Today In History with The Retrospectors

John Stewart was elected MP for Lymington, Hampshire on 8th January, 1833.  On paper, he seemed a textbook member of Britain’s elite: wealthy, well-connected, educated in England, and a plantation owner.  But Stewart’s mother was an enslaved woman, making him considered by many to be Britain’s first Black MP. Yet Stewart did not enter Parliament to challenge slavery or injustice. Rather, he was an unapologetic defender of the plantation system, opposed the abolition of slavery, fought taxes on sugar, and later resisted ending the exploitative “apprenticeship” system that replaced slavery after 1833.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how Stewart campaigned to benefit financially from the ending of slavery; uncover the other mixed-race MPs who could qualify as Britain’s ‘first’ non-white Parliamentarians; and consider how it wasn’t until 1987 that Parliament truly became more racially representative…   Further Reading: • ‘Who were the first MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds?’ (Commons Library, 2020): https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/who-were-the-first-mps-from-ethnic-minority-backgrounds/ • ‘John Stewart, politician’ (They Did, I Can Too) : https://theydidicantoo.org/john-stewart-politician • ‘Black British History - the Labour black sections and Britain's first black MPs’ (Simeon Brown, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEMnQs1quNo #Black #Politics #Victorian #Person 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

All-Black basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters travelled to Hinckley, Illinois on 7th January, 1927 - setting them on a barnstorming journey through the Midwest, the nation, and eventually the world…  Their manager, Abe Saperstein, was obsessed with basketball, stitching together tours at a time when Black athletes were locked out of most professional leagues. His re-brand of the team to the “Harlem Globetrotters” symbolised Black culture and creativity at a time of sports segregation, even though the team were actually from Chicago. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly compare contrasting stories of how ‘the Savoy Big Five’ evolved into the Globetrotters; explain why showboating, humour and spectacle were always part of the group’s demonstrations, despite their immense talent; and examine how the team helped introduce America to Black sporting excellence…   Further Reading: • ‘The Harlem Globetrotters: 99 years of basketball, variety and ‘Showtime’’ (The Athletic, 2025): https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6118506/2025/02/10/harlem-globetrotters-black-history-month-99-years/ • ‘How Harlem Globetrotters founder Abe Saperstein shaped basketball as we know it today’  (The Times of Israel, 2024): https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-harlem-globetrotters-founder-abe-saperstein-shaped-basketball-as-we-know-it-today/ • ‘Best of the Harlem Globetrotters’ (Guinness World Records, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDQLhK-flVE #Sport #20s #Black #Racism #US 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

Roller skates, most readily associated with the 1970s, were actually first patented in the US on 6th January, 1863, by New York furniture salesman James Plimpton. Plimpton developed the shoes after being advised by his doctor to take up ice skating, yet finding himself with nowhere to skate in the Spring and Summer months. He guarded his innovation zealously, and created a leasing model for the novelty boots in specially sanctioned roller parks. America’s first ‘rinking’ craze - dubbed by the press “Rink-O-Mania!” - was born. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly learn about an earlier skate-maker, who literally ‘crashed the party’ in 1760s London; explain why roller-skating found a market in the prudish Victorian dating scene; and recall how the first ‘Roller Derbies’ would test their participants to grim exhaustion…  Further Reading: • ‘Wonderful Things: Roller Skates, 1880’ (Science Museum, 2015): https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/wonderful-things-roller-skates-1880/ • ‘Roller Skating in the 1900s - Hilarious Photos of Humanity on Wheels’ (The Vintage News, 2018): https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/10/03/photos-of-roller-skating-1900s/?edg-c=1 • ‘Charlie Chaplin in “The Rink”’ (Mutual Film Corporation, 1916):  https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx9i4KwCz0Sz1pmewu_KA5fA8YdPEmoM4O #1800s #inventions 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 Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An angry crowd hurled abuse and antisemitic slurs at Captain Alfred Dreyfus on 5th January, 1895, as he stood in the courtyard of the École Militaire in Paris to have his insignia torn away and his sword ceremonially snapped. He had been falsely convicted of treason. The case against him rested almost entirely on a memorandum - the bordereau - found torn up in a German embassy waste-paper basket. Investigators claimed the handwriting resembled Dreyfus’s, and his trial was held behind closed doors, shielding the weakness of their case.  Dreyfus was sent to Devil’s Island in French Guiana, where he was kept in near-total isolation, confined to a small hut, shackled at night, poorly fed, and forbidden meaningful human contact.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how evidence quietly emerged pointing to the real author of the bordereau: Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy; discover how public outrage finally broke through after Émile Zola’s famous open letter, “J’Accuse…!”; and consider how smears about Dreyfus’s sexuality were also used against him…  Further Reading: • ‘The Dreyfus affair: 100 years on’ (BBC News, 2006): https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5166904.stm • ‘The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal And Anti-Semitism That Divided France’ (HistoryExtra, 2022): https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/dreyfus-affair-what-happened-france-scandal-anti-semitism/ • ‘J'ACCUSE - Trailer’ (Gaumont, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iwqFo1B7nM #Scandal #France #Jewish #Racism #1800s 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

Rebecca’s favourite episode of 2025 is “The 'Ten Cent Beer Night' Riot”. Twice the usual crowd turned up to see the Cleveland Indians take on the Texas Rangers on June 4th, 1974 - drawn in not by the baseball match, but by an innovative promotion: for just 10 cents, fans could grab 10 ounces of beer. The lines never stopped, as fans circled back, drank in line, and kept the buzz going. Tensions were high, as this was a rematch with the Texas Rangers following a brawl. Fans cheered when a Rangers player got injured, and started throwing trash, rocks, and batteries onto the field. Then came a full-on invasion: around 200 fans, some armed with chains and chunks of stadium seats, rushed the pitch. Players fought to protect each other. The umpire, bleeding from a thrown rock and narrowly missed by a knife, finally called it: game over. Cleveland forfeited. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Cleveland’s ill-advised 10 cent beer promotion came to be; unpick what the baseball players were thinking, as they were dashed back to a hotel for their safety; and marvel at the gratuitous nudity on the pitch, in the golden age of 70s streaking… Further Reading: • ‘A mistake by the lake: Remembering the 10-cent Beer Night riot’ (Sports Illustrated, 2013): https://www.si.com/mlb/2013/06/04/mistake-lake-remembering-10-cent-beer-night-riot • ‘10 Cent Beer Night: An Oral History of Cleveland Baseball's Most Infamous Night’ (Cleveland Magazine, 2024): https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle/sports/articles/10-cent-beer-night-an-oral-history-of-cleveland-baseball's-most-infamous-night • ‘10-Cent Beer Night: A look back’ (Sports & Extras Network, 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFtR38Mlscc #Sport #Mistakes #70s #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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arion's favourite episode of 2025 was “Land Rover's Rugged Beginnings” A British motoring icon made its debut at the Amsterdam Motor Show on 30th April, 1948: the Land Rover. The UK’s first off-road vehicle (that wasn’t a tractor!) had been sketched in sand by its creator, Maurice Wilks.  Heavily inspired by the American Willys Jeep, the first Land Rovers were simple, no-frills workhorses with no roof, no heater, and barely any doors — just half-height flaps to keep you from falling out. And at £450, they were priced for farmers, not aristocrats. But the car soon caught on, with everyone from Winston Churchill to Bob Marley. Despite being noisy, leaky and slow, the Land Rover's charm wasn’t about comfort — it was about practicality, reliability, and an unmistakably rugged, "real" vibe that everyone could get behind. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly unpick how the marque inspired explorers, aid workers, and adventurers; consider why the British Army abandoned the vehicle in the 21st century; and discover why the steering wheel on the first models was placed in the middle… Further Reading: • ‘Why everyone wants a classic Land Rover’ (The Times, 2022): https://www.thetimes.com/article/7e9e5d1e-7dec-11ec-b216-7a521e8f125c • ‘Land Rover Design - 70 Years of Success by Nick Hull’ (David & Charles, 2018): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Land_Rover_Design_70_Years_of_Success/w9IjEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=maurice+wilks&pg=PT19&printsec=frontcover • ‘History Of Land Rover: Discover the Amazing Story Behind the Land Rover!’ (Land Rover World, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV3BIQ6WfR8 #Motoring #Design #40s #UK #Inventions 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy New Year, Retrospectors! We’ll return with new episodes from Monday 5th January, but in the meantime the team have been choosing their favourite episodes from 2025 that are worthy of a second listen. First up, Olly has selected our conversation about ‘New Coke’. Coca-Cola was approaching its 100th birthday on 23rd April, 1985, when it unveiled a new beverage at New York City's Lincoln Center: the ‘smoother, rounder, bolder’ flavour of ‘New Coke’. The success of Diet Coke had fragmented the market, and, in response to Pepsi's aggressive marketing campaigns targeting younger consumers, Coke had sought to introduce a sweeter formula. But, instead of offering the new formula alongside the original, they made the catastrophic decision to discontinue their classic recipe, known as Merchandise 7X.  The company had conducted extensive taste tests involving 190,000 consumers, which indicated a preference for the new formula. However, these tests overlooked the deep emotional connection many had with the original Coke. Protest groups like the Society for the Preservation of the Real Thing and Old Cola Drinkers of America, founded by Gay Mullins, emerged, reflecting the public's dissatisfaction, and, just 79 days after the launch, on July 11th, 1985, Coca-Cola held a press conference to announce the return of the original formula - now branded as "Coca-Cola Classic."  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal those hardcore cola fans who stockpiled soda like it was gold; uncover the psychiatrist’s opinion that Coke’s most committed customers were behaving as if they’d experienced a bereavement; and consider the conspiracy theories that suggest Coca-Cola engineered the whole debacle deliberately… Further Reading:  • ‘Coke, The Taste That Distresses’ (The Washington Post, 1985): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/06/07/coke-the-taste-that-distresses/1f0758dd-98a2-4a9d-ae1c-c188c2228354/ • ‘New Coke Didn’t Fail. It Was Murdered’ (Mother Jones, 2019): https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/07/what-if-weve-all-been-wrong-about-what-killed-new-coke/ • ‘1985: Coca-Cola launches new Coke’ (CBS Evening News, 1985): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8j97dOLsyk #80s #Advertising #Mistakes #Food 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How much have YOU learned from this year’s show? It’s time for our annual trivia test, as Arion and Rebecca face Olly’s fiendishly difficult questions for 2025.  And, for the first time, this year you can PLAY ALONG! Just click the link here 👇 https://forms.gle/ytZpWTei392F7YvCA Have an amazing festive season, and thanks so much for listening to the podcast this year. We’ll be back with new episodes from Monday 5th January - or one day earlier if you join Club Retrospectors on Apple Podcasts or Patreon, where supporters get an exclusive Sunday episode every single week, and an ad-free RSS feed.  Merry Christmas! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mistletoe and Wine became the UK’s Christmas Number One on 18th December, 1988; the first of three singles Cliff Richard would take to the top of the festive charts. What makes its triumph so curious is that the song began life as a sardonic showtune written in 1976 for a small musical based on The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. Originally, it underscored a scene in which the impoverished heroine is literally kicked into the snow by the heartless middle classes. Its journey to yuletide staple began with Twiggy’s 1987 performance in an ITV adaptation of the musical. By then the number had morphed into a lively pub singalong, catching the ear of Terry Britten, long-time Cliff collaborator, who passed the tune along.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover why Leslie Stewart, one of the songwriters, disliked Cliff’s canonical version; explain why British ears appreciate the song with simultaneous earnestness and irony; and reveal what links this festive classic to the iconic theme tune for ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’... Further Reading: • ‘I Wrote That: Cliff Richard’s ‘Mistletoe and Wine’’ (PRS, 2024):  https://www.prsformusic.com/m-magazine/features/mistletoe-and-wine-cliff-richard-leslie-stewart-keith-strachan-christmas-i-wrote-that • ‘Mistletoe and Wine's political beginnings’ (BBC News, 2013): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25333691 • ‘Cliff Richard - Mistletoe and Wine’ (Official Video, 1988): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZCEBibnRM8 #Music #Christmas #Christian #80s #Theatre 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The debut episode of the world’s longest-running animated sitcom - 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' - aired in the U.S. on 17th December, 1989; attracting the Fox network’s highest ever Sunday night ratings. It was an instant sensation, with many contemporary critics remarking that the ‘dysfunctionality’ of The Simpsons was in-keeping with other 90s hits Roseanne and Married… With Children, while conservative voices including George H W Bush criticised what they saw as its celebration of underachievement. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how it came to be that a Christmas special should introduce the series; explain why Tracey Ullman filed a lawsuit about it; and reveal how many colours are in the show’s distinctive paint palette…  Further Reading: • ‘Honoring ‘Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire’’ (Vulture, 2018): https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/honoring-simpsons-roasting-on-an-open-fire.html • ‘Did Tracey Ullman Get Rich Off ‘The Simpsons’?’ (Mental Floss, 2017): https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/94628/did-tracey-ullman-get-rich-simpsons • ‘Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire’ (Fox, 1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIfLqO3SSBs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices