Today In History with The Retrospectors

Nicholas Ray’s ‘troubled teen’ picture, ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ opened in the US on 27th October, 1955. The film was eagerly anticipated, partly due to the recent death of its star, James Dean, in a car accident.

Although the movie’s title can be traced back to a book by Dr. Robert Lindner that explored the mind of a teenage criminal, the script underwent multiple revisions - in part so that Dean and the young cast, including Natalie Wood and Dennis Hooper, could contribute improvisation. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly examine the film’s radical sexua...

“Come on Barbie, let’s go party!” was adopted as a global mantra after Aqua’s catchy single ‘Barbie Girl’ reached number one on October 26th, 1997 in the UK - where it remains in the Top 20 bestselling singles of all time.

Initially known as Joyspeed - a techno oddity whose biggest claim to fame was a rave version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” - the Danish band had been inspired to write about ‘life in plastic’ at a Copenhagen art installation made of Barbie dolls. Mattel was not amused. The toy titan sued, claiming Barbie’s reputation had been sullied.

I...

When Steve Jobs took to the stage in Cupertino on 23rd October, 2001, he unveiled Apple’s first portable device: the iPod. As ever, his pitch was simple and on-point: "1,000 songs in your pocket."

But the iPod wasn't Jobs’s creation. Its concept came from Tony Fadell, an amateur DJ who’d grown frustrated by lugging his music collection to gigs. Apple saw the potential for a hardware system that could work as an entry-point to iTunes. By the time the iPod was eventually discontinued in 2022, over 450 million products had been sold, forever changing how people consume music.

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Arion, Rebecca and Olly investigate the story of Dr. Hawley Crippen, convicted of murdering his wife, music hall performer Cora Crippen, on 22nd October, 1910.

Cora’s corpse had been discovered in their Holloway cellar - but homoeopath Crippen had fled to America with his lover Ethel Lenev dressed as a boy. However, the Captain of the SS Montrose became suspicious of their behaviour, and wirelessly telegraphed Scotland Yard to arrest the pair upon arrival in Canada.

In this episode, the Retrospectors explore how it was Lenev’s love for Cora’s jewellery that initially raised suspic...

Frank Lloyd Wright’s extraordinary Guggenheim building finally flung open its doors on 21st October, 1959, after a gestation period of two decades - during which time both Wright, and Solomon Guggenheim himself, had died.

The reaction was mixed. Art critics panned the design, likening it to “a washing machine”, an “inverted oatmeal bowl”, and an “oversized and indigestible hot cross bun”. Even those who praised the architecture mostly felt it nonetheless overwhelmed the modern art displayed within it.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the notoriously nature-loving Wright had been persuaded to work on such a...

The Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20th October, 1973, marking the start of a two-week festival of events in celebration of the audacious new building. 

“I understand that its construction has not been totally without problems,” Her Majesty commented with some understatement, adding “but the human spirit must sometimes take wings or sails, and create something that is not just utilitarian or commonplace”.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss why the construction of the Opera House ran ten years late and 1,357% over budget; examine what prompted visionary architect Jørn Utzon t...

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 episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly review the ‘...

Wu Zetian became China's first and only female Emperor on 16th October, 655 - cementing an extraordinary rise from Concubine to Secretary to Consort to Queen. On the day of her coronation in 690, a massive earthquake rocked China, a supposed sign of divine disapproval. But Wu flipped the narrative, declaring that the upheaval was a blessing, a symbol of Buddhist paradise manifesting on earth. 

Her path to power was unconventional, defying deeply entrenched Confucian ideals that regarded female rulers as unnatural, even catastrophic. It was a rise marked by brutal rivalries, during which she allegedly orchestrated the downfall o...

The Secret of Monkey Island, one of the best loved video games of the point-and-click era, was released on the 15th October, 1990, without, it must be said, a great deal of fanfare.

Inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland and the novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, the game was a swashbuckling piratical adventure which – unusually for gaming of the time – put laughs above thrills. Despite its initially mixed reaction, it went on to become a sleeper hit that a generation of gamers took to their hearts.

In this episode, Arion, Rebe...

Henry Blair, the only inventor ever denoted as a ‘colored man’ in the records of US Patent Office, received a patent for his invention of a mechanical corn planter on 14th October, 1834. For decades, it was believed this was the first example of an African-American inventor receiving a US patent.

The truth turns out to be more complex, and is touched by the legacy of slavery, legal reform, and black activism… but Thomas Jennings, the inventor of ‘dry scouring’ (an early instance of dry cleaning) registered his patent thirteen years earlier and is, probably, the true holder of the tit...

On October 13th, 1881, the linguist and grammarian Eliezer Ben-Yehuda held what is thought to have been the first modern conversation in Hebrew with two friends at a Paris café.

The conversation would have had some serious stumbling blocks, given that the language was still missing numerous modern words including bicycle, towel, and – crucially for being in a cafe – a word for coffee.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss the connection between Hebrew's revival and growing Jewish nationalism; look at the personal lengths Ben-Yehuda was willing to go to make the language take off, inclu...

A grand, five-day bash to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen, Munich’s first ‘Oktoberfest’ kicked off on October 12th, 1810, with an emphasis on horse races, folk costumes, and royal pageantry (rather than steins and sausages).

Ludwig later admitted he’d chosen Therese for practical reasons, not passion - and proceeded to have plenty of affairs, including one with the infamous dancer Lola Montez, which helped bring an end to his reign. But the people adored Queen Therese, and continued to celebrate Oktoberfest annually, until it evolved into the world’s...

King Alexander of Yugoslavia embarked on a state visit to France on 9th October, 1934 – and was shockingly shot dead by an assassin in the crowd, the aftermath of which was captured by newsreels.

Yugoslavia was a fractured country; an uneasy alliance between multiple peoples governed from Belgrade, and despised by extremist groups who wanted Macedonian independence.

The assassin, Bulgarian revolutionary Chernozemski, was facilitated by Italy and Hungary, dissatisfied with the Treaty of Versailles and seeking influence in the Balkans – but this dark alliance was covered-up by France in an attempt to keep Mussolini on-side in upco...

The world's oldest oldest continuously surviving constitution, was adopted in the tiny country of San Marino on 8th October, 1600.

This was a good 187 years before the United States adopted its own constitution and, during his presidency, Abraham Lincoln frequently held San Marino up as the model of a government founded on republican principles. Such ongoing praise eventually earnt the US president honorary San Marino citizenship!

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain what an "Extraordinarium" is;  discuss why most of the rest of the world had to wait almost two hundred years before they h...

Léon Gambetta took to the skies above Paris in a hot air balloon on October 7th, 1870, soaring over the enemy German soldiers that surrounded the city on his way to raise new armies to swing the Franco-Prussian war back in France’s favour.

Perhaps ill-advisedly, the charismatic statesman shouted “Vive la République!” as he went, thus attracting enemy fire which punctured his balloon, but the escape was successful, ultimately landing in an oak tree in Tours.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how 150 years ago hot air balloons came to be thought...

The world’s most famous cabaret, the Moulin Rouge, opened its doors in Paris on 6th October, 1889. Founded by Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler, the club was originally called the Jardin de Paris and featured everything from art galleries to operettas, live tableau and an opium den.

In the era of the Belle Epoque, however, the venue became most associated with the scandalous can-can dance, which actually originated in London but found its home in Montmartre.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how a giant stucco elephant became part of the opening attractions; re...

Monty Python’s Flying Circus made its TV debut, in a Sunday night graveyard slot on BBC 1, on 5th October, 1969.

Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones - plucked from ITV kids show Do Not Adjust Your Set - were matched by BBC producers with the acerbic John Cleese and Graham Chapman from At Last The 1948 Show, and, surprisingly, American animator Terry Gilliam. The result was an unprecedentedly anarchic and volatile smorgasbord of innovative TV sketches.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover the turbulent relationship between the comedians and BBC bosses; reveal the lo...

Secretive Catholic sect Opus Dei was founded on 2nd October, 1928 by the young, energetic priest Jose Maria Escriva, who believed his divine mission was to inject religious fervour into everyday life, with holiness achieved not via clergy, but from the daily work of laypeople. 

The faith grew rapidly in Spain, especially during the Franco era, eventually spreading internationally. But its ties to right-wing governments, including those of Franco and Pinochet, sparked criticism; and its propagation of corporal mortification - where members engage in practices such as wearing uncomfortable garments and self-flagellation - have been controversial.

I...

Tobe Hooper’s legendary low-budget horror film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, first screened in Austin on 1st October, 1974.

The movie was an international sensation - making £21.9 million from its £100,000 budget in its first year - although not in the UK, where it was not screened nationally for 25 years, due to the BBFC’s concerns about its portrayal of suffering and violence against women.

In this episode, The Retrospectors unpick the picture’s gruesome reputation, given that much of the violence is suggested rather than explicitly shown; pore over the extreme conditions faced by the hitherto unknown...

The first ever episode of Thunderbirds, the revolutionary British TV show starring puppets, aired on September 30th, 1965. It was instantly a hit in Britain, and elsewhere in the world, but its failure to captivate a US audience led to its untimely demise after just two seasons.

The show used a system, coined by its creators as “Supermarionation” which involved pre-recording the voices, which would then be played back during filming. Each marionette’s head contained filters which converted the dialogue into pulses, which in turn travelled to solenoids in the puppet’s lips.

In this episode...

Henry Robinson opened the Office of Addresses and Encounters on Threadneedle Street, London on 29th September, 1650. The centre provided a forward-looking, unusual mix of services ranging from job placements, money lending, and property dealings… to (shhh) match-making.

Robinson's inspiration came from a broader philosophical concept of creating a place where people of all classes could access information, regardless of their status in society. He accordingly charged a minimal fee for answers to queries, and offered an array of services, from buying and selling land to language tuition and finding ‘travel companions’. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca...

The Liberty Loan Parade on 28th September, 1918 was the biggest party Philadelphia had ever seen: floats, marching bands, and miles of cheering crowds. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a deadly super-spreader event.

The Spanish flu had first killed a Philadelphian just nine days earlier, and cases were already popping up in the Navy Yard. Doctors warned the city to cancel the parade, but officials waved them off. Within days, Philadelphia was a disaster zone. Hospitals overflowed, schools and bars closed, and the city morgue piled up with bodies.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and...

Billy Graham’s Los Angeles Crusade started modestly on 25th September, 1949. But after newspaper giant William Randolph Hearst told his editors to "puff Graham", the nightly revival meetings exploded in popularity, becoming a ‘sin-smashing sensation’, and Graham soon became America’s favourite preacher.

His style was perfect for the Hollywood backdrop. At just 30 years old, Graham had a youthful, energetic presence, dashing good looks, and a flair for the dramatic. His sermons, packed with urgency and fast-paced delivery, connected worldly threats like communism with personal struggles, and always offered a strikingly simple answer: Jesus. By the end of this...

The ‘Austenmania’ craze of the mid-90s kicked off with the BBC’s production of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, which first aired on 24th September, 1995.

Now primarily remembered for Colin Firth’s ‘wet shirt’ scene, Andrew Davies’s ‘sexed up’ adaptation also starred Firth’s real-life squeeze Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet, and was the first serialisation of the novel to be filmed on location, with picturesque country estates providing a ‘property porn’ backdrop to the plot’s central romance.

In this episode, the Retrospectors reveal how Firth later tried to distance himself from the fetishisation of his role as Mr Darcy; expla...

Nintendo was world-famous by the 1980s but the origins of the company go back a century earlier - to September 23rd, 1889, when Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai, a maker of brightly-coloured ‘Hanafuda’ cards.

The hand-painted playing cards, made of mulberry bark, were produced for decades and were a favourite of Yakuza gangsters for use in illegal gambling. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly look into the bizarre businesses with which Nintendo experimented before their pivot into video games; explain how a plastic concertina hand changed the fortunes of the company’s toy division; and reveal...

Robert Walpole, first Lord of the Treasury, moved into 10 Downing Street on 22nd September, 1735, after three years of renovations. Although initially given to him as a personal gift from the King, the house became the official residence for all future Prime Ministers.

Despite its central location in London, Downing Street wasn't fashionable at the time, and the house already had a long history of structural issues due to soft ground, leading to constant repairs. Over time, the original yellow bricks designed by Sir Christopher Wren turned black because of pollution from smog and smut.

In...

Barrister Cecil Chubb attended a Salisbury auction on September 21st, 1915 intending to buy curtains or chairs, but impulsively bought… Stonehenge. Yes, that Stonehenge.

Built by Neolithic and Bronze Age communities for purposes still debated today - ceremonial? religious? - for centuries the site had been treated less like a sacred monument and more like an inconvenient field ornament. Sheep grazed around it, tourists scratched their names into it, and the Aristocratic family who owned it had begun to charge entry to pay for fences and security guards to keep vandals away. But then their only heir died in...

The first Paralympic Games - hosting 400 athletes from 23 countries - took place in Rome on 18th September, 1960. 

But it was only known by this name retrospectively: the day it took place, this festival of disabled sport was called The Ninth Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games.

Sprung from a competition held at a hospital in Buckinghamshire, and pioneered by German-Jewish neurosurgeon Dr. Ludwig Guttman, the Games began as part of a physiotherapy programme for soldiers and civilians with spinal cord injuries. As the Stoke Mandeville Games expanded, so did the variety of sports and the level o...

Why were multiple ships and planes lost in the section of the Atlantic between Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda? Journalist Edward van Winkle-Jones first floated the idea of ‘the Bermuda Triangle’ - although he didn’t call it that - in an article for the Miami Herald on 17th September, 1950.

The speculation that ensued inspired a lively industry in conspiracies, myths and tall tales that remains to this day, but the association with that area being dangerous dates back almost 500 years - when no less a figure than Christopher Columbus reported seeing a giant flame crashing into the se...

The Wall Street bomb, outside JP Morgan’s headquarters, killed 38 people and seriously injured 143 more on 16th September, 1920. It was the biggest terror attack in New York City until 9/11.

The blast shattered windows, overturned vehicles and sent fragments of metal and glass flying through nearby buildings. J.P. Morgan himself was safely on holiday in Scotland, but his son Junius Morgan was among those injured. Mostly, the victims were clerks, stenographers, messengers, and porters caught in the lunchtime rush. 

Investigators reconstructed much of the bomb and questioned hundreds of witnesses, but crucial physical evidence was los...

As a symbol over 7,000 years old, the swastika had a long, diverse history before becoming the official flag of Nazi Germany on 15th September, 1935. It had been considered a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Odinism - and appeared on artifacts from pre-Christian European cultures. 

It had even featured as part of U.S. Girl Scout iconography in the early 20th century. But when Adolf Hitler made it the symbol of the Nazi Party in 1920, its resonance altered forever. No longer an image of good luck and auspiciousness, it became synonymous with Nazi atrocities.

Kellogg’s launched their space-age convenience food, Pop-Tarts, on 14th September, 1964.

In a cheeky bit of corporate one-upmanship, the cereals company had beaten their arch-rivals, Post, to supermarket shelves: Post’s product “Country Squares” was actually announced first, but couldn’t gain ground on Kellogg’s copycat product.

Culturally, Pop-Tarts arrived at just the right moment. Women were working outside the home, households were busier, and convenience was becoming fashionable instead of shameful. Why crack eggs or even pour milk when you could shove something into the toaster and have a ready-to-eat treat? And, thanks to World War...

Captain Peter Warner and his crew made a startling discovery as they sailed past the uninhabited island of Atta in the Pacific on 11th September, 1966: six naked, shaggy-haired teenage boys, who had been stranded there for fifteen months.

Sione, Stephen, Kolo, David, Luke, and Mano had escaped from their boarding school in Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, having "borrowed" a boat and embarked on a spontaneous adventure that went horribly wrong when a storm left them adrift at sea. 

For eight days, they battled the elements, surviving on coconuts, bananas, and rainwater before they spotted Atta. With t...

London cab driver George Smith became the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building on 10th September, 1897. He was fined 20 shillings (around £130 in today's money) - but was not banned from the road.

The vehicle he was driving only had a top speed of 12 mph, but, unfortunately for him, the building he crashed into was the home of celebrated actor Sir Henry Irving - which might be why he was the first person charged with a law that had technically been on the books since 1872.

In this episode, A...

‘Friends’ spin-off ‘Joey’ premiered on NBC on 9th September, 2004. 18.6 million Americans tuned in to watch Matt LeBlanc’s next chapter as Joey Tribbiani, now relocated to Los Angeles, alongside his sister Gina and her teenage son Michael.

But the audience steadily melted away, and NBC shunted the second season around before putting the show on hiatus, before cancelling it. 

In today’s episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the delicate dance of trying to spin off a character from a massively successful ensemble comedy; discover that LeBlanc had not been executives’ first choice from the Friends cast to...

The last known Tasmanian tiger to be held in captivity was found dead at Hobart’s Beaumaris zoo on 8th September, 1936.

The critically endangered marsupial was accidentally locked out of its shelter overnight and succumbed to the frigid temperatures. With the animal’s death, a species that had once roamed across Australia for thousands of years went out with a whisper.   

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss why 19th- and 20th-century Australians hunted Tasmanian tigers with such enthusiasm; explain why Thylacines had been in decline for about 3,500 years anyway; and look into how close s...

America’s first attempt at submarine warfare set sail - or rather, sank - off the coast of New York on 7th September, 1776.

‘The Turtle’ was the brainchild of David Bushnell, a former Yale student who built a wooden, barrel-shaped craft secretly equipped to drill a hole in a British warship, and attach an explosive charge.

The vessel had ballast tanks, a hand-cranked propeller, and a snorkel for air - giving the operator about 30 minutes of breathing time. For lighting, candles were too risky, so Bushnell used glow-in-the-dark fungus, which, unfortunately, stopped glowing in cold water...

When 90 Irish nobles, led by the Earl of Tyrconnell and the Earl of Tyrone, fled for Normandy in the dead of night on 4th September, 1607, their intentions were not entirely clear. 

Their escape, which became known as the ‘Flight of the Earls’, was mainly a bid for freedom from the tightening grip of English Protestant rule - but did they intend to return, securing support for a rebellion against England en route? Or simply seek refuge in Rome, amidst an increasingly impossible situation for Catholics after the Nine Years’ War?

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Oll...

Posing as a sailor, with a borrowed ‘Protection Pass’ in his pocket, Frederick Douglass boarded a train from Baltimore to Philadelphia on 3rd September, 1838 - and escaped the slavery into which he had been born. 

To formalise the process, he had to dodge slave-catchers, change his name and pay for his freedom. He then became an abolitionist, orator and public intellectual - and one of the most photographed men of the 19th century.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how Douglass’s story continues to challenge many of our preconceptions about slavery; explain how he u...

West German amateur pilot Mathias Rust went on trial on 2nd September 1987. Three months earlier, the teenager had flown a rented Cessna 172 from Helsinki deep into Soviet airspace, eventually landing beside Moscow's Red Square. 

His stated aim was a peace mission - he had wanted to meet Mikhail Gorbachev and make a dramatic statement about East-West relations. The Soviet court was unimpressed, charging him with illegal border-crossing, violating international flight regulations and hooliganism.

Rust had become preoccupied with Cold War tensions and the failure of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Reykjavík, and decided that a sp...