Today In History with The Retrospectors
The Retrospectors 1 293 episodes Nov 12, 2026
A daily history podcast that explores curious, funny, and surprising events from the past. Hosted by Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina, and Arion McNicoll, each ten-minute episode covers topics ranging from the invention of the Game Boy to Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain. The show was nominated for Best Daily Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2023.
Episodes
The Exploding Whale
Arion, Rebecca and Olly recall the events of 12th November, 1970, when the coastal town of Florence, Oregon faced a dilemma: the 8-ton dead sperm whale washed up on its shores, emitting a putrid stench that had become unbearable for residents.
George Thornton, a Department of Transportation engineer, proposed an unconventional solution: detonating the whale with half a ton of dynamite. Crowds gat
Welcome To Stevenage
Britain's first ‘New Town’, built to accommodate 60,000 residents, was Stevenage, Hertfordshire - designated on 11th November, 1946 by Lewis Silkin, Labour’s Minister for Town and Country Planning.
Inspired by the rush to accommodate Londoners displaced by the Nazi bombing of the capital, the construction of the concrete metropolis was heavily opposed by the 6,400 residents of ‘Old Stevenag
The Temple of Reason
The French government introduced a new State religion on 10th November, 1793: the ‘Cult of Reason’, which attempted to reflect the anti-clerical attitudes of the French Revolution.
But - as with the new secular calendar that reset the year to zero and gave democratic names to the months - the general public did not take to their local Church becoming a ‘Temple of Reason’, and most of the me
The Fugitive Who Killed His Family
John Emil List murdered his mother, wife and three children in a methodical massacre on November 9th, 1971. Then he left their bodies in the ballroom of their sprawling 19-room mansion, parked his car at the international airport and fled for Denver. Astonishingly, he remained on the run for EIGHTEEN YEARS.
Remarkably, in a 1989 edition of America’s Most Wanted, a forensic sculptor created an acc
Arion Has A Book Out!
Arion has written a book! The Final Edition is a satirical newspaper-style book based on the premise that most of the news stories breaking this week could in fact have been published several decades ago – and will still ring true several decades from now.
In this special episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly look at some of the headlines featured in the book that feel like they have been with us thro
Catherine The Dead
Catherine the Great of Russia died on 6th November, 1796 - but, contrary to rumours which still persist to this day, the event did not involve an intimate act with a horse. In reality, she collapsed in her washroom, fell into a coma, and died in bed.
Born as Princess Sophie in Prussia, she was groomed for marriage, and eventually wed Peter, who would become Tsar of Russia. Detesting him fro
The Men Who Stole Monopoly
Arion, Rebecca and Olly unearth the origins of iconic board-game Monopoly, marketed across the United States by Parker Brothers on 5th November, 1935.
Its roots lay in a game designed by Quaker feminist Lizzie Magie in 1902, intended to illustrate the theories of political economist Henry George. Her concept, called "The Landlord's Game," intended to demonstrate the unfairness of the land system.
Harry Potter Goes To Hollywood
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first big-screen adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling book series, had its premiere in London's Leicester Square on November 4th, 2001.
Among the glittering guest list were Sting, Cliff Richard, and the Duchess of York, but Baby Spice spoke for all of us when she told reporters “I don’t know what to expect, but I'm really excited!”
In this episo
Muhammad Ali and the Hail of Toothbrushes
In a quirky blend of sports, public health, and self-promotion, boxing legend Muhammad Ali took on an unusual opponent at the Washington Monument on 3rd November, 1979: ‘Mr. Tooth Decay’.
The demonstration, promoted by Don King, culminated with Ali knocking down Decay in the sixth round, prompting the crowd of children to celebrate by tossing toothbrushes. It was part of an extended dental health
The Spruce Goose Takes Flight
Howard Hughes - aviator, filmmaker, and all-around eccentric - gathered reporters at Long Beach, California on 2nd November, 1947 to witness his giant seaplane, nicknamed ‘the Spruce Goose’, take flight. For 26 seconds.
Built mostly of birch, the “Goose” was officially called the H-4 Hercules, a flying boat dreamed up during World War II as a way to transport 750 troops or even tanks across the
The 'War of the Worlds' Panic
Martians invaded New Jersey on CBS Radio on 30th October, 1938, when Orson Welles' War of the Worlds delighted and confused a generation of Americans.
The fictional news bulletins sounded terrifyingly real, and many listeners missed the disclaimer stating it was just a play. But radio was a burgeoning medium, and Americans were still feeling the strain of the Great Depression, and feared be
Stealing The Star Of India
The ‘jewel heist of the Century’ occurred at the American Museum of Natural History, New York on 29th October, 1964.
Florida surfer ‘Murph the Surf’ and his accomplices, Allan Kuhn and Roger Clark, stole priceless gems, including the Star of India, worth over $3 million today. The lax security at the institution, along with non-functional alarms and reduced staff, made the theft relatively easy -
Welcome To Harvard
The life of Harvard University – the oldest institution of higher learning in the US – officially began on 28th October, 1636 when the Massachusetts Bay Colony appropriated £400 for its construction.
It's fair to say the first few years of Harvard’s existence were not a success, featuring whippings, poisonings, and way too little beef and beer for the students’ liking.
In this episode, Arion, Re
Rebel Without A Script
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
Aqua's Barbie Megahit
“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
1,000 Songs In Your Pocket
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 c
The Body in the Cellar
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 wireless
Welcome To The Guggenheim
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 th
Australia's Most Iconic Building
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
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 ico
Crown The Concubine
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. 
Journey To Monkey Island
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 t
The First African-American Patents
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 bl
Reviving Hebrew
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 ep
The First Oktoberfest
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 ple
Killing Yugoslavia's King
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 revol
The World's First Constitution
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 preside
Gambetta Takes Flight
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 esca
Bienvenue au Moulin Rouge
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 ac
Making Monty Python
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 unprecedented
Creating Opus Dei
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 ti
Screening The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
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
Thunderbirds Are Go!
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 wou
The Inquiry Office
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 in
Philadelphia's Deadly Parade
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 offici
Praise The Lord, It's Billy Graham
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,
Sexing Up Jane Austen
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 pict
Here Comes Nintendo
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,
Welcome to Downing St
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 o
The Man Who Bought Stonehenge
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 gr
How the Paralympics Began
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 neurosurg
The Bermuda Triangle Theory
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
New York's First Terror Attack
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 amo
Hitler's Swastika Hijack
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 H
Pop-Tarts: So Hot, They're Cool!
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
The Real Lord of the Flies
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 sp
The 19th Century Drunk Driver
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 He
Why Nobody Liked 'Joey'
‘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 epis
Last of the Tasmanian Tigers
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
The One Man Submarine
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 fo
The Night The Earls Vanished
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 ag
Becoming Frederick Douglass
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 Teen Who Flew Into Red Square
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 unimpress
Candle In The Wind II
On 1st September 1997, as Britain was still reeling from Diana Princess of Wales’ untimely death, Elton John’s Candle in the Wind 1997 turned up on a shortlist of potential music to be performed at her funeral.
The song, which had been reworked and rerecorded in just a few days, had originally been written about Marilyn Monroe. The original had been a moderate success, charting at Number 5 in the
America's First Bank Robbery
The Bank of Pennsylvania opened to discover that an astonishing $162,821 (around $3 million today) had vanished without a trace on 31st August, 1798.
With no smashed windows, and no blown-apart safes, suspicion naturally fell on someone with inside knowledge.
But Suspect #1 in America’s first bank robbery - Patrick Lyon, a highly respected blacksmith who had recently worked on the vault’s lock
The Dizzy Leap From Brooklyn Bridge
Larry Donovan made headlines by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge on 28th August, 1886: a daring feat that earned him the name of the ‘Champion Jumper of the World’ and a reputation for daredevil jumps that ultimately led to his early death.
Donovan, who worked for the Police Gazette, an early men's magazine filled with sensational stories, prepared for the jump via a mix of practicality and showma
The Birth of Ladybird Books
The British Museum Library registered the legal deposit of the first ever 'Ladybird Series' titles, from publishers Wills & Hepworth (later 'Ladybird') on 27th August, 1914.
The books - 'Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales' and 'Tiny Tots Travels' - didn't look at all like the classic Ladybird books we think of today - but were the beginning of a publishing legacy that changed children’s books fore
The Man Who Lived in the Airport
The inspiration for Steven Spielberg movie ‘The Terminal’, Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, began his incredible 18-year stint inside Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport on 26th August 1988.
With hopes of flying to Britain, he had found himself trapped in a bureaucratic no-man’s-land after travelling without documents.
Answering to ‘Sir Alfred’, he began to carve out a new personality
Noodles: The World's Convenience Food
Nissin Chikin Ramen (日清チキンラーメン), the first marketed brand of instant noodles, launched in Japan on 25th August, 1958.
The product was created by Momofuku Ando, who developed the production method of flash frying noodles after they had been made, thereby drying them and extending their shelf life. His inspiration sprung from the food scarcity in Japan after the Second World War, and the Ministry o
The Godfather of Graffiti
Darryl McCray, better known as ‘Cornbread’, was honoured at the Graffiti Hall of Fame in Harlem on 24th August, 2013. But it was in 1960s Philadelphia that he’d made his name… by spraying it all over the city, becoming street art’s first serial ‘tagger’ in the process.
Unlike gangs, who tagged to claim turf, the teenage Cornbread simply wanted to be noticed - and he was, declaring his love for a
The Voodoo Revolution
The creation of Haiti was the culmination of a slave revolt that began on a stormy night in the dense woods of Bois Caïman in Saint-Domingue, on 21st September, 1791, when a Voodoo ceremony led by the Jamaican-born priest Dutty Boukman called upon the enslaved Africans to reject their masters and embrace freedom in a bloody uprising.
Saint-Domingue was France’s most lucrative colony, producing va
One Direction: The Movie
‘This Is Us’ premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on 20th August, 2013. 10,000 ‘Directioners’, some of whom had slept rough for three nights, were there to catch a glimpse of their favourite boyband.
The documentary, directed by ‘Supersize Me’s Morgan Spurlock, went on to take $18m in its Labor Day opening weekend in the US - but failed to scale the heights of Justin Beiber’s effort, ‘Never Sa
The CIA's Iranian Coup
Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown in a coup backed by the CIA and MI6 on 19th August, 1953. He had nationalised Iran's oil industry, threatening the British stake in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP), fuelling American fears of the spread of Communism.
Britain initially responded with an economic blockade, and the Americans initially stayed out, but Cold War fears about Soviet influenc
Discovering Helium
French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen became the first person to observe helium, an element never before seen on Earth, on August 18th, 1868.
Janssen had been observing a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India when he noticed a bright yellow line with a wavelength of 587.49 nanometers in the spectrum of the chromosphere of the Sun. He initially assumed the line to be sodium, but, upon
The Man Who Invented Seat Belts
Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin patented the three-point seatbelt while working for Volvo, on 17th August 1959. Prior to that, cars only had lap belts - basically a single strap across your waist - if they were fitted at all.
Volvo made the patent open to all manufacturers, which boosted global take-up, and enhanced their Safety First brand image.
But manufacturers and governments alike were surp
Inside The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment, created by Philip Zimbardo, began on 14th August, 1971.
24 male college students volunteered to be assigned roles as either ‘guard’ or ‘prisoner’ in a mock jail: the ‘prisoners’ were ‘arrested’ by real cops outside their family homes and marched down to a Police Station before being transferred to their imitation incarceration.
Once inside, they were stripped, del
The Fake King of Albania
German circus performer Otto Witte went to his death-bed claiming he had been crowned King of Albania on 13th August, 1913 for a five-day reign which culminated with him being chased out of the country as an imposter.
Generally believed to have been a fantasist who invented the story, Witte was humoured by the German authorities in his life-time, and his tombstone in Hamburg bears the inscription
Ford Puts The World On Wheels
The Ford Model T rolled into production on 12th August, 1908, still hand-assembled in much the same way as its rivals. But Henry Ford’s ambition for the car was bigger: to create a reliable, durable motor that ordinary Americans could realistically afford - a dream he later realised by deploying a moving assembly line.
Built from tough vanadium steel, the car could cope with the rutted, mud
America's Biggest Mall
The Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota, opened on 11th August, 1992, with more than 10,000 employees, 330 stores, and a Camp Snoopy theme park.
With a gross area of 4.8 million square feet, the mall remains the largest in the United States; its roughly 40 million annual visitors equal to around eight times the population of the state of Minnesota.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly
Let's Open The Louvre
The world’s most famous museum opened to the public for the very first time on 10th August, 1793: exactly one year after France abolished the monarchy. The Louvre, housed in a former royal palace, was redolent with symbolism: treasures once hidden behind the walls of kings and queens were now open to the people.
The collection was already impressive: over 500 paintings, plus sculptures and decora
California's Courtroom Siege
Jonathan Jackson, teenage brother of imprisoned black power activist George Jackson, entered the Marin County Courthouse concealing three guns under his raincoat on 7th August, 1970.
In the middle of a trial, he took Judge Harold Haley hostage in a bid to secure his brother's release.
The previous year had seen a landmark incident at San Quentin Correctional Facility, when three black inma
The Shocking Debut of the Electric Chair
Axe murderer William Kemler became the first person to be put to death by electric chair at Auburn Prison, New York on 6th August, 1890. It did not go smoothly.
The first charge failed, and the second was abandoned only after two minutes. Despite the gruesome spectacle, Ohio soon became the second state to authorise death by electrocution.
In this episode, Rebecca, Olly and Arion reveal the orig
Pepsi Owes Me a Fighter Jet
Is an ad a legally binding contract? Judge Kimba Wood finally brought the curtain down on one of the strangest disputes to ever reach a courtroom on 5th August, 1999 - concluding that Pepsi's ‘Drink Pepsi, Get Stuff’ promotion had not, in fact, truly promised customers a Harrier jump jet in return for 7 million ‘Pepsi points’.
Seattle student John Leonard had spotted that Pepsi's promotion allowe
Put Him in the Stocks!
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's Diary
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 ev
Little Hugh and the Blood Libel
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 tortur
When Noel Gallagher Met Tony Blair
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 roc
Welcome To Mordor
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 anythi
When Zombies Came To Hollywood
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
Meet Bugs Bunny 🥕
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, D
