Today In History with The Retrospectors

The British Museum Library registered the legal deposit of the first ever 'Ladybird Series' titles, from publishers Wills & Hepworth (later 'Ladybird') on 27th August, 1914.

The books - 'Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales' and 'Tiny Tots Travels' - didn't look at all like the classic Ladybird books we think of today - but were the beginning of a publishing legacy that changed children’s books forever.

In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion explain how the classic Ladybird look - fashioned from one massive sheet of paper - was a response to World War Two; review how the publisher dealt with accusations of sexism and colour-blindness in the '70s; and explain the M.O.D.’s connection to one of the most valuable Ladybirds ever published…

Thanks to Ladybird collector and historian Helen Day for helping us dig up this date from the archives! Discover more about Helen and her passion for Ladybird on her excellent website:

https://ladybirdflyawayhome.com/so-whats-the-story-the-kitchen-table/

Further Reading:

• ‘Ladybird Books at 100: The series that inspired millions of children to read’ (Daily Mirror, 2015): https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ladybird-books-100-series-inspired-5335319

• ‘Ladybird Books: The strange things we learned’ (BBC, 2015): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-30709937

• ‘The Ladybird Books Story’ (Little Car, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ED7o4mG0lM

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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 2021.

#1910s #Arts #UK
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The inspiration for Steven Spielberg movie ‘The Terminal’, Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, began his incredible 18-year stint inside Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport on 26th August 1988.

With hopes of flying to Britain, he had found himself trapped in a bureaucratic no-man’s-land after travelling without documents.

Answering to ‘Sir Alfred’, he began to carve out a new personality for himself, living on a red bench surrounded by luggage, airport shops and the relentless rhythms of international travel. He washed in the terminal toilets, ate regularly at McDonald’s using vouchers given to him by airline staff, wore donated clothes and spent hours writing. He became perhaps the world’s most famous homeless man.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Nasseri eventually came to leave - and then return - to his airport home; uncover how his Hollywood money prevented him from accessing support services; and reveal the story of a Turkish citizen who, incredibly, appears to have beaten Sir Alfred’s record for airport residency…

Further Reading:

• ‘’The Terminal Man’ lived in a Paris airport for 18 years. I’ll never forget the weeks I spent with him | France’ (The Guardian, 2022): 'https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/23/terminal-man-lived-in-paris-airport-18-years-ill-never-forget-weeks-with-him• 'Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Who Inspired ‘The Terminal,’ Dies in Paris Airport’ (The New York Times, 2022): https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/world/europe/mehran-karimi-nasseri-dead.html

• 'He was arguably the world's best-known homeless person' (FRANCE 24 English, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbOBZ9JVR4Q

#France #Strange #Person #Iran

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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.

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Nissin Chikin Ramen (日清チキンラーメン), the first marketed brand of instant noodles, launched in Japan on 25th August, 1958.

The product was created by Momofuku Ando, who developed the production method of flash frying noodles after they had been made, thereby drying them and extending their shelf life. His inspiration sprung from the food scarcity in Japan after the Second World War, and the Ministry of Health’s attempts to distribute unpopular U.S.-supplied bread.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explore how Ando’s invention became the world’s emergency supply, student essential, and even prison currency…

Further Reading:

• ‘How Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen — and transformed Japanese cuisine’ (Vox, 2015): https://www.vox.com/2015/3/5/8150929/momofuku-ando-ramen-instant-noodles

• ‘Momofuku Ando & The Rise Of Ramen In Post-War Japan’ (HistoryExtra, 2021): https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/momofuko-ando-noodles-ramen-history-postwar-japan/

• ‘How Instant Ramen Became An Instant Success’ (Insider Business, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASlx70G2x-c

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Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

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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.

#Food #Japan #50s #Inventions
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Darryl McCray, better known as ‘Cornbread’, was honoured at the Graffiti Hall of Fame in Harlem on 24th August, 2013. But it was in 1960s Philadelphia that he’d made his name… by spraying it all over the city, becoming street art’s first serial ‘tagger’ in the process.

Unlike gangs, who tagged to claim turf, the teenage Cornbread simply wanted to be noticed - and he was, declaring his love for a girl named Cynthia by writing “Cornbread Loves Cynthia” across the city, much to her parents’ horror. Cornbread’s antics grew ever more daring; he famously tagged an elephant at the zoo, and even the Jackson 5’s airplane, solidifying his reputation as the “Godfather of Graffiti.”

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider why this new form of self-expression particularly appealed to Philadelphia’s disenfranchised Black youth; consider the influence of tagging on later movements such as hip-hop; and reveal how Cornbread got his name…

Further Reading:

• ‘CORNBREAD: The Graff Pioneer who Tagged an Elephant’ (Blankslaps, 2023): https://blankslaps.com/blogs/blog/cornbread-the-graff-pioneer-who-tagged-an-elephant

• ‘First graffiti artist Cornbread shows new work at Philly gallery’ (WHYY, 2019): https://whyy.org/articles/cornbread-the-first-graffiti-artist-shows-new-work-at-philadelphia-gallery/

• ‘CORNBREAD Lives’ (Mass Appeal, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXz_5TJbXr0

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Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…

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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.

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The creation of Haiti was the culmination of a slave revolt that began on a stormy night in the dense woods of Bois Caïman in Saint-Domingue, on 21st September, 1791, when a Voodoo ceremony led by the Jamaican-born priest Dutty Boukman called upon the enslaved Africans to reject their masters and embrace freedom in a bloody uprising.

Saint-Domingue was France’s most lucrative colony, producing vast quantities of sugar, coffee, cotton, and indigo. However, this wealth came at an enormous human cost. The brutal conditions on the plantations, exacerbated by rampant diseases like yellow fever, led to a staggering death rate among the enslaved population.

Meanwhile the French colonists, who were vastly outnumbered by the enslaved Africans, lived in constant fear of rebellion. When it came, the uprising rapidly gained momentum, destroying hundreds of plantations and killing thousands of white colonists within weeks.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the revolution was not actually intended to separate Haiti from France; consider how Toussaint Louverture rose through the ranks to command a formidable army and confront Napoleon’s forces; and reveal how the Haitian flag came to be…

Further Reading:

• ‘Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) • Global African History’ (Blackpast, 2007): https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/haitian-revolution-1791-1804/

• ’How Toussaint L'ouverture Rose from Slavery to Lead the Haitian Revolution’ (HISTORY, 2021): https://www.history.com/news/toussaint-louverture-haiti-revolution

• ’The Haitian Revolution - Liberation’ (Extra History, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfLskhmVd7k

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.
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