Today In History with The Retrospectors

Harry Houdini survived 91 minutes in an underwater coffin at the Shelton Hotel, New York on 5th August, 1926.  The stunt had been arranged to counter the claims of Hindu mystic Rahman Bey, who said spiritualism was the only way to survive being buried alive. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly review the spat between Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle; reveal the ‘code’ Houdini had promised his wife Beth he’d use if contacting her from beyond the grave; and consider whether vengeful psychic fraudsters were responsible for his death… Further Reading: • ‘How Houdini Stayed in an Underwater Coffin for 90 Minutes’ (Mental Floss, 2016): https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/83075/how-houdini-stayed-underwater-coffin-90-minutes • ‘The Hotel Shelton pool in color’ (Wild About Houdini, 2015): https://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2015/07/the-hotel-shelton-pool-in-color.html • ‘5 Things You May Not Have Known About Houdini’ (Top5s, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiZj4xZTL-Y 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

The world’s first model village, Bekonscot in Buckinghamshire, had its initial public open day on 4th August, 1929. Begun as a personal project of accountant Roland Callingham, the attraction continues to capture the hearts of visitors with its intricate details and nostalgic charm. Callingham, a model railway enthusiast, created Bekonscot in his back garden; constructing an entire town to serve his model trains, featuring multiple stations, a butcher, baker, and circus big top. Initially created for private enjoyment, it was officially opened to the public by Princess Elizabeth in 1934, and was modified during World War II to feature tiny air raid wardens and wartime street scenes. Since the 90s, it has been architecturally preserved in its 1930s heyday. This episode first aired 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andre and Edouard Michelin published their first Guide on 1st August, 1900. Now recognised as  the gold standard in luxury restaurant reviews, the original guide was primarily created to encourage demand for automobiles - and, therefore, Michelin tyres. At the time, there were fewer than 3,000 cars on French roads. Nearly 35,000 copies of this first, free edition of the guide were distributed, providing information to motorists including maps, tyre repair and replacement instructions, car mechanics listings, hotels, and petrol stations throughout France. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the Michelin mascot, Bibendum, is white; reveal the levels of secrecy expected of Michelin’s restaurant inspectors; and consider why Japan ranks second to France in its star ratings…  Further Reading: • ‘The ingenious story behind Michelin stars’ (BBC Travel, 2018): https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20181024-the-ingenious-story-behind-michelin-stars • ‘What’s wrong with the Michelin guide?’ (Financial Times, 2021): https://www.ft.com/content/e622ec53-ea9f-487a-a434-747f13f5ffa0 •’How the Michelin Guide rates restaurants’ (CBS Sunday Morning, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tceSuaTbcU8 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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Royal Navy were issued with their final daily ration of rum - ending a tradition of more than 300 years - on July 31, 1970. The day became known as ‘Black Tot Day’. The demise of the long-standing tradition was mainly due to safety concerns, following fears surrounding the more complex technology now in operation across the Navy. To show their disappointment, some sailors wore black armbands. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly trace back the origins of this quaint custom; explain why spirits had taken the place of beer on boats; and marvel at footage of sailors who were clearly ‘pissed, in both senses of the word’...  Further Reading: • ‘Black Tot Day: rum rations for sailors abolished 45 years ago today’ (Daily Telegraph, 2015): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10210966/What-became-of-the-drunken-sailor.html • ‘Black Tot Day: The end of the rum ration’ (Forces Net, 2022): https://www.forces.net/services/navy/black-tot-day-end-rum-ration • ‘Black Tot Day (End of the Royal Navy Rum Ration)’ (ITN, 1970): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gh5PCghfbs 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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Union boss Jimmy Hoffa left his Michigan home for what was supposed to be a peace summit with mobsters Anthony Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone on 30th July, 1975. He never returned home. But Hoffa was much more than just a Mafia stooge. He’d been involved in labour unions from the age of fourteen, rapidly rising through the ranks to become president of the powerful Teamsters Union by 1957. Under his leadership, the union ballooned to over 2 million members. And with great power came great corruption; Hoffa’s close ties to organised crime eventually landing him in federal prison for bribery and fraud. In this episode, Rebecca, Arion and Olly explain why Hoffa’s intended memoir may have spurred the Mob on to silence him; discover how his father’s death led him into activism; and ponder whether it is *ever* a good idea to meet up in a parking lot…  Further Reading: • ‘Seven Years Later, Jimmy Hoffa Case Is Still a Mystery’ (The Washington Post, 1982): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/07/31/seven-years-later-jimmy-hoffa-case-is-still-a-mystery/3ed452a7-78e4-4785-8eef-dd9a0a5782cb/ • ‘Jimmy Hoffa's Disappearance: What Really Happened To Him?’ (All Thats Interesting, 2024): https://allthatsinteresting.com/jimmy-hoffa-death • ‘The Irishman’ (Netflix, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouLiC3oMHmE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert Paden-Powell took twenty boys to Brownsea Island, Poole on 29th July, 1907, to embark on a ten-day camp. The trip was, essentially, a laboratory for his subsequent books - and, therefore, the global Boy Scout movement.  Each day started with cocoa and exercises, and ended with campfire yarns. In between, there was a lot of knot-tying, parading and praying. By the time of the Second World War, 3.3 million British children were enrolled as Boy Scouts. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion explore the link between the Boer war and B-P’s ‘Scouting Book for Boys’; unearth the racist and homophobic elements of the global Scout movement; and explain why Indonesia has more Scouts than anywhere else... Further Reading: • ‘Brownsea Island: The First Camp’, from The Scouting Pages: https://thescoutingpages.org.uk/the-first-camp/ • ‘Boy Scouts of America reaches $850BILLION settlement with 60,000 child sex abuse victims’ (Mail Online, 2021): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9748029/Boy-Scouts-America-reaches-pivotal-agreement-victims.html • ‘Who Was Baden-Powell? & How B-P Changed the World!’ (Scouter Stan, YouTube 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY9pv8iF4wg 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

Captain William Smith, a decorated World War II pilot, was flying a B-25 Mitchell bomber on a routine mission on 28th July, 1945. In heavy fog over New York, he got disoriented and tragically turned the wrong way, narrowly missing the Chrysler Building - before crashing into the Empire State Building. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver, was thrown from her lift, but miraculously survived. First responders, unaware of the damaged cables in the shaft, placed her in another elevator to transport her for medical care - and the cables snapped, sending her plummeting 1,000 feet. Yet, astonishingly, she survived: setting a world record for the longest-survived elevator fall. In this episode Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how the incident led to landmark legislation allowing American citizens to sue the federal government; explain why the dramatic crash didn’t make a splash you might expect on the New York Times; and reveal the best position to adopt if you find yourself in a plunging elevator cart… Further Reading: • ‘Why a Plane Crashed into the Empire State Building 70 Years Ago’ (TIME, 2015): https://time.com/3967660/army-pilot-crash-empire-state-building/ • ‘This Woman Cheated Death Twice on the Same Day After a 1945 Disaster’ (History Collection, 2017): https://historycollection.com/cheat-death-twice-betty-lou-oliver-survived-75-storey-elevator-crash-plane-crashed-building/ • ‘TBT: She survived the longest elevator free fall’ (CNN, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHM-0c_Otes This episode first aired in 2024 Image By Bettman archive, Corbis, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18623093 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 Hovercraft SR-N1, piloted by Captain Peter Lamb, sailed from Calais to Dover on 25th July 1959, fifty years to the day after Louis Blériot made the first crossing of the English Channel. It took 2 hours, 3 minutes.  The brainchild of British engineer and inventor Christopher Cockerell, Hovercraft was described as a cross between an aircraft, a boat and a land vehicle, hovering just above the water on a cushion of air. Ultimately over 80 million people and 12 million cars crossed the Channel using Hovercraft.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Cockerell eventually got the UK Government on-side; consider the role of Duty Free regulations in its popularity and demise; and attempt to settle for good whether this iconic craft is *really* a boat, or a plane…  Further Reading: • Cross-Channel Aviation Pioneers: Blanchard and Bleriot, Vikings and Viscounts - By Bruce Hales-Dutton’ (Pen and Sword, 2021):  https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Cross_Channel_Aviation_Pioneers/S90SEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Captain+Peter+Lamb,+John+Chaplin+,+Christopher+Cockerell&pg=PA171&printsec=frontcover • ‘Back to the future — amphibious travel gets a fresh lease of life’ (FT, 2016): https://www.ft.com/content/c986c712-3dd3-11e6-8716-a4a71e8140b0 • ‘What Happened To Giant Hovercraft?’ (Mustard, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnJLT8wFyhY 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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ‘Quietly Confident Quartet’ of Mark Tonelli (backstroke), Peter Evans (breaststroke), Mark Kerry (butterfly), and Neil Brooks (freestyle) won Gold in the 4 × 100 metres medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Moscow on 24th July, 1980: the only time the United States had not won the event. It was Australia’s first Gold medal for eight years, but reaction back home to the swimmers’ astonishing victory was mixed, because some of their countrymen - including the Australian government - believed the team, like the USA, should have boycotted the games due to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly debate whether their triumph was one of determination or youthful confidence; explain why the Seamen’s Union Of Australia played a pivotal role in getting them to Moscow; and investigate the Soviets’ claims to have run ‘the cleanest Games on record’… Further Reading: • Mark Tonelli Relives Legendary Commentator Norman May's famous Moscow call: “Gold…Gold to Australia…Gold.!!” (Swimming World, 2020): https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/mark-tonelli-relives-legendary-commentator-norman-mays-famous-moscow-call-goldgold-to-australiagold/ • ‘The 1980 Olympics Are The 'Cleanest' In History. Athletes Recall How Moscow Cheated The System’ (Radio Free Europe, 2020): https://www.rferl.org/a/the-1980-moscow-olympics-rank-as-the-cleanest-in-history-athletes-recall-how-the-u-s-s-r-cheated-the-system-/30741567.html • ‘Norman May - GOLD, GOLD, GOLD!’ (Olympics, 1980): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8sguWatsAU 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 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Margaret "Mother" Clap stood before a London court on 23rd July, 1726, accused of running a “Molly house” - a social club for gay men that was part-brothel, part-safe haven.  She argued, perhaps naively, that as a woman she couldn’t possibly be involved in such "unnatural" practices, but the jury was unconvinced: she was fined, sentenced to two years in prison, and subjected to public humiliation on the pillory, where the crowd’s abuse was so severe she reportedly fainted multiple times. In the shadowy corners of early 18th-century London, queer life pulsed with secret vitality despite the oppressive laws of the time, which criminalized male same-sex acts with penalties as severe as death. Molly houses like Mother Clap’s offered sanctuary—a mix of tavern, drag show, hookup spot, and even mock wedding venue. In this episode, Rebecca, Arion and Olly explain how a raid by the Society for the Reformation of Manners brought about Mother Clap’s downfall; discover how London's newspapers revelled in the titillation of the tales, yet also stoked further hatred of homosexuals; and uncover the surprisingly tolerant locals who were queer ‘allies’ centuries before such a term existed… Further Reading: • ‘Mother Clap (died c.1726) | Humanist Heritage - Exploring the rich history and influence of humanism in the UK’ (Humanists UK, 2024): https://heritage.humanists.uk/mother-clap/ • ‘Beastly Sodomites And The Shameless Urban Future’ (Farid Azfar, Swarthmore College, 2014): https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76220788.pdf • ‘Molly Houses and Madams: Unravelling Georgian Subcultures’ (British Library, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTSHC_GmkPk 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