Today In History with The Retrospectors

Disguised variously as a baseball umpire, NFL referee, pro golfer, and even Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, Barry Bremen earned his reputation as America’s greatest pitch invader - a career that kicked off on 4th February, 1979. Dressed as a player for the Kansas City Kings, the 32 year-old insurance salesman crashed the court of an NBA All-Star basketball game - much to the delight of fellow players and spectators. Hey, it was the Seventies! In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly ask why top sportsmen of the day were so keen to support him; reveal how the media encouraged his efforts to become a sporting celebrity; and explain why his behaviour pushed the broadcasters of the 1985 Emmys to cut quickly to a puzzled David Hasselhoff… Further Reading: • ‘From Ali Dia to Karl Power: the greatest impostors in sporting history’ (The Guardian, 2016): https://www.theguardian.com/sport/shortcuts/2016/oct/18/from-ali-dia-barry-bremen-greatest-fakers-in-sporting-history • ’When Barry Bremen Tried to Infiltrate the Dallas Cowgirls, the Team Found It a Drag’ (People, 1980): https://people.com/archive/when-barry-bremen-tried-to-infiltrate-the-dallas-cowgirls-the-team-found-it-a-drag-vol-13-no-2/ • ‘The Great Imposter Barry Bremen’ (NBC, 1979): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNjZni1yQ90 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 2026. This episode originally aired in 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a cast of over 800, and a budget equivalent to £3 million, James Shirley’s extravagant masque ‘The Triumph of Peace’ was performed on 3rd February, 1634. Unusually, it was such a popular show that, despite the enormous cost of staging it, King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria requested that it be repeated. Though replete with all the arse-kissing allegorical tableaux that typified these celebrations of the monarchy - and requisite set designs by Inigo Jones - this spectacular was also markedly different from its predecessors in that it was especially designed to appease Henrietta, who had been slurred by polemicist William Prynne.    In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly come to terms with the ‘17th century immersive theatre’ experience; explain why legendary playwright Ben Jonson WASN’T involved in this one; and reveal how a masque was once responsible for the destruction of Shakespeare’s Globe…  Further Reading: • ‘Masque and music at the Stuart court’ (Royal Museums Greenwich): https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/masque-music-stuart-court • ‘Inigo Jones designs for masque costumes’ (The British Library): https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/inigo-jones-designs-for-masque-costumes •  ‘The History of the British Masque’ (Heidi Kobara, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G22UED2yJ_Q 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 2026. This episode originally aired in 2023. #1600s #Theatre #Royals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leonarde Keeler, inventor of the modern polygraph, first showcased his device in a courtroom on 2nd February, 1935. The wooden box, which measured physiological responses like blood pressure and respiration, took the stand alongside him, and, while Keeler emphasized the machine wasn’t infallible, he later told journalists assembled outside the venue that his invention would soon revolutionise criminal justice. Keeler’s innovations built upon earlier work by others, including Scottish cardiologist James McKenzie, who created a device to detect heart arrhythmias, and Dr. William Moulton Marston, who later linked blood pressure changes to emotional responses - and, inspired by his "truth-telling" research, would go on to create Wonder Woman. But Keeler’s talent for self-promotion, using dramatic applications of his polygraph, made his name, and cemented the device’s reputation as a “lie detector” (a term he never actually used). In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how the polygraph - now discredited as evidence in US courts - once put a Death Row inmate to the electric chair; reveal how Keeler’s mentors gradually drifted away from the ‘monster’ they had created; and explain how the men who invented the ‘truth machines’ of the 20th century had an uncanny talent for meeting their wives at work… Further Reading: • ’Will Lie Detectors Ever Get Their Day in Court Again?’ (Center for Law, Brain & Behavior, Harvard University, 2015): https://clbb.mgh.harvard.edu/will-lie-detectors-ever-get-their-day-in-court-again/ • ‘He Met His Wife Over a Lie Detector. Then Things Got Interesting’ (PBS American Experience, 2022): https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lie-detector-1000-words/ • ‘Neurologist Trashes "Lie Detector" Tests’ (Dr. Brandon Beaber, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_08b7Y7DgI 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 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell was executed on 30th January, 1661 - despite having been dead for more than two years. His body was exhumed from its tomb in Westminster Abbey on the instruction of King Charles II, who sought retribution for those involved in the trial and execution of his father, Charles I. Along with other Regicides, Cromwell’s corpse was disinterred and subjected to public abuse. On the anniversary of Charles I’s beheading, Cromwell’s head was mounted on a spike and stuck on the roof of Westminster Hall - where it remained for thirty years. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly track the illustrious history of Cromwell’s head from that date forth; consider whether the crowd in attendance at the ‘execution’ really hated their former Lord Protector as much as their jeering suggests; and explain how the intervention of a future Prime Minister prevented Cromwell’s relic being put on public display as recently as the 19th Century… Further Reading: • ‘Oliver Cromwell: Hero or Villain?’ (HistoryExtra, 2014) : https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/oliver-cromwell-hero-or-villain/ • ‘The Strange Saga of Oliver Cromwell's Head’ (Mental Floss, 2019): https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/585591/oliver-cromwells-head-history • ‘Opening The Coffin Of Oliver Cromwell’ (The Fortress, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR0_DE2zQgU 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: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The BBC broadcast the first ever edition of Roy Plomley’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ - the world’s longest-running interview programme - on 29th January, 1942.  Opening, as the show still does, with Eric Coates’s theme music ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’, the episode welcomed comedian Vic Oliver as the series’ first ‘castaway’. Plomely would go on to present a further 1,785 editions of the show until his death in 1985. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the metaphor of an abundant and sunlit desert island in the context of the horrors of the Blitz; discover how BBC censors ensured early episodes lacked the free-wheeling quality modern listeners expect; and reveal the most-chosen artists across the show’s incredible archive…  Further Reading: • ‘The History of Desert Island Discs’ (BBC): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/59YrnYM0Tw8J7WJ0MGKVfh7/the-history-of-desert-island-discs • ‘Seven Decades of Desert Island Discs’ (The New Yorker, 2012)’ https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/seven-decades-of-desert-island-discs • ‘Kirsty Young introduces Desert Island Discs: 70 Years of Castaways’ (Waterstones, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7NwCAAAgM #40s #Celebrity #Arts 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 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stud-and-tube bricks, which paved the way for Lego to become one of the most successful companies in Denmark, were patented on 28th January, 1958. But this family business had already been in existence for 26 years, mostly making wooden toys. It later emerged, however, that the plastic self-locking bricks that brought them so much success had in fact already been invented - and patented - by British toymaker Hillary Page in 1940. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Lego’s lawyers stay one step ahead of their imitators; unconvincingly demonstrate how to pronounce ‘Skoda’; and reveal how branded toys - a controversial pivot for the company in the ‘90s - helped save the business… Further Reading: • ‘LEGO Brick Timeline: 50 Years of Building Frenzy and Curiosities’ (Gizmodo, 2008): https://gizmodo.com/lego-brick-timeline-50-years-of-building-frenzy-and-cu-349509 • ‘Self-Locking Building Bricks, Lego precursor, Kiddicraft (1944-)’: https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Category:Self-Locking_Building_Bricks_(Kiddicraft) • ‘60 years of LEGO: capturing the world's imagination’ (5 News, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZTiAarAOqw 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 2026. #50s #Games #Inventions #UK #Denmark This episode originally aired in 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The corpse of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, was placed on display in Moscow's Red Square on 27th January, 1924 - where, astonishingly, he remains viewable to this day.  He’d wanted to be buried next to his mother in Saint Petersburg, but after he suffered a series of strokes, the Soviet government instead secretly planned to build a mausoleum for his body, in part to deify him as a quasi-religious figure. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how pioneering embalming techniques were created by ‘The Lenin Lab’ to look after the cadaver; ponder how mausoleum architect Alexey Shchusev contented with the January freeze; and consider whether an embalmed Queen Victoria would be just as popular a tourist attraction… Further Reading: • ‘Death of Lenin’ (The Guardian, 1924): ⁠https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/death-of-lenin-archive-1924⁠ • ‘Lenin's Body Improves with Age’ (Scientific American, 2015): ⁠https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lenin-s-body-improves-with-age1/⁠ • ‘Russia: 100 Years on from Revolution’ (BBC News, 2017): ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPmlX4kWgjs⁠ 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 2026. This episode originally aired in 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. Postal Service permitted parcel delivery for packages under 11 pounds in 1913 - parameters which were pushed to their limits on 26th January, 1913, when Ohio couple Jesse and Matilda Beagle set a bizarre precedent by mailing their baby, James, a mile up the road to his grandmother. As Parcel Fever swept the nation, other parents began to use the Postal Service as an affordable alternative to train tickets. Most famously 4-year-old Charlotte May Pierstoff was mailed 73 miles to her grandparents for 55 cents, inspiring a popular children’s book. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly investigate the “self-mailing” antics of various adult eccentrics; reveal how the Postal Service had to intervene to terminate this troublesome trend; and highlight the demand and enthusiasm that initially greeted the great revolution of a rural postal service… Further Reading: • ‘When People Used the Postal Service to 'Mail' Their Children’ (HISTORY, 2018): https://www.history.com/news/mailing-children-post-office • The strangest things sent in the post (BBC News, 2017): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42272052 • ‘How the Post Office Made America’ (Wendover Productions, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu2WOxXxsHw 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 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elephants have played a surprisingly important role on the battlefield, even before the birth of Christ; notably in 5th Century BCE India, and during the Punic Wars in Africa.  But on 23rd January, 971, the Southern Han division of the Chinese military retired their famous elephant corps forever - after facing a massive aerial assault from crossbowmen from the Song Dynasty, who had defeated them in battle. War elephants were not just formidable attackers, but also served as platforms for archers, vantage points, and even provided cover for advancing troops. Despite their effectiveness, the inherent volatility of the animals - susceptible to spooking and turning on their own side -  led to their eventual decline. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how some elephants continued to serve in the military, even after the development of gunpowder; consider the awesome psychological impact of being attacked by a troupe of elephants; and reveal how the Romans learned to defend themselves from elephants - with the aid of some squealing pigs… Content Warning: animal cruelty. #China #Animals #War #Medieval #BC Further Reading: • ‘Elephants, kingship and warfare in Southeast Asia’ (British Library, 2017): https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2017/05/elephants-kingship-and-warfare-in-southeast-asia.html • ‘In Ancient Rome flaming war pigs were used to counter elephants’ (The Vintage News, 2016: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/09/15/ancient-rome-flaming-war-pigs-used-counter-elephants/ ‘War Elephants’ (Royal Armouries, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI3-f8ebLlk This episode first aired in 2024 FRIDAY - MEGAPHONE COPYWe'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: Ollie PeartCopyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George Metesky’s campaign of terror as ‘the Mad Bomber of New York’ ended abruptly on 22nd January, 1957. Between 1940 and 1956, he had planted at least 32 bombs in public places, including theatres, railway stations, libraries, and landmarks such as Grand Central Terminal.  Police arrived just before midnight at his modest home in Waterbury, Connecticut, which he shared with his two sisters, and asked him for a handwriting sample. A search of his garage revealed bomb components matching those used in attacks across the city, along with a partially-assembled device larger than any found before. His arrest brought relief to a city that had lived with an intermittent but persistent threat for over a generation. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain Metesky’s long-simmering grievance against his former employer, the Consolidated Edison Company; discover how the  breakthrough in the case came only when police consulted psychiatrist James Brussel; and reveal how Metesky underwent a surprising recovery in institutional care…  Further Reading: • ‘Unmasking the Mad Bomber’ (Smithsonian, 2017): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unmasking-the-mad-bomber-180962469/ • ‘Decades before Cesar Sayoc, Mad Bomber George Metesky terrorized New York City’ (The Washington Post, 2018): https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/10/27/unhinged-unrelenting-mad-bomber-who-terrorized-new-york/ • ‘How New York’s First Terrorist Led to the Birth of Criminal Profiling’ (The New Yorker, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdLNbsoPD5c #NewYork #Crime #50s #Strange 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 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices