Today In History with The Retrospectors

Naval commander Horatio Nelson became the first non-Royal to receive a full British state funeral on 9th January, 1806, when tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of London to pay tribute to their fallen hero - including, surprisingly, his defeated counterpart, French admiral Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve.  The anticipation for the burial was fuelled by the nationalistic fervour that developed during the two months it took from news of Nelson’s death at the Battle of Trafalgar to his body arriving back in Britain. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly pick apart ‘Kiss Me Hardy’; explain how it was his earlier success at the Battle of the Nile that cemented his reputation as a household name; and pore over his commemorative funeral merch, from Union flags to anchor earrings… Further Reading: • ‘Nelson's funeral’ (Royal Museums Greenwich): https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/nelsons-funeral • ’Horatio Nelson: Britain’s Famous Admiral’ (The Collector, 2021): https://www.thecollector.com/horatio-nelson-britain-famous-admiral/ • ‘1805: The Battle That Shattered Napoleon's Invasion Plans’ (Timeline, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-po6WQ-wDd0 This episode first aired in 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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