Today In History with The Retrospectors

• Digging the Trenches

  The start of World War I featured officers in white gloves, leading troops in neat lines, and cavalry charges complete with sabres and lances. But this changed on 15th September, 1914 - when soldiers began digging into the earth, laying the groundwork for the trench warfare that would come to define the conflict. By that November, trenches covered 400 miles along the Western Front, in two opposing lines that were often as close as 50 metres, with "No Man’s Land" in between—a deadly strip of land covered in barbed wire. Soldiers lived in constant fear of artillery, sniper fire, and brutal night raids. The trenches were muddy, disease-ridden, and teeming with rats and lice. Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the physical and psychological toll of trench life; explain how flamethrowers, ‘trench clubs’ and even helmets all became more popular over the course of the conflict; and discover that the process of rotation meant soldiers were in the trenches only for short bursts, yet long enough to leave lasting trauma… Further Reading: • ‘First trenches are dug on the Western Front | September 15, 1914’ (HISTORY, 2009): https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-trenches-are-dug-on-the-western-front • ’Trench tactics: how was war fought in the WW1 trenches?’ (History Extra, 2023): https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/trench-warfare-ww1-tactics-what/ • ‘Conditions in Trenches - Dan Snow's Battle of the Somme’ (Discovery UK, 2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvYIIuxh2kY This episode was first published 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

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• Barrett ❤️ Browning

  The secret wedding of poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning on September 12th, 1846, was witnessed by just two people. Elizabeth was so nervous about the ceremony, held at Marylebone Parish Church, that she needed smelling salts to calm her.  Barrett was already an acclaimed poet, while Browning was relatively unknown at the time. But their correspondence, comprising almost 600 letters exchanged over less than two years, is considered one of literature’s great romances.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the Brownings’ marriage inspired their greatest works; probe into Browning’s pet name for Barrett, ‘the Portuguese'; and consider whether, contrary to all appearances, Browning may have had sinister intentions for his new wife…  Further Reading: • ‘Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Life, Poetry, Relationship & ‘How Do I Love Thee?’’ (HistoryExtra, 2021): https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/elizabeth-barrett-browning-who-life-love-poetry-relationship-robert/ • ‘What we can learn from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's years in lockdown’ (The Guardian, 2021): https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/15/what-we-can-learn-from-elizabeth-barrett-brownings-years-in-lockdown •’The life and work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’ (The British Academy, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkSWGqMDBEY #Literature #Victorian #Romantic #Wedding #UK 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

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• Let's Build The Pentagon

  Construction of the Virginia headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense began on September 11th, 1941 - spookily, the same date it was attacked by al-Qaeda six decades later.  The massive five-sided building, a potent symbol of America’s military strength, became known as the Pentagon. Featuring 4 million square feet of office space, the building was designed by George Bergstrom under the supervision of Leslie R. Groves, who was later chosen to head the Manhattan Project and build the atomic bomb. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca, and Olly explain why the building’s racially segregated bathrooms were installed, but never used; reveal why, for a while, a ‘Pentagon project’ became a by-word for a white elephant; and consider whether a hot dog stand in the complex foxed the Soviets…  Further Reading: • ‘10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Pentagon’ (U.S. Department of Defense, 2019): https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/story/Article/1650913/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-pentagon/ • ‘Pentagon Hot Dog Stand – Arlington, Virginia’ (Atlas Obscura, 2017): https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pentagon-hot-dog-stand • ‘FOX Business reveals 'stunning' new details about Pentagon's construction’ (FOX Business, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tK6gIsMAgc 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

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• France's Last Execution

  The guillotine claimed its last victim on 10th September, 1977, when murderer Hamida Djandoubi was executed in Marseille, his grim end marking the closing chapter of nearly two centuries of clinical beheading, stretching back to the French Revolution.  Overseen by France’s last official executioner Marcel Chevalier, the event was private and hushed - a far cry from the raucous public spectacles that had once drawn huge crowds. Witness accounts described Djandoubi drinking rum, smoking his final cigarettes, and even stalling for time before being led to the blade. Adding to the eerie symbolism, he was made to fix his prosthetic leg before kneeling at the block. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how beheading was initially considered a humane and egalitarian form of execution; consider the French public’s support for the death penalty throughout the seventies, even as Mitterand stood on an electoral platform to abolish it; and reveal what it all had to do with Star Wars… CONTENT WARNING: rape, murder, description of execution Further Reading: • ‘This Will Be the Last, by Monique Mabelly, Translated by Ryann Liebenthal’ (Harpers, 1977): https://harpers.org/archive/2014/02/this-will-be-the-last/ • The History of the Guillotine (ThoughtCo, 2019): https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-guillotine-p2-1991842 • ‘The French Revolution’ (dir. Robert Enrico, 1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKNqP_kYV4 #Macabre #Crime #France #70s #Revolution 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

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• Laughter, Uncanned

  'The Hank McCune Show' - an otherwise unremarkable footnote in American TV history - became the first single-camera sitcom to deploy a pre-recorded laugh track (aka ‘canned laughter’) on 9th September, 1950. The giggles and applause came courtesy of Charlie Douglass, who made a career of capturing audience reaction in his ‘laff box’, and then expertly sprinkling it across other shows, including Bewitched, The Munsters and The Flintstones.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly look back at Red Skelton’s ‘pantomimes’, the origin of much of Douglass’ recorded laughter; explain why live studio audiences are sometimes even more enthusiastic clappers than pre-recorded ones; and reveal how the Bolshoi Ballet STILL employ professional audience reactionaries… Further Reading:  • ‘The invention of laughter: Charley Douglass and the laff box’ (The Verge, 2013): https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/13/5207136/Charley-Douglass-laff-box-laugh-track • ‘How we fell in and out of love with the Laff Box, the laugh track machine that changed sitcoms forever’ (ABC, 2020): https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-16/history-of-the-laugh-track-laff-box-charles-douglass/12117866 • ‘How Do Laugh Tracks Work?’ (How Stuff Works, 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suD4KbgTl4 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

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