Today In History with The Retrospectors

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See Facts? Ceefax! Sep 23, 2025

Show notes

The BBC’s teletext information service, Ceefax, launched on 23rd September, 1974 - providing the British public with a way to look up headlines, football results and TV listings, some twenty years before the launch of Internet Explorer.

Countless National Lottery winners discovered their victories via the analogue service, which was discontinued in 2012. To this day, devotees still share ancient samples of it by uploading old VHS tapes to the web.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why teletext never caught on in France; revisit the 1,445-episode ‘soap opera’ ITV Oracle ran on its rival service; and play a Teletext-style Bamboozle quiz of their very own…

Further Reading:

• ‘The Editors: Goodbye Ceefax’ (BBC, 2012): https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2012/10/goodbye_ceefax.html

• ‘Minitel: The Old New Thing’ (WIRED, 2001): https://www.wired.com/2001/04/minitel-the-old-new-thing/

• ‘Pages from Ceefax - Three and a half hours of outdated news, sport and weather’ (No Data Available, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU8P5G-GM_g

This episode first aired in 2021

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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The Candy Bomber of Berlin Sep 22, 2025

Show notes

Operation Little Vittles" - an initiative during the Berlin Airlift to drop Allied sweets and chocolates from planes as a gift to the German children below - began on September 22, 1948.

Lt. Gail Halvorsen, a 27-year-old U.S. pilot, had been moved to the gesture by a group of children he encountered one day near Tempelhof airport. After seeing their eagerness to share even the most meagre of resources, he decided to drop sweets for them during his next flight, signalling his arrival by waggling his plane’s wings. The drop soon became a weekly event, remembered by a generation of Berliners, some of whom had never tasted chocolate before.

In this week’s Sunday’s episode, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the media reaction to "Uncle Wiggly Wings"; marvel upon the logistical effort involved in the hundreds of thousands of flights over post-War West Berlin; and ask if Europe’s fetishisation of inferior American candy bars started with Halvorsen…

Further Reading:

• ‘How 'Candy Bomber' Gail Halvorsen Waged an Ideological Battle for Berlin’ (History Net, 2022): https://www.historynet.com/candy-bomber-gail-halvorsen/

• ‘How the 'Candy Bomber' Left a Lasting Legacy in Cold War Germany’ (Smithsonian Magazine, 2022): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/candy-bomber-who-airdropped-sweets-to-german-children-in-1948-dies-at-101-180979610/

• 'The Candy Bomber' Honored in Germany 70 Years After Historic Berlin Airlift (Voice of America, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L87u5JM5Bqg

The episode first aired in 2024

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Discovering The Iceman Sep 19, 2025

Show notes

When German hikers Erika and Helmut Simon stumbled upon a dead body in the Oertzel Alps on 19th September, 1991, they believed it to be a recently fallen mountaineer, whose cadaver had been preserved in the ice. In fact, the specimen turned out to be 5,300 years old - older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids.

The man, nicknamed ‘Ötzi’ by the press, had been struck down in mid-stride, and was discovered surrounded by his possessions, which included a copper axe. His remains are now on permanent display in Italy.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly probe into the various theories about how ‘the Iceman’ died; reveal what the post-mortem told us were the contents of his last meal; and consider the ‘Curse of the Frozen Mummy’...

Further Reading:

• ’The Discovery of Otzi the Iceman and Its Significance’ (ThoughtCo, 2020): https://www.thoughtco.com/otzi-the-iceman-1779439

• ‘Who killed Oetzi the Iceman? Italy reopens coldest of cases’ (BBC News, 2017): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40104139

• ‘Was Otzi the Iceman a Victim of Human Sacrifice?’ (Smithsonian Channel, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUVtJ8oqRWA

#Discoveries #Italy #Switzerland #BC

This episode first aired in 2023

Love the show? Support us!

Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Welcome To Tiffany's Sep 18, 2025

Show notes

Tiffany, now a $16 billion jewelry empire, opened their first store at 259 Broadway, New York, on 18th September, 1837. Their first day’s sales total was $4.98.

Co-founded by 25 year-old Charles Lewis Tiffany (thanks to a $1,000 loan from his father), the ‘fancy goods emporium’ initially sold disparate luxury items including perfumes, dinner sets, and, er, dog whips - but eventually settled upon gems as their core offering, expanding the brand through collaborations with P. T. Barnum and ‘The Blue Book’, America’s first mail-order catalogue.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how, despite his business nous, Tiffany fell victim to the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872; explore how his design influence extends to the $1 bill and the New York Yankees' logo; and reveal how ‘robin egg’ blue became so synonymous with the company....

Further Reading:

• ‘Jewelry House Histories: Tiffany’ (Invaluable, 2022): https://www.invaluable.com/blog/jewelry-house-histories-tiffany/

• ‘Tiffany Is More Than a Store’ (The New York Times, 2019): https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/business/tiffany-history.html?searchResultPosition=4

• ‘Deconstructing The Tiffany Setting’ (Forbes, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2RVMgMAaPw

#1800s #NewYork #Fashion #Business This episode first aired in 2023.

Love the show? Support us!

Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Vanessa Williams vs. Miss America Sep 17, 2025

Show notes

The first Black Miss America, Vanessa Williams, was crowned in Atlantic City on 17th September, 1983, with the usual fanfare. But within ten months, she had returned her crown, following a nude photo scandal.

She had already received hate mail and even death threats - some from racist whites who hated seeing a Black Miss America, others from Black critics who felt her light skin and blue eyes played into white beauty standards. But then, without her consent, Penthouse announced it would publish explicit photos of Vanessa taken years earlier when she was an aspiring teenage model.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how Williams rebuilt her career from scratch, via Disney, Broadway, hit songs, and movies; discover the moment the pageant formally apologised to her, after 32 years; and trace the overt and covert racism in Miss America’s long history…

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE: because today members of Club Retrospectors have an extra bonus bit where we peruse the infamous 15th anniversary edition of Penthouse, and recall earlier attempts to install a Black Miss America…

Further Reading:

• ‘On Saturday night Vanessa Williams became the first black woman crowned Miss America’ (UPI, 1983):

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/09/18/On-Saturday-night-Vanessa-Williams-became-the-first-black-woman-crowned-Miss-America/9839432705600/

• ‘Why Vanessa Williams Gave Up Her Miss America Crown’ (TIME, 2015): https://time.com/3961120/miss-america-scandal-vanessa-williams/

• ‘Miss America 1984: Crowning Moment’ (NBC, 1983): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwBmoNXrr0w

Love the show? Support us!

Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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The First Student Newspaper Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

The Cornell Daily Sun - the oldest continuously independent college daily newspaper in the United States - published its first issue on 16th September, 1880. It featured some campus sports reports, some horrible amateur poetry, and even some jokes.

It wasn’t until seven years later that a British University caught up with its own equivalent: The Student, at Edinburgh University; although it did have celebrity founder Robert Louis Stevenson up its sleeve.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the difference between UK and US student journalism; speak to the Sun’s current Editor about how she can possibly do her degree at the same time as running a daily paper; and discover what an Autophone was...

Further Reading:

• ‘About The Sun’ (The Cornell Daily Sun):

https://cornellsun.com/about/

• ‘About The Student’ (Edinburgh Student Newspaper): https://studentnewspaper.org/about

• ‘The Cornell Daily Sun: A Documentary: Part 4 (Oliver Bundy, 2007): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIucgSBrWKk

For bonus material and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/Retrospectors

We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/Retrospectors

This episode first aired in 2021

Love the show? Support us!

Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Digging the Trenches Sep 15, 2025

Show notes

The start of World War I featured officers in white gloves, leading troops in neat lines, and cavalry charges complete with sabres and lances. But this changed on 15th September, 1914 - when soldiers began digging into the earth, laying the groundwork for the trench warfare that would come to define the conflict.

By that November, trenches covered 400 miles along the Western Front, in two opposing lines that were often as close as 50 metres, with "No Man’s Land" in between—a deadly strip of land covered in barbed wire. Soldiers lived in constant fear of artillery, sniper fire, and brutal night raids. The trenches were muddy, disease-ridden, and teeming with rats and lice.

Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the physical and psychological toll of trench life; explain how flamethrowers, ‘trench clubs’ and even helmets all became more popular over the course of the conflict; and discover that the process of rotation meant soldiers were in the trenches only for short bursts, yet long enough to leave lasting trauma…

Further Reading:

• ‘First trenches are dug on the Western Front | September 15, 1914’ (HISTORY, 2009): https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-trenches-are-dug-on-the-western-front

• ’Trench tactics: how was war fought in the WW1 trenches?’ (History Extra, 2023):

https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/trench-warfare-ww1-tactics-what/

• ‘Conditions in Trenches - Dan Snow's Battle of the Somme’ (Discovery UK, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvYIIuxh2kY

This episode was first published in 2024

Love the show? Support us!

Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Barrett ❤️ Browning Sep 12, 2025

Show notes

The secret wedding of poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning on September 12th, 1846, was witnessed by just two people. Elizabeth was so nervous about the ceremony, held at Marylebone Parish Church, that she needed smelling salts to calm her.

Barrett was already an acclaimed poet, while Browning was relatively unknown at the time. But their correspondence, comprising almost 600 letters exchanged over less than two years, is considered one of literature’s great romances.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the Brownings’ marriage inspired their greatest works; probe into Browning’s pet name for Barrett, ‘the Portuguese'; and consider whether, contrary to all appearances, Browning may have had sinister intentions for his new wife…

Further Reading:

• ‘Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Life, Poetry, Relationship & ‘How Do I Love Thee?’’ (HistoryExtra, 2021): https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/elizabeth-barrett-browning-who-life-love-poetry-relationship-robert/

• ‘What we can learn from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's years in lockdown’ (The Guardian, 2021): https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/15/what-we-can-learn-from-elizabeth-barrett-brownings-years-in-lockdown

•’The life and work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’ (The British Academy, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkSWGqMDBEY

#Literature #Victorian #Romantic #Wedding #UK

This episode first aired in 2023

Love the show? Support us!

Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's Build The Pentagon Sep 11, 2025

Show notes

Construction of the Virginia headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense began on September 11th, 1941 - spookily, the same date it was attacked by al-Qaeda six decades later.

The massive five-sided building, a potent symbol of America’s military strength, became known as the Pentagon.

Featuring 4 million square feet of office space, the building was designed by George Bergstrom under the supervision of Leslie R. Groves, who was later chosen to head the Manhattan Project and build the atomic bomb.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca, and Olly explain why the building’s racially segregated bathrooms were installed, but never used; reveal why, for a while, a ‘Pentagon project’ became a by-word for a white elephant; and consider whether a hot dog stand in the complex foxed the Soviets…

Further Reading:

• ‘10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Pentagon’ (U.S. Department of Defense, 2019): https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/story/Article/1650913/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-pentagon/

• ‘Pentagon Hot Dog Stand – Arlington, Virginia’ (Atlas Obscura, 2017): https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pentagon-hot-dog-stand

• ‘FOX Business reveals 'stunning' new details about Pentagon's construction’ (FOX Business, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tK6gIsMAgc

This episode first aired in 2023

Love the show? Support us!

Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

France's Last Execution Sep 10, 2025

Show notes

The guillotine claimed its last victim on 10th September, 1977, when murderer Hamida Djandoubi was executed in Marseille, his grim end marking the closing chapter of nearly two centuries of clinical beheading, stretching back to the French Revolution.

Overseen by France’s last official executioner Marcel Chevalier, the event was private and hushed - a far cry from the raucous public spectacles that had once drawn huge crowds. Witness accounts described Djandoubi drinking rum, smoking his final cigarettes, and even stalling for time before being led to the blade. Adding to the eerie symbolism, he was made to fix his prosthetic leg before kneeling at the block.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how beheading was initially considered a humane and egalitarian form of execution; consider the French public’s support for the death penalty throughout the seventies, even as Mitterand stood on an electoral platform to abolish it; and reveal what it all had to do with Star Wars…

CONTENT WARNING: rape, murder, description of execution

Further Reading:

• ‘This Will Be the Last, by Monique Mabelly, Translated by Ryann Liebenthal’ (Harpers, 1977): https://harpers.org/archive/2014/02/this-will-be-the-last/

• The History of the Guillotine (ThoughtCo, 2019): https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-guillotine-p2-1991842

• ‘The French Revolution’ (dir. Robert Enrico, 1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKNqP_kYV4

#Macabre #Crime #France #70s #Revolution

Love the show? Support us!

Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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