Today In History with The Retrospectors

Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda expanded her repertoire beyond acting and activism into exercise videos on 24th April, 1982, with the release of her bestselling aerobics VHS, "Workout." What seemed like a small venture at the time swiftly captivated the nation, revolutionising fitness trends and catapulting household VCR ownership. Extraordinarily, all profits from the enterprise went to her and her husband’s leftist pressure group, the Campaign for Economic Democracy.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how Fonda’s brand of fun, DIY fitness appealed to a generation of women who felt unwelcome in the male environment of 80’s gyms; reveal why filming the classic video was an arduous and exhausting process; and explain why Fonda’s foray into fitness was actually inspired by a broken ankle…Further Reading:• ‘30TH ANNIVERSARY OF MY FIRST WORKOUT VIDEO’ (Jane Fonda, 2012): https://www.janefonda.com/2012/04/30th-anniversary-of-my-first-workout-video/• ‘How 'Jane Fonda's Workout' Conquered the World’ (Mental Floss, 2015): https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65314/how-jane-fondas-workout-conquered-world• ‘Jane Fonda's Original Workout: Follow Along With Classic Step Aerobics’ (Tonic, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwQ1PrED9IELove 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/RetrospectorsThe 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 2024.

On 23 April 2005, software engineer Jawed Karim posted an 18-second clip of himself standing in front of some elephants at the San Diego Zoo – a video which is largely unremarkable, except for the fact it was the first ever clip uploaded to the site Karim cofounded: YouTube.The video has since received 260 million views, 13 million likes, and 11 million comments. Not bad for a clip whose only interesting feature is the innuendo about elephants having “really, really long, um… trunks.”Further Reading:• ‘The First YouTube Video Was Uploaded 9 Years Ago Today’ (Time Magazine, 2014): https://time.com/72892/the-first-youtube-video-was-uploaded-9-years-ago-today/ • ‘YouTube's History and Its Impact on the Internet’ (Interesting Engineering, 2020): https://interestingengineering.com/culture/youtubes-history-and-its-impact-on-the-internet• ‘Me At The Zoo’ (Jawed Karim, 2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw This episode first premiered in 2023, for members of 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 - where you can also DITCH THE ADS and 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: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.

Extracts from Adolf Hitler's long-lost diaries were brought to the world’s attention on 22nd April, 1983, provoking an international sensation - until they were quickly exposed for being a hoax. Respected World War Two historian Hugh Trevor Roper had authenticated the diaries, leading Rupert Murdoch to personally negotiate a $1.2 million serialisation in The Sunday Times, which went to press as Roper changed his mind.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal the true author of the ‘diaries’; explain why Murdoch was unrepentant, despite having splashed on perhaps the biggest fake news of the century; and appraise the chaotic atmosphere at the Stern magazine press conference, where punches were thrown, and David Irving started shouting about ink…Further Reading:• ‘Hitler Diaries hoax exposed in full for first time’ (The Times, 2023): https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hitler-diaries-released-full-text-public-hoax-forged-journals-w9jfcmrld• ‘Murdoch's bravado forced through the publication of the Hitler diaries’ (The Guardian, 2012): https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/25/rupert-murdoch-bravado-publication-hitler-diaries• ‘Robert Harris on Selling Hitler’ (The Guardian, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV_TpAkL6Q4Love 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/RetrospectorsThe 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 2024.

Katherine Switzer became the first woman to officially participate in the Boston Marathon on 19th April, 1967, when, disguised in a hooded sweatshirt and joggers, she ran under a race number she’d registered for without disclosing her first name. Her gender was revealed mid-race, prompting a bizarre fracas as co-director Jock Semple, known for his stringent adherence to tradition, attempted to forcibly remove her from the event - a frenzy captured by photographers and splashed across the front and back of the next day’s newspapers, triggering a change in the previously male-only event.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how Switzer was in fact not *quite* the first woman to run the marathon; unearth a 1980 Boston victory that played into the hands of the anti-women brigade; and consider how Switzer’s stand continues to resonate as a symbol of defiance against gender barriers in sports, decades later... Further Reading:• ‘Kathrine Switzer: 50 years ago women were not allowed to run the marathon’ (ABC, 2017):https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-25/kathrine-switzer-50-years-ago-women-not-allowed-to-run-marathon/8287576• ‘She was attacked 50 years ago for being a woman in the Boston Marathon. On Monday, she ran it again at 70’ (The Washington Post, 2017): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/04/17/fifty-years-ago-kathrine-switzer-was-attacked-as-she-ran-the-boston-marathon-the-reason-she-was-a-woman/• ‘Kathrine Switzer: First Woman to Enter the Boston Marathon’ (MAKERS, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOGXvBAmTsYLove 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/RetrospectorsThe 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 2024.

Milanese Princess Bona Sforza married the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund the Old, in Krakow Cathedral on 18th April, 1518 - making her the first Italian Queen of Poland, and one of the world’s most powerful women.There followed a 29-course wedding feast, a bawdy consummation ritual …and decades of resentment, as the Polish aristocracy came to terms with the influence she would have upon her husband’s decision-making.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Sforza’s heritage transformed the Polish diet forever; consider if there is an accurate portrait of her in existence; and reveal the betrayal that led to her untimely death…Further Reading: • ‘Bona Sforza – Ambitious Queen Of Poland Was Betrayed And Murdered’ (Ancient Pages, 2019): https://www.ancientpages.com/2019/01/21/bona-sforza-ambitious-queen-of-poland-was-betrayed-and-murdered/• ‘Pursuit: The Queen who defied the Holy Roman Emperor’ (The University of Melbourne, 2020): https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-queen-who-defied-the-holy-roman-emperor• ‘Poland's Italian Queen - The Life of Bona Sforza (1494 - 1557)’ (Oliwier Brzeziński, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlZ6JDkQmDILove 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/RetrospectorsThe 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 2024.

A 335-year-long ‘war’ (in which not a single shot was fired) officially ended on 17th April, 1986, when the UK’s Dutch ambassador landed on the Isles of Scilly and declared an end to hostilities between the Netherlands and this tiny archipelago off the coast of Cornwall. The origins of this eccentric conflict date back to 1651, during the English Civil War, where the Dutch found themselves indirectly involved due to their support for the parliamentarians. Angered by Dutch assistance to their enemies, the Royalists (based in Scilly) began robbing Dutch shipping lanes in the English Channel, prompting a declaration of war from the Dutch side...In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how local historian Roy Duncan's curiosity led him to investigate a long-standing rumour of his homeland’s "war" with the Dutch - and unearth one of the craziest conflicts on record!Further Reading:‘World's longest and weirdest war between the Isles of Scilly and the Netherlands’  (Cornwall Live, 2021): https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/story-behind-worlds-longest-weirdest-4092887‘The World's Longest War Only Ended in 1986’  (Atlas Obscura, 2016): https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-worlds-longest-war-only-ended-in-1985‘The Entire History of The Isles Of Scilly’ (Pete Kelly, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8rQFcSanOULove 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/RetrospectorsThe 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 2024.

When ‘Roots: The Saga of an American Family’ made novelist Alex Haley an international sensation, he revisited Juffure, Gambia - the village where he claimed his 18th-century ancestor Kunta Kinte had been captured into slavery. On 16th April, 1977, he was welcomed ‘home’ as a hero by the villagers.But his hit novel had begun to attract criticism for blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction - a genre Haley came to refer to as ‘faction’ - relying primarily on oral sources that were hard to verify. And the following year, novelist Harold Courlander successfully sued Haley for having plagiarised passages from his 1967 novel, ‘The African’.Further Reading:• ‘Haley Visit Captivates Village Where ‘Roots’ Began’ (The New York Times, 1977): https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/18/archives/haley-visit-captivates-village-where-roots-began.html• ‘Is Roots a true and authentic story? Why Alex Haley's book about slavery and family history is so controversial’ (Radio Times, 2017): https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/is-roots-a-true-story-why-this-tale-of-slavery-and-family-history-is-so-controversial/• ‘Roots author Alex Haley on the horror of slavery’ (CBC, 1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6WRRwqql4This episode first premiered in 2023, for members of 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 - where you can also DITCH THE ADS and 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: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.

Tommy Cooper's unexpected death on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre on 15th April, 1984 remains one of the saddest and most surreal moments in UK comedy history. Known for his slapstick humour and botched magic tricks, family favourite Cooper collapsed mid-act due to a massive heart attack. The audience, initially assuming it was part of his act, roared with laughter as he lay on the stage emitting what sounded like snoring. Despite the frantic efforts of production staff and paramedics backstage, Cooper was pronounced dead on arrival at Westminster Hospital. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Cooper’s health concerns had been widely known within the industry before this incident; reveal how a live TV audience of millions got to grips with the news that the comedy icon had died; and take a look back at some of the other star performers who have, quite literally, died on stage… Further Reading:‘Tommy Cooper's last act fooled us all, says Jimmy Tarbuck’ (Wales Online, 2009): https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tommy-coopers-last-act-fooled-2111280‘The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage - By Jeff Abraham, Burt Kearns’ (Chicago Review Press, 2019): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Show_Won_t_Go_On/6h-SDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tommy+cooper+her+majesty%27s&printsec=frontcover‘The Shocking Death of Tommy Cooper: Ernie Wise Pays Tribute’ (ITN, 1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ectDT3sXBFYLove 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/RetrospectorsThe 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 2024.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin left Kazakhstan for space on 12th April, 1961 - the first human to venture beyond the confines of Earth's atmosphere. As the rocket roared into the sky, Gagarin's now-famous exclamation of "Poyekhali!" ("Let's go!") echoed through the cockpit.Despite the anticipation surrounding Gagarin's historic flight, the actual experience was relatively brief, lasting a mere 108 minutes. Within that fleeting window, Gagarin's calm demeanour belied the inherent dangers of space travel, as he navigated weightlessness and unfamiliar conditions. Upon reentry, he faced a harrowing ordeal as technical malfunctions threatened his safe return to Earth. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explore how Gagarin's status as a national hero propelled him into the spotlight, yet suppressed his subsequent career trajectory; explain why it was not his ability as a pilot, but his diminutive height, which was most prized in the Sputnik programme; and reveal how his diplomatic world tour took him to the United States, yet without setting foot on U.S. soil… Further Reading:• ‘Yuri Gagarin: The first human in space’ (New Scientist): https://www.newscientist.com/people/yuri-gagarin/• ‘"Let's go!" — Remembering Yuri Gagarin, 60 years on’ (Astronomy Magazine, 2021): https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/lets-go-remembering-yuri-gagarins-first-spaceflight-60-years-later/• ‘Yuri Gagarin Became The First Human In Space, 57 Years Ago Today’ (NBC News, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkVAqNbX0NwWe'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 2024.