Today In History with The Retrospectors

Latest Episodes:

Capturing The Blue Marble Dec 07, 2022

Show notes

The most famous photograph of Earth - the ‘Blue Marble’ shot captured by NASA astronauts on Apollo 17 - was taken on 7th December, 1972.

The deep blues of the ocean, the green continent of Africa, the yellow edges of the Arabian Peninsula, and the vast empty blackness all around our planet are memorably captured within it. But what can’t be said with certainty is who actually took it - as all three members of the crew have claimed they snapped the iconic image.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly trace the origins of this moment back to Stewart Brand’s counter-cultural ‘Whole Earth’ movement of the 1960s; explain how Jack Schmidt’s presence in the Apollo crew was scientifically groundbreaking; and reveal why the photo was flipped before it was printed on the front page of newspapers…

Further Reading:

• ‘The Blue Marble Shot: Our First Complete Photograph of Earth’ (The Atlantic, 2011): https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/the-blue-marble-shot-our-first-complete-photograph-of-earth/237167/

• ‘Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog, the book that changed the world’ (The Guardian, 2013): https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/05/stewart-brand-whole-earth-catalog

• ‘Our Blue Marble’ (The Obama White House, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwqLzSiFqlE

#70s #Space #Photography

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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: Sophie King.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

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Disaster at the West Coast Woodstock Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

The Rolling Stones topped the bill at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California on 6th December, 1969 - a free festival intended to rival the recent Woodstock in New York. But it was an organisational shambles, and turned deadly when an audience member was murdered.

Notorious gang Hell’s Angels had been hired (allegedly in return for free beer) to provide ‘security’ for the event. They sat on a tiny stage, badly positioned in the pit of the racetrack, and attacked the crowds with billiard cues. Jefferson Airplane got pummeled. Mick Jagger was punched in the face.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the movie rights for Gimme Shelter lay behind the ill-judged decision to relocate the festival with just two days’ notice; evaluate the Stones’ limited commentary on the disarray, and 18 year old Meredith Hunter’s death; and consider whether this regrettable event really did represent ‘the end of the 60s’...

Further Reading:

‘The Altamont Free Concert, A Deadly End To The Hippie Era In America’ (AllThatsInteresting, 2018): https://allthatsinteresting.com/altamont-speedway-free-concert
‘Remembering Meredith Hunter, the Fan Killed at Altamont’ (Rolling Stone, 2018): https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/remembering-meredith-hunter-the-fan-killed-at-altamont-630260/

• ‘Altamont Speedway Free Festival 12/6/1969’ (Concerts Rock, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C28jTm6zRB8

#60s #Music

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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: Sophie King.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

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Christie's First Auction Dec 05, 2022

Show notes

James Christie held his first auction on 5th December, 1766 - billed as a sale of “genuine household furniture, jewels, plate, firearms, china and a large quantity of madeira and high flavoured claret” belonging to a “Noble Personage (deceased)”.

His auction-house, Christie’s, went on to become one of the world’s leading dealers of fine art. But it took Christie many years to exploit this opportunity, which he accomplished partly by leveraging well-connected friends. His milieu included Richard Tattersall, Thomas Chipperfield, Thomas Gainsborough, Horace Walpole, Joshua Reynolds and David Garrick - a ‘Who’s Who’ of 18th century London once known as ‘Christie's Fraternity of Godparents’.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Christie innovated public viewings, product placement and sales technique; connect the dots between the French Revolution and Christie’s biggest successes; and reveal how much it costs to buy a two-headed taxidermied lamb…

Further Reading:

‘James Christie: the eloquent auctioneer’ (Royal Academy of Arts, 2016): https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/james-christie-eloquent-auctioneer
‘Mr Christie, before Christie’s… His early days’ (Artprice, 2021): https://www.artprice.com/artmarketinsight/mr-christie-before-christies-his-early-days
‘Welcome to Christie’s’ (Christies, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ2kq20kK5U

#1800s #Arts #Person

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

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: Sophie King.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

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Rebuilding St Paul's Dec 02, 2022

Show notes

Sir Christopher Wren was officially appointed architect for the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral on 2nd December, 1697, though in truth he had been advising on it for some years already.

Three decades later the celebrated British architect had produced a building that broke radically with the past, even if his original plans had to be adapted to the whims of the king, the clergy and the parliament.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider why Wren loved domes so much; reveal the true reason why battering rams are a better demolition tool than dynamite; and explain why the cathedral became the ultimate humble brag…

Further Reading:

• ‘St Paul's: The new church’ (Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878): https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol1/pp249-262

• ‘A History of St. Paul's Cathedral in 60 Seconds’ (Culture Trip, 2018): https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/st-pauls-cathedral-london/

• ‘Designing St Paul's - The Wren Office Drawings’ (St Paul's Cathedral, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skX-RXJnaWU

#1600s #Architecture #UK

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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: Sophie King.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

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There’s Poison In My Pint Dec 01, 2022

Show notes

Rerun. Thousands of beer barrels were emptied into the streets across Lancashire on 1st December, 1900 - when it finally dawned on people that the cheap stout they’d been drinking with years was in fact contaminated with arsenic.

Over 6,000 victims were poisoned, mostly across Manchester and Salford, thanks to the practice of padding out the barley used in the brew with inexpensive glucose syrup.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the role that the class system played in the initial diagnoses of mass ‘alcoholic multiple neuritis’; reveal the one company in the supply chain who eventually stumped up £136,000 compensation; and explain how general elections were believed to push the general public into the public houses…

Further Reading:

• ‘The Lancet’ covers the news (1900): https://www.sciencedirect.com/sdfe/pdf/download/eid/1-s2.0-S014067360189036X/first-page-pdf

• ‘The 1900 arsenic poisoning epidemic’ (from the Journal of the Brewery History Society):

http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/130/Arsenic.pdf

• ‘Arsenic: The Most Popular Poison In Victorian Britain’ (Victorian Pharmacy, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93XYE56KwSk

‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’ Every Thursday is 'Throwback Thursday' on Today in History with the Retrospectors: running one repeat per week means we can keep up the quality of our independent podcast. Daily shows like this require a lot of work! But as ever we'll have something new for you tomorrow, so follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/Retrospectors

Love the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!

Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.

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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: Emma Corsham.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

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Let's Stop Smallpox Nov 30, 2022

Show notes

On 30th November, 1803 a surgeon called Dr Francisco Javier de Balmis left Spain at the head of the world's first ever international public health expedition.

His ship was bound for the New World, supplied with smallpox vaccines. But the vaccines weren't in syringes or in vials, they were inside the 22 orphans who were on the ship with him.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly look into how the first smallpox vaccines worked; revisit how Javier de Balmis’s unusual approach helped eradicate the disease; and discuss whether popping pustules is better than inhaling scabs…

Further Reading:

• ‘Exhibition tells story of Spanish children used as vaccine ‘fridges’ in 1803’ (The Guardian, 2021): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/27/spanish-museum-celebrates-pioneer-who-took-smallpox-vaccine-to-colonies

• ‘Balmis Expedition: How Orphans Took The Smallpox Vaccine Around The World’ (Amusing Planet, 2021): https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/12/balmis-expedition-how-orphans-took.html

• ‘22 Orphans Gave Up Everything to Distribute the World’s First Vaccine’ (Atlantic, 2021): https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/01/orphans-smallpox-vaccine-distribution/617646/

• ‘What Was A Horrible Way Of Transporting Smallpox Vaccine?’ (QI, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_U7Ms4aKts

#1800s #Americas #Medicine #Strange

Love the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!

Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.

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

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: Sophie King.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Who Shot JFK? Nov 29, 2022

Show notes

Shortly after US president John F. Kennedy was shot dead, the Warren Commission was convened on 29th November, 1963 to answer the question on everybody’s lips: who did this and why?

The shooting of America’s young president was a moment of trauma for many Americans, but when the commission returned its findings, most people were happy with their conclusions. However, as the years progressed conspiratorial thinking increasingly began to take hold. By the end of the 1970s, 81% of people surveyed believed that the murder of Kennedy was a result of a conspiracy.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss why people stopped believing the official story they had been told; investigate why many people believe the CIA has continually tried to obfuscate the true story; and reveal whether the assassination was the work of mob bosses, Cubans, Soviets, the CIA or all of the above…

Further Reading:

• ‘Warren Commission’ (History.com, 2018): https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/warren-commission

• ‘Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy’ (GovInfo, 1963): https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GPO-WARRENCOMMISSIONREPORT

• ‘Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy’ (LibriVox, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKA4erybBH8

#US #60s #Crime #Mystery

Love the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!

Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.

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

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: Sophie King.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.

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The Cabbage Patch Riots Nov 28, 2022

Show notes

Towards the end of 1983, frenzied parents battled with one another in stores across the US in a desperate bid to buy their children the toy of the moment, the Cabbage Patch Kid.

The so-called Cabbage Patch Riots culminated on 28th November 1983 at a Zayre department store in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, when a melee broke out that was so intense a store manager grabbed a baseball bat to protect himself, police dispersed the crowds and four people ended up in hospital.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss why Cabbage Patch Kids were in such short supply; look into why the toys had their inventor’s name emblazoned on their bottoms; and reveal the true story of how Cabbage Patch dolls came into being…

Further Reading:

• ‘The Not-So-Sweet Truth About Cabbage Patch Kids’ (Good Housekeeping, 2015): https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a32201/cabbage-patch-dolls-history/

• ‘The strange story of the Cabbage Patch Kid Riots of 1983’ (ABC, 2022): https://abc7ny.com/cabbage-patch-dolls-crazy-riot-the-vault/5713681/

• ‘Tales from the Cabbage Patch Riots of 1983’ (Pixel Dan, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpa5IZiAfC0

#US #80s #Strange #Toys

Picture: Flickr/Benjamin Gray

Love the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS 🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!

Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.

Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!

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

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: Sophie King.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Boy on the Raft Nov 25, 2022

Show notes

Elián González was just five years old when he was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida on 25th November, 1999. His mother, step-father, and all the other Cuban migrants who had been attempting to cross to the United States with him were lost at sea.

Elián’s future then became a matter of high-stakes diplomacy between the two Cold War countries: should he be granted residency with his extended family in Little Havana, or returned back to actual Havana to the arms of his father?

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly revisit the intense 24-hour news cycle that took hold over this seemingly small story; explain why even Gloria Estefan got caught up in the furore; and reveal how Alan Diaz went about taking his Pulitzer prize-winning photo of the FBI raid on Elián’s uncle’s home…

Further Reading:

• ‘Elián González: How Cuba and the U.S. fought over a child in an international tug-of-war’ (The Washington Post, 2019): https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/11/25/federal-agents-seized-year-old-elin-gonzlez-gunpoint-custody-battle-raged-months/

• ‘Opinion | The Future of Elián González’ (The New York Times, 1999): https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/30/opinion/the-future-of-elian-gonzalez.html?searchResultPosition=4

• ‘Elián González Believes He Would Have Been Used To Make Cuba Look Bad’ (CBS, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEgjpOK9t64

#US #90s #Cuba

We'll be back on Monday - unless you join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!

Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.

Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!

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: Sophie King.

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The Lucy Fossil Nov 24, 2022

Show notes

Rerun. It took over three million years to find her. But palaeontologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray uncovered the remains of ‘the Lucy Fossil’ - a previously undiscovered species of pre-human - in Hadar, Ethiopia on 24th November, 1974.

Despite the find’s massive significance, the event was not greeted with untrammelled joy by all their rival fossil hunters. Some - who had wanted to claim such a discovery for themselves - began publicly disputing that Lucy was indeed a missing link in the evolution of humankind.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how Lucy received her rock n’ roll name; explain how her tiny brain but upright walking turned previous scientific thinking on its head; and consider whether, actually, “Captain Caveman was quite accurate”...

Further Reading:

• ‘Nov. 24, 1974: Humanity, Meet Lucy. She's Your Mom’ (WIRED, 2009): https://www.wired.com/2009/11/1124lucy-discovered/

• ‘Lucy and the Leakeys’ (Khan Academy): https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/early-humans/how-ancestors-evolved/a/lucy-and-the-leakeys

• ‘Donald Johanson: Discovering the Fossil “Lucy”’ (Freedom From Religion Foundation, 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AX4eqqBcIM

Love the show? Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode every SUNDAY!

Plus, get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast.

Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!

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: Emma Corsham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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