Retropod

The Post's new Retropolis columnist, Petula Dvorak, introduces herself and reintroduces you to what can be uncovered with a good look at history. Petula shares her Retropolis column "The presidential inauguration that made everyone sick" about the aftermath of James Buchanan’s inauguration. America became obsessed: Was the fatal illness called the “Buchanan Grip” an assassination attempt? Or just a disease-ridden hotel?

Transcribed - Published: 18 January 2025

On Christmas Eve in 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts captured an image that symbolizes hope and inspired environmentalism.

Transcribed - Published: 31 December 2019

On March 25, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were a few days into their marriage when they invited the press to join them at their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel.

Transcribed - Published: 30 December 2019

Jazz singer Ethel Ennis’s voice wowed audiences and won praise from critics. But when she was faced with the opportunity to become a superstar, Ennis chose a different path.

Transcribed - Published: 27 December 2019

The nurse who founded the American Red Cross had no formal training in medicine. She tended to countless wounded soldiers.

Transcribed - Published: 26 December 2019

In the 1950s, a child trying to call Santa Claus accidentally called NORAD and changed Christmas Eve forever.

Transcribed - Published: 25 December 2019

Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus had no idea how big the toy industry would become.

Transcribed - Published: 23 December 2019

After the Civil War, formerly enslaved people placed notices in black-owned newspapers across the country to find their loved ones.

Transcribed - Published: 20 December 2019

A few days before his team took the field as huge underdogs in Super Bowl III, New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath made what was seen as an insane prediction at the time: "The Jets will win Sunday," he said. "I guarantee it."

Transcribed - Published: 19 December 2019

In the 1950s, Charles Van Doren, a quiet professor in New York City, became wrapped up in one of the biggest television quiz show scandals in history.

Transcribed - Published: 18 December 2019

While on a research trip to the Arctic in the early 20th century, scientist Clarence Birdseye — a name you might recognize from the frozen food aisle — made an observation that would go on to change the way we eat.

Transcribed - Published: 17 December 2019

Disasters don’t just happen. Like anything in life, there’s usually a buildup. In the case of the Chernobyl disaster, the series of failures stretched back more than a decade. But what happened the day before the explosion?

Transcribed - Published: 16 December 2019

Serving as special counsel is probably only the third hardest job Robert Mueller has held. His life in public service started when he just 23 years old, as a Marine lieutenant in the Vietnam War.

Transcribed - Published: 13 December 2019

Growing up in Somalia, a country where stories are handed down through generations, one of the first tales that children are told is about an ancient queen who fought to give women power by castrating men.

Transcribed - Published: 12 December 2019

During World War I, British nurse Flora Sandes put down her nurses bag to fight with the Serbian Army.

Transcribed - Published: 11 December 2019

He thought being drafted into the National Football League was so unlikely that he signed with an African American league team. Then, the NFL called.

Transcribed - Published: 10 December 2019

It doesn't seem like a big deal today, but 1930s America lived in fear of the male nipple.

Transcribed - Published: 9 December 2019

Nine months before the Iran hostage crisis, Kenneth Kraus was held hostage in Iran for eight days.

Transcribed - Published: 6 December 2019

Once upon a time, people walked between the U.S. and Canada over a frozen Niagara Falls. But one day, that all changed forever.

Transcribed - Published: 5 December 2019

In 1983, Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union’s Air Defense Forces, trusted his gut and averted a global nuclear catastrophe.

Transcribed - Published: 4 December 2019

It is one of the worst expressions of racism in American history. And there’s no federal law to prevent it.

Transcribed - Published: 3 December 2019

A German woman discovered that her childhood home was stolen from a Jewish family who fled Nazi Germany. Last year, she tracked down the address of one of the children, and wrote him a letter.

Transcribed - Published: 2 December 2019

In the 1950s, Dr. Virginia Apgar created a quick test that nurses have since performed on millions of babies just after birth. She is considered one of the most important figures in modern medicine — a world that almost pushed her away.

Transcribed - Published: 29 November 2019

Beginning in the earliest days of baseball, fans, journalists and even physicists disputed whether or not pitchers could make a ball curve.

Transcribed - Published: 28 November 2019

Benjamin Franklin, the most colorful of America's Founding Fathers, had a misunderstood, electrical and ultimately homicidal relationship with turkeys.

Transcribed - Published: 27 November 2019

Weeks before Thanksgiving, 1959, cranberries were declared unsafe to eat. The race was on to save America’s favorite holiday side dish.

Transcribed - Published: 26 November 2019

No women served on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991. The ugly Anita Hill hearings changed that.

Transcribed - Published: 25 November 2019

For many, memories of that devastating day quickly revert to that silent, flickering sequence captured by Abraham Zapruder. It is as chilling as it is familiar: the approaching convertible, the waves of a crowd about to lose its innocence.

Transcribed - Published: 22 November 2019

During World War II, around 80 Russian women took to the skies and risked their lives to fight against the Germans.

Transcribed - Published: 21 November 2019

The history of subpoenas, and the fiery congressional hearings that have captivated Americans for centuries began with a Founding Father raising his hand to say, “Investigate me!”

Transcribed - Published: 20 November 2019

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy devastated the nation. But the day before the shooting was just a normal day. It was particularly calm and uneventful for the gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Transcribed - Published: 19 November 2019

Once a party drug, ketamine has found its way into modern medicine.

Transcribed - Published: 18 November 2019

Four years before Amelia Earhart ever got into a plane, Ruth Law was already making a name for herself in the skies.

Transcribed - Published: 14 November 2019

Sexual harassment has been existed in showbiz as long as there have been bright lights.

Transcribed - Published: 13 November 2019

Back in the 1830s, Jim Crow wasn't yet a symbol of inequality. He was a fictional character in minstrel shows who, to entertain his audiences, performed in blackface.

Transcribed - Published: 12 November 2019

After receiving complaints about carriages driving too fast, Washington D.C. policeman William H. West arrested a presidential speed demon.

Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2019

For decades, the boundary between Mexico and the United States was little more than an imaginary line in the sand.

Transcribed - Published: 8 November 2019

If you work in an office without offices, with just about everyone working in a large spare space full of stylish desks, straight lines and papers stored in a credenza, then you have met Florence Knoll Bassett.

Transcribed - Published: 7 November 2019

A full year after the King James Bible was printed in 1631, people discovered an error.

Transcribed - Published: 6 November 2019

After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, John Surratt traveled across three continents, wore disguises and used fake names for nearly two years to escape authorities.

Transcribed - Published: 5 November 2019

Pinball was once so vilified that it was banned in cities across the United States.

Transcribed - Published: 4 November 2019

When Eugene Cernan walked on the moon, he didn’t know he’d be the last astronaut to make the journey.

Transcribed - Published: 1 November 2019

In the early days of the House, some congresspeople thought hats had no place atop the heads of representatives debating the great issues of the day. Hats, they argued, weren’t dignified.

Transcribed - Published: 31 October 2019

When Alexander Hamilton argued in favor of lifetime tenures for Supreme Court justices, he probably didn’t foresee them living past their prime.

Transcribed - Published: 30 October 2019

Lego started as a company that made wooden toys, and grew into an empire of plastic building blocks.

Transcribed - Published: 29 October 2019

John Calhoun’s rodent experiments revolutionized the way we think about social behavior and the impact of growing populations.

Transcribed - Published: 28 October 2019

Presidents throughout history have visited battlefields to better grasp conditions, reverse public doubt and signal that the country took war efforts seriously.

Transcribed - Published: 25 October 2019

White House maid Elizabeth Jaffray not only cleaned up after presidents, she had an amazing insight into their appetites.

Transcribed - Published: 24 October 2019

Fritz Kuhn was the leader of the pro-Nazi group known as the German American Bund. He was a hero to his audience, and a scourge on the world to most others.

Transcribed - Published: 23 October 2019

After being fired from his job for being gay, Frank Kameny took his battle for equality to the nation’s highest court.

Transcribed - Published: 22 October 2019