were ignored (and literally painted over), and warning signs were dismissed....

Disney’s long-awaited feature ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was rapturously received at Radio City, New York, inspiring three-hour queues for tickets. The reviews that America woke up to on 14th January 1938 were euphoric: a masterpiece had landed. “It is a classic as important cinematically as The Birth Of A Nation”, Frank Nugent wrote in The New York Times.  “You’ll not, most of the time, re...

It was today in history in 1404 that Henry IV issued the Act Against Multipliers, a ban on the mysterious art of creating or duplicating gold, more commonly known as alchemy. It came at an odd time for European science because the widespread efforts to transform so-called base metals, such as lead or copper, into noble metals, such as silver or gold, while futile, actually aided the discovery of t...

Octavia Hill, Hardwicke Rawnsley, and Sir Robert Hunter founded The National Trust on January 12, 1895, with an intention to preserve Britain’s natural beauty and historic treasures for the public and future generations. The founders’ efforts reflected the late Victorian spirit of social and environmental reform, championed by figures like John Ruskin and William Morris. Rawnsley led early efforts...

Naval commander Horatio Nelson became the first non-Royal to receive a full British state funeral on 9th January, 1806, when tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of London to pay tribute to their fallen hero - including, surprisingly, his defeated counterpart, French admiral Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve.  The anticipation for the burial was fuelled by the nationalistic fervour that deve...

John Stewart was elected MP for Lymington, Hampshire on 8th January, 1833.  On paper, he seemed a textbook member of Britain’s elite: wealthy, well-connected, educated in England, and a plantation owner.  But Stewart’s mother was an enslaved woman, making him considered by many to be Britain’s first Black MP. Yet Stewart did not enter Parliament to challenge slavery or injustice. Rather, he was an...

All-Black basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters travelled to Hinckley, Illinois on 7th January, 1927 - setting them on a barnstorming journey through the Midwest, the nation, and eventually the world…  Their manager, Abe Saperstein, was obsessed with basketball, stitching together tours at a time when Black athletes were locked out of most professional leagues. His re-brand of the team to the “...

Roller skates, most readily associated with the 1970s, were actually first patented in the US on 6th January, 1863, by New York furniture salesman James Plimpton. Plimpton developed the shoes after being advised by his doctor to take up ice skating, yet finding himself with nowhere to skate in the Spring and Summer months. He guarded his innovation zealously, and created a leasing model for the no...

An angry crowd hurled abuse and antisemitic slurs at Captain Alfred Dreyfus on 5th January, 1895, as he stood in the courtyard of the École Militaire in Paris to have his insignia torn away and his sword ceremonially snapped. He had been falsely convicted of treason. The case against him rested almost entirely on a memorandum - the bordereau - found torn up in a German embassy waste-paper basket....

Rebecca’s favourite episode of 2025 is “The 'Ten Cent Beer Night' Riot”. Twice the usual crowd turned up to see the Cleveland Indians take on the Texas Rangers on June 4th, 1974 - drawn in not by the baseball match, but by an innovative promotion: for just 10 cents, fans could grab 10 ounces of beer. The lines never stopped, as fans circled back, drank in line, and kept the buzz going. Tensions we...

Arion's favourite episode of 2025 was “Land Rover's Rugged Beginnings” A British motoring icon made its debut at the Amsterdam Motor Show on 30th April, 1948: the Land Rover. The UK’s first off-road vehicle (that wasn’t a tractor!) had been sketched in sand by its creator, Maurice Wilks.  Heavily inspired by the American Willys Jeep, the first Land Rovers were simple, no-frills workhorses with no...

Happy New Year, Retrospectors! We’ll return with new episodes from Monday 5th January, but in the meantime the team have been choosing their favourite episodes from 2025 that are worthy of a second listen. First up, Olly has selected our conversation about ‘New Coke’. Coca-Cola was approaching its 100th birthday on 23rd April, 1985, when it unveiled a new beverage at New York City's Lincoln Center...

How much have YOU learned from this year’s show? It’s time for our annual trivia test, as Arion and Rebecca face Olly’s fiendishly difficult questions for 2025.  And, for the first time, this year you can PLAY ALONG! Just click the link here 👇 https://forms.gle/ytZpWTei392F7YvCA Have an amazing festive season, and thanks so much for listening to the podcast this year. We’ll be back with new episo...

Mistletoe and Wine became the UK’s Christmas Number One on 18th December, 1988; the first of three singles Cliff Richard would take to the top of the festive charts. What makes its triumph so curious is that the song began life as a sardonic showtune written in 1976 for a small musical based on The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. Originally, it underscored a scene in which the impove...

The debut episode of the world’s longest-running animated sitcom - 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' - aired in the U.S. on 17th December, 1989; attracting the Fox network’s highest ever Sunday night ratings. It was an instant sensation, with many contemporary critics remarking that the ‘dysfunctionality’ of The Simpsons was in-keeping with other 90s hits Roseanne and Married… With Children, whi...

The Hideaway Club, now part of London’s Chinatown, opened on 16th December, 1964. Ronnie and Reggie Kray didn’t turn up for the big night, even though they had booked a table. It was an opening gambit in a war of intimidation against the manager of the club, Huw Cargill McCowan - to whom the gangsters had proposed a protection racket; threatening him when he turned down their offer. In this episod...

The world’s most famous bandleader, Glenn Miller, was last seen on December 15th, 1944 - after hitching a ride on a small plane to Paris. Desperate to ensure his band could perform for Allied troops, Miller had flown from Britain against advice, his early death shocking fans around the world. Glenn Miller wasn’t just a celebrity; he was a musical juggernaut. Leading the Army Air Forces Band during...

Inspired by a dream, Prince Charles of Provence ordered an excavation that uncovered a sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of Mary Magdalene on 12th December, 1279.  The evidence presented included a papyrus note, a sweet rose fragrance filling the air, a wax-covered tablet proclaiming Mary's identity, and even a piece of skin where Jesus supposedly touched her after his resurrection.  In...

‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ underwhelmed at the box office when it was first released on 11th December, 1992 - but found its audience on video and DVD in the decades later, becoming a gold-plated Christmas classic, re-watched by families, year after year.  There was darkness behind the scenes - from the sudden death of Muppets creator Jim Henson, to the legal wrangling over Disney’s acquisition d...

19 year-old singer Frank Sinatra, Jr was snatched from his casino dressing room on 10th December, 1962. His famous father was willing to pay the kidnappers a $1 million ransom - but they insisted they only required $240,000.  When the case went to trial, the defence suggested that the Sinatras may have been in on the crime - a slur that damaged Frank Jr’s reputation for the rest of his life. In th...

Now a 900 strong pub chain, with an annual turnover of £1.6 billion, J.D. Wetherspoon is a big name on the British high street. But when entrepreneur Tim Martin flung open the doors of the first branch in London’s Muswell Hill on 9th December, 1979, it was known as ‘Tim’s Free House’ - and closed down on its opening night. He built up the business by taking over leases at old buildings such as chu...

A woman played a female role on the London stage for the very first time on December 8th, 1660, as Desdemona in a revival of Shakepeare’s Othello. The actress was probably Margaret Hughes - though nobody bothered to record this at the time, so we can’t be sure. After the 1660 restoration of King Charles II, theatres opened their doors for the first time after 16 years of Puritan suppression. Charl...

Queen Elizabeth II made Britain’s first long-distance automated phone call on 5th November, 1958 - when, from Bristol, she spoke directly to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 300 miles away, without the need for an Operator.  Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD) transformed the telephone network, but was not without its challenges: automation brought efficiency but also led to job losses, sparking some lab...

The ‘ghost ship’ Mary Celeste was discovered drifting in the Atlantic by Captain David Morehouse of the Dei Gratia on 4 December 1872. On board there were intact provisions, undisturbed cargo, no evidence of violence or theft… and zero crew. Although some damage to the rigging and open hatches hinted at recent rough weather, nothing suggested a crisis severe enough to justify taking to the lifeboa...

Renaissance Man Thomas Harriot was noted for many things - devising the theory of refraction, creating mathematical symbols including ‘greater than’ and ‘lesser than’, and being the first person to draw the Moon through a telescope. But the contribution for which he’s most remembered is bringing back the potato to Britain - an event commonly credited to 3rd December, 1586. On first spotting the ve...