Podcasts by HISTORY This Week

Reflecting on History from 2023-08-14T09:01:13

August 14, 2023. The HTW team is ready to talk. In a special episode that wraps up Season 4, Sally asks the people behind the scenes about lessons they've learned from telling hundreds of true s...

History’s Undelivered Speeches from 2023-08-07T09:01:19

August 8, 1974. President Richard Nixon sits in the Oval Office, addressing the American people. He tells them: I’m going to resign. The news is shocking, but not unexpected. Today, it might eve...

Special Announcement from 2023-08-04T09:01:01

We’ll be back next week with a regular episode, but please listen to this for an important HTW update!

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The Donner Party Turns Deadly from 2023-07-31T13:02:26

August 4, 1846. A few months into their journey from Illinois to California, a group of pioneers encounters trouble. They’ve just found a note from their guide. It essentially says, “That shortc...

Destroyer of Worlds (Replay) from 2023-07-25T09:01:09

July 16, 1945. It happened within a millionth of a second. In the New Mexico desert in the early morning hours, a group of scientists watched in anticipation as the countdown began. It was silen...

Barbie for President! from 2023-07-24T09:01

July 29th, 1992. The Baltimore Sun runs a feature about a surprise candidate in the upcoming presidential race: Barbie. The 11.5-inch icon of girlhood and glamor is running for office –...

John Muir’s Quest to Save the Great Outdoors from 2023-07-17T09:01:21

July 19, 1869. Naturalist John Muir watches the sun rise over the Sierra Nevada mountains. He’ll write in his journal of the stirring birds, glowing treetops, and even rocks that “seem to thrill...

The USS Indianapolis’ Secret Mission Turns into Tragedy from 2023-07-10T09:01:42

July 16, 1945. It’s the summer of 1945 and World War II is underway. The USS Indianapolis has just set out from Mare Island on a top-secret mission. The famous vessel is delivering enriched uran...

Chasing Utopia from 2023-07-03T09:01:29

July 8, 1843. Amidst the rolling hills of rural Massachusetts, a group of Transcendentalists come together to form a collective built around self-perfection and reverence for nature. And on this...

The Tupperware Queen from 2023-06-26T09:01:12

July 2, 1957. At the annual Tupperware jubilee in Florida, company VP Brownie Wise is admiring her handiwork. 1,200 people have convened on her private island for a luau—complete with live lobst...

Two Fathers, One Fight (Replay) from 2023-06-19T09:03:28

June 21, 1998. Father's Day. At the Church of the Atonement in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Jon and Michael Galluccio are ready to tie the knot, in front of family, friends, reporters, and one lone picke...

Ma Rainey's Mic Drop from 2023-06-12T09:01:04

June 12, 1928. The great Blues singer Ma Rainey steps up to the microphone at a studio in Chicago. She’s there to record a scandalous song called “Prove It On Me Blues.” It’s her answer to the r...

Mary Shelley Brings Frankenstein to Life from 2023-06-05T09:01:45

June 10, 1816. A storm settles over Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Stuck inside a romantic villa, five writers grow restless. Then one of them issues a challenge: Who among us can write the most terr...

FDR Tries to Pack the Court from 2023-05-29T09:01:17

June 1, 1936. The Supreme Court hands down its last decision of the term. The justices have dealt blow after blow to President Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation, and today is no different: they r...

Bonnie and Clyde’s Final Ride from 2023-05-22T09:01:24

May 23, 1934. On a muggy Louisiana morning, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow speed toward the Texas border. They’ve been on the run for over a year—wanted for robbery and murder—and the lurid news...

A Teenage Girl Saves France from 2023-05-15T09:01:44

May 16, 1920. Tens of thousands of people surround St. Peter’s Basilica to honor Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who died nearly five hundred years before. Joan’s feats in battle—and her visi...

The Spy Who Fooled the FBI from 2023-05-08T09:01:22

May 10, 2002. Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life in prison without parole. His crime? Selling scads of top-secret information to the Soviets – and later, the Russians – over 22...

Bonus: The Coronation of King Charles III (feat. Katie Nicholl) from 2023-05-05T09:01:24

May 6, 2023. For the first time in 70 years, Great Britain will crown a new monarch. King Charles III will officially take the throne, and his wife will be named Queen Camilla. The coronation it...

The World’s First Budget Airline Takes Off from 2023-05-01T09:01:46

May 6, 1949. On the runway at Lindbergh Field in San Diego, a scrappy upstart called Pacific Southwest Airlines, PSA, is about to take its first flight. PSA is a budget airline—the world’s ...

A Concubine Rises to Rule China from 2023-04-24T09:01:22

April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebrat...

The Civil Rights Children’s Crusade from 2023-04-17T09:01:37

April 20, 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walks out of Alabama’s Birmingham Jail after being held for a week for peacefully protesting. He spent most of that time writing a letter that passiona...

Ping Pong Diplomacy from 2023-04-10T09:01:50

April 10, 1971. A team of ping pong players leaves Hong Kong to step across a border and become the first group of Americans welcomed to China in over 20 years. These competitors find themselves...

148 Tornadoes in 18 Hours (Replay) from 2023-04-03T09:01:07

April 3, 1974. Across America, many people wake up this morning thinking it will be a normal day. But in the next 24 hours, almost 150 tornadoes will hit the United States. It will be then ...

Bunnies, Baseball, and Aliens on the Moon from 2023-03-27T09:01

April 1, 2023. In honor of April Fools’ Day, we give you three historical tales of the bluff and the bamboozle. An autumn day in 1726, when an English peasant gives birth to something mysterious...

Fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory from 2023-03-20T09:01:38

March 25, 1911. It’s quarter to five on a Saturday—closing time at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Someone on the cutting room floor lights a cigarette… that ignites a pile of scraps. Over the ...

The Tragic Life of London’s Favorite Clown from 2023-03-13T09:01:27

March 17, 1828. The celebrated clown, Joseph Grimaldi, rises from his sickbed. Once London’s most energetic performer, he’s gradually been crippled by decades of pratfalls and acrobatics. He can...

Axis Sally’s Nazi Radio from 2023-03-06T10:01:36

March 10, 1949. Defendant Mildred Gillars arrives at a courthouse to hear her verdict. To trial-watchers, she’s known as Axis Sally—the American woman who broadcast Nazi propaganda from Berlin d...

Introducing: American Football (Episode 1: Canton, Ohio) from 2023-03-03T10:01:20

A new History Channel podcast, American Football is the untold tale of the rough-and-tumble origins of the National Football League. Produced and presented by Michael Strahan and narrated by act...

The Flight of the Concorde from 2023-02-27T10:01:05

March 2, 1969. French pilot André Turcat takes to the skies above Toulouse-Blagnac airport. He’s flying an odd-looking plane: long and slender with triangular wings and a bent-down nose like a b...

The Cold War Gets A Wall from 2023-02-20T10:01:28

February 22, 1962. The city of Berlin is cut in half by a concrete and barbed wire wall. On the west side, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy is giving a rousing speech when suddenly, what loo...

The Apollo Theater is Reborn from 2023-02-13T10:01:48

February 14, 1934. When Adelaide Hall steps onstage at The Apollo Theater, she’s greeted by an audience unlike those she’s experienced before. Hall is already famous—she’s been on Broadway and p...

Anatomy of a Campus Heist from 2023-02-06T10:31:10

February 11, 2005. FBI agents bust down the door of a cinder block house near the University of Kentucky campus. Amid flash grenades and screaming teens, they arrest three students – plus a four...

Britain Axes the Monarchy from 2023-01-30T10:01:25

January 30, 1649 / 1661. London, 1649. King Charles I lays his head on a chopping block. The axe falls and, soon with it, the monarchy. What follows is Parliament’s grueling effort to set up a f...

The Dogs Who Saved Nome, Alaska from 2023-01-23T10:01:48

January 27, 1925. Musher “Wild Bill” Shannon and his team of sled dogs race off into the frigid Alaskan night. He’s carrying a package of life-saving serum, wrapped in fur to keep it from freezi...

From Cautionary Tales: Martin Luther King Jr, the Jewelry Genius, and the Art of Public Speaking from 2023-01-16T10:01:04

Here’s a special episode of Cautionary Tales, a podcast from our friends at Pushkin Industries. On Cautionary Tales, bestselling author Tim Harford shares stories of human error, natural disasters,...

Tuskegee Top Gun from 2023-01-09T10:01:05

January 11, 2022. Lt. Col. James Harvey arrives at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada for the first time in 73 years. He’s there to accept a plaque celebrating the last time he was there—for the Ai...

Uncovering Tutankhamun from 2023-01-02T10:01:21

January 3, 1924. Archeologists crowd into an ancient Egyptian tomb to uncover what awaits them in the unopened burial chamber. The world is waiting to find out. That’s because two years before, ...

End of Year Pitch-A-Thon from 2022-12-26T10:01:42

December 26, 2022. For the first time, a behind-the-scenes look at a key part of the History This Week episode-making process. Today, we’re inviting our listeners to pull up a chair and join one...

The Surprising History of Christmas Gifts from 2022-12-19T10:01:38

Christmas Eve, 1913. For months, newspapers have been trumpeting an urgent message: Do your Christmas shopping early. It would be easy to assume this was the work of greedy de...

Samuel Adams Brews Rebellion from 2022-12-12T10:01:51

December 16, 1773. Samuel Adams sits in a crowded meeting of American colonists at Boston’s Old South Meeting House. He’s watching small groups of men slip quietly out the door. Once outside, th...

Irving Berlin’s Musical Revolution from 2022-12-05T10:01:43

December 8, 1914. Crowds pour into the New Amsterdam Theater to see the opening night of a new show, “Watch Your Step.” It’s the first full-length revue written by the popular young songwriter, ...

A Meteorite Hits Ann Hodges from 2022-11-28T10:01:46

November 30, 1954. At about 12:45 in the afternoon, a space rock comes plummeting through the roof of a house in Sylacauga, Alabama. It bounces off a standup radio, ricochets around the living r...

The Ballad of Blackbeard from 2022-11-21T10:01:11

November 22, 1718. Early morning, off the North Carolina coast. The pirate Blackbeard, peering over the rail of his ship, is startled to discover that a pair of British naval ships are after him...

The Inca's Last Stand (Replay) from 2022-11-14T10:01:40

November 16, 1532. Atahualpa, the king of the Inca Empire, marches towards the city of Cajamarca in modern-day Peru, surrounded by 80,000 soldiers. Once he arrives, Atahualpa expects the Spanish co...

Two Shawnee Brothers Hold Their Ground from 2022-11-07T10:01:38

November 7, 1811. William Henry Harrison and his troops are camped near the Wabash river. They’ve been told to keep the peace—but Harrison wants land, and he’s come here to try and take it. Less...

The Truth About Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings from 2022-10-31T09:01:35

November 5, 1998. Using DNA evidence, the scientific journal Nature publishes findings that put to rest a centuries-old mystery: Was Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello, the mother of...

The Donora Death Fog from 2022-10-24T09:01:25

October 26, 1948. A mysterious fog descends upon the valley town of Donora, Pennsylvania. Most of its residents work at the local steel mill and are used to murky air. But there’s something diff...

Introducing: It Was Said Season 2 from 2022-10-20T15:49:21

It Was Said, the 2021 Webby Award winner for Best Podcast Series, returns with a new season to look back on some of the most powerful, impactful, and timeless speeches in history. Written and na...

Exploring Earth’s Evil Twin from 2022-10-17T09:01:30

October 22, 1975. After traveling millions of miles through space, a Soviet spacecraft plunges through thick clouds of sulfuric acid to land on Venus. Its goal: take a photograph of another...

Jim Thorpe's Lost Gold (w/ Sports History This Week) from 2022-10-10T09:01:50

October 13, 1982. The announcement came from Switzerland, across the world from where Jim Thorpe was raised on Indian territory in Oklahoma. In his time, Thorpe was the most popular athlete in t...

The Bone Wars from 2022-10-03T09:01:12

October 4, 1915. President Woodrow Wilson designates Dinosaur National Monument as a national historic site.  That’s a big deal, right? There must’ve been a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony, m...

The Hanging of Jekyll and Hyde from 2022-09-26T09:01:50

October 1, 1788. William Brodie mounts the gallows outside Edinburgh’s jail. Just a few years before, as a respected member of the town council, he’d helped redesign those gallows. Now he stands...

Saladin Takes Back the Holy City from 2022-09-19T09:01:55

September 20, 1187. It’s daytime outside the walls of Jerusalem. Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt, ponders his next attack. His troops encircle and lay siege to the city. They vastly outnumber the C...

The Radium Girls Fight Back from 2022-09-12T09:01:05

September 2, 1922. Twenty-four-year-old Mollie Maggia has a toothache. In less than a year, this otherwise healthy young woman will be dead. Others like her will soon follow. They’d all shared w...

Star Trek Premieres from 2022-09-05T09:01:50

September 8, 1966. For the first time, the USS Enterprise appears on screen. It is the premiere of a strange new futuristic TV show. Star Trek will introduce the world to a cast of char...

Love, Betrayal, and the Battle for Rome from 2022-08-29T09:01:55

September 2, 31 BCE. Two camps prepare for battle off the coast of Greece. On one side is Octavian, Julius Caesar’s heir apparent. On the other, Marc Antony and his lover, the Egyptian queen Cle...

The Deadly Puzzle of Yellow Fever from 2022-08-22T09:01:46

August 27, 1900. Dr. Jesse Lazear, a U.S. Army surgeon, walks into Las Animas Hospital Yellow Fever ward in Havana Cuba, toting a brood of mosquitos. He has the system down: remove the cotton st...

Dirty Dancing in the Borscht Belt from 2022-08-15T09:01:23

August 17, 1987. On the red carpet in New York City, it’s the premier of a new movie: Dirty Dancing. The story is set in the sunburnt Shangri-La of New York’s Catskills resort region. T...

Pop Music Pirates (Replay) from 2022-08-08T09:01:15

August 14, 1967. Off the coast of England, a group of pirate ships has been fighting to stay afloat. These are pirates of a particular kind—less sword fighting and treasure hunting, more spinnin...

The Web Goes World Wide from 2022-08-01T09:01:40

August 6, 1991. On an Internet news board, a memo appears, describing a new project that some scientists have been developing: “The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project.” It’s meant to help ordinary peopl...

Convert or Leave (Replay) from 2022-07-25T09:01:43

7/31/1492. In cities, towns and villages across late medieval Spain, whole districts have emptied out. Houses abandoned, stores closed, and synagogues—which until recently had been alive with si...

Walt Whitman's First Fan Mail from 2022-07-18T09:01:56

July 21, 1855. Literary lion Ralph Waldo Emerson writes a letter to an unknown Brooklyn journalist named Walt Whitman. He’s just read Whitman’s first published poems, which have both startled hi...

The Games to Win Ancient Rome from 2022-07-11T09:01:49

July 13, 44 BCE. Julius Caesar is dead, stabbed by a trusted friend. With Rome shaken, the Senate meets to decide next steps. They're confronting the brutal power struggle already breaking out a...

The Colosseum Becomes a Wonder from 2022-07-04T09:01:32

July 7, 2007. In a dramatic ceremony featuring pop stars, fireworks, and smoke canons, the Colosseum is named one of the seven new wonders of the world. It’s an appropriately over-the-top blowou...

Mutiny on the Black Sea from 2022-06-27T09:01:52

June 27, 1905. It’s the last morning of Ippolit Gilyarovsky’s life. He wakes up in a battleship on the Black Sea. The Potemkin. He’s a despised Russian naval officer who doesn’t care that his sa...

Introducing: Sports History This Week from 2022-06-22T09:50:20

June 23, 1972. President Richard Nixon’s men broke into the Watergate complex just six days earlier. He’s attempting some damage control, but in between meetings with his staff, Nixon signs a ne...

The Church Kidnaps Edgardo Mortara from 2022-06-20T09:01:21

June 23, 1858. A knock at the door—it’s the papal police. For the Mortaras, a Jewish family living in Bologna, this is not a good sign. And soon, the officers break the agonizing news: “You have...

Watergate from the Inside (Replay) from 2022-06-13T09:01:43

June 17, 1972. In the early morning hours, five men are caught after breaking into the Watergate building in Washington, DC. The failed break-in that night will eventually lead to the unraveling...

Bayard Rustin Marches Free from 2022-06-06T09:01:41

June 11, 1946. Bayard Rustin walks out of the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary after serving a sentence for conscientiously objecting to WWII. A pacifist organizer, his efforts reach the ears of M...

Anna May Wong Steps into the Spotlight from 2022-05-30T09:01:24

June 4, 1939. Anna May Wong steps off an ocean liner to greet her fans in Australia. In many ways, she is a classic Hollywood actor. Glamorous and famous. She’s made some sixty movies that have ...

Reconstruction IV: Voting Rights At Last from 2022-05-23T09:01:16

May 26, 1965. One hundred years after the Civil War, Congress is debating a bill whose goal is to enforce the 15th amendment, which, in 1870, promised the right to vote regardless of race. But t...

Reconstruction III: Eric Foner and Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction from 2022-05-19T09:01:51

In 1935, famed Black sociologist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois published Black Reconstruction, a revolutionary reassessment of the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War. The book wa...

Reconstruction II: The First Presidential Impeachment from 2022-05-16T09:01:35

May 16, 1868. The Capitol is filled with spectators, anxiously trying to predict how each Senator will vote. It’s the first presidential impeachment trial in American history, and its outcome wi...

Reconstruction I: Secession on Trial from 2022-05-09T09:01:23

May 10, 1865. Jefferson Davis is awakened by gunshots. The president of the defeated and disbanded Confederate States of America is on the run, and today, federal troops finally catch him. His a...

HTW Presents: Reconstruction from 2022-05-05T09:05:45

In this miniseries, HISTORY This Week takes listeners from the Civil War to Civil Rights to uncover the true cost of putting the country back together. Premiering May 9.

from 2022-05-02T09:01:23

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: May 7, 1824. One of the great musical icons in history, Ludwig Van Beethoven, steps onto stage at the Kärntn...

Dividing the Desert from 2022-04-25T09:04:16

April 25, 1859. About 150 people have gathered on the shores of Lake Manzala in Egypt. And one of them, a mustachioed, retired French diplomat, steps forward. He raises his pickaxe and strikes a...

The Luddites Attack from 2022-04-18T09:04:57

April 20, 1812. An angry crowd approaches a mill in Lancashire, England. They’re fed up with what’s happening to their knitting industry, and they’re here to smash the machines taking their jobs...

Jackie Robinson Tries Out for the Majors from 2022-04-11T09:01:16

April 16, 1945. Jackie Robinson is ready. He’s won a tryout with the Boston Red Sox, and if he makes the team, he will become the first player to break baseball’s long-standing racial divide. Ro...

The Titanic’s First and Last Voyage from 2022-04-04T09:01:33

April 10, 1912. As the RMS Titanic pulls away from a crowded port on the south coast of England, it almost crashes. Just in time, it’s able to turn off its engines and prevent a collision with a...

Ethel Rosenberg's Day in Court from 2022-03-28T09:01:41

March 29, 1951. The world is waiting for the jury’s verdict. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have been accused of spying for the Soviet Union, conspiring to send atomic secrets to America’s enemy in ...

Shackleton’s Ice Ship Found from 2022-03-22T09:01:58

March 5, 2022. After 107 years, explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, has been found two miles under the icy Antarctic waters. Shackleton had set out to be the first to walk across A...

First Antiwar Teach-In from 2022-03-21T09:01:35

March 25, 1965. The US is bombing North Vietnam. On the University of Michigan’s campus, students and professors are gathered for a first-of-its kind protest event. They’re holding a “teach-in,”...

A Serial Killer Helps Abolish the Death Penalty from 2022-03-14T09:02:08

March 20, 1953. A middle-aged man named John Christie packs up a suitcase and leaves his apartment in Notting Hill, London. No one knows where he’s gone. But a few days later, people realize why...

New York Goes Underground from 2022-03-07T10:01

March 12, 1888. There’s been a blizzard in New York. Wind, ice, and snow have brought the city to a halt. Stagecoaches are stuck, elevated trains are frozen. By the time the storm is over, 400 N...

Claudette Colvin Doesn’t Give Up Her Seat from 2022-02-28T10:01:57

March 2, 1955. Claudette Colvin and her classmates are let out early from school. They hop on a bus heading toward downtown Montgomery and sit in the back section, reserved for Black riders. Bef...

Hitler Stands Trial from 2022-02-21T10:01:59

February 26, 1924. 10 Defendants enter a courtroom in Munich. They are being charged with an attempted coup. They tried to overthrow the government of the Weimar Republic…and almost succeeded. A...

The Capitol Attack of 1861 (Replay) from 2022-02-18T10:01:42

Today, we return to a favorite episode from Season 2 in honor of the new three-part documentary, "Abraham Lincoln", premiering on The HISTORY Channel starting Sunday, February 20th, 2022.

The Lincoln County War from 2022-02-14T10:01:33

February 18, 1878. A group of men is leading their horses along a New Mexico mountain trail. This is the Wild West, and danger is never that far away. In fact, before they reach their destinatio...

Black Baseball Goes Pro from 2022-02-07T10:01:28

Feb 13, 1920. For over thirty years, Black baseball players have been locked out of the major leagues. So on this day in Kansas City, Rube Foster, a former pitcher and now a team owner, is trying t...

The Great Comic Book Scare from 2022-01-31T10:01:28

February 4, 1955. In a New York courtroom, the Comics Czar takes the stand. He’s in charge of enforcing a new code, meant to keep comic books from corrupting America’s youth, and he’s here to pr...

Surviving Auschwitz (Replay) from 2022-01-24T10:01:32

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: January 27, 1945. Four Russian soldiers arrive at Auschwitz, one of Nazi Germany's largest concentration and...

The Apple Ad That Changed the World (Replay) from 2022-01-17T10:01:34

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: January 22, 1984. Apple launches the very first Macintosh computer, unveiling the machine to the pu...

The Great Boston Molasses Flood (Replay) from 2022-01-10T10:01:46

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: January 15, 1919. Boston PD receives a call: “Send all available rescue personnel...there's a wave ...

Declaring War on Poverty (Replay) from 2022-01-03T20:15:53

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: January 8, 1964. In his State of the Union address, Lyndon Johnson unveils his War on Poverty, an e...

Best Stories of 2021 from 2021-12-27T10:01:53

In this year-end episode, Sally interviews the rest of the HISTORY This Week team about their favorite stories of the year and the most interesting information that didn’t make it into the episo...

Twenty Thousand Hertz: The Gift from 2021-12-20T10:01:21

December 24, 1906. It’s Christmas Eve, but inventor Reginald Fessenden is working. Tonight, instead of sending a typical radio message in morse code, he broadcasts something new: music. It's the fi...

Pursuing Trivia with Ken Jennings from 2021-12-13T10:01

(EPISODE 100!) December 15, 1979. Two Canadian journalists are hanging out, drinking a beer, when they come up with an idea for a new game to test random knowledge – Trivial Pursuit. But this is...

How Lincoln Almost Lost it All from 2021-12-06T10:01

December 11, 1862. Union Army engineers are urgently constructing a bridge, one that will carry soldiers into the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, a Confederate stronghold. Union leaders are ba...

A Secret Mission to Cross the Pacific from 2021-11-29T10:01

December 1, 1564. Spanish vessels left a secret port in Mexico about two weeks ago. Their goal: to sail across the Pacific and back, charting a new route for international trade, and giving Spai...

Thanksgiving Reconsidered from 2021-11-22T10:01

November 26, 1970. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival, protestors gather under a statue of Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader who had made peace with the ...

Defying Gravity and Monarchy from 2021-11-15T10:01

November 21, 1783. The garden at the Chateau de la Muette is full of expectant Parisians, looking up at the sky. They’re waiting to watch the first two human beings ever take free, untethered fl...

The Last Battle of the First World War from 2021-11-08T10:01

November 11, 1918. At exactly 11 AM local time, the shooting stops. It’s eerily quiet for the first time in a long time. World War I has finally come to an end today after Germany and the Allied...

Remember, Remember the 5th of November from 2021-11-01T09:01

November 4, 1605. The king's men are conducting a search. They're making their way through the storerooms and cellars and vaults that cluster around and beneath the Palace of Westminster. They'v...

The Haunting Case of H.H. Holmes from 2021-10-25T09:01

October 28, 1895. It’s the first day of a murder trial in Philadelphia, and H.H. Holmes has been left to represent himself. His lawyers say they haven’t had time to prepare for his case, althoug...

The Bowery Boys: Electric New York from 2021-10-18T09:01

October 21, 1879. It’s late in the evening and a 32-year-old inventor is in his New Jersey lab, tinkering with a carbon thread. When that young inventor—Thomas Edison—lights that thread that night,...

The Sky Is Falling from 2021-10-11T09:01

October 11, 1995. Professor Mario Molina is at his desk at MIT when he gets a long distance call from Sweden. It’s the Nobel Committee, telling him he’s won that year’s prize in chemistry, makin...

The Night Witches from 2021-10-04T09:01

October 4, 1938. Soviet pilot Marina Raskova beats a world record: the longest continuous flight ever recorded by a woman. She'll soon break another barrier-- she'll lead the first-ever female a...

Monopoly Money from 2021-09-27T09:01

October 1, 1904. Show up at a newsstand this morning, and you'll see that the October issue of McClure's magazine has hit the shelves. Alongside it, newspapers advertise what’s inside: "Ida M. T...

The Mother of Level Measurements from 2021-09-20T09:01

September 24, 1902. A new cooking school is set to open at Boston’s 30 Huntington Avenue. The rooms will soon be filled with trainee cooks, who will watch in awe as the school’s namesake and pri...

"The Strangest Gathering of Men" from 2021-09-13T09:01

September 15, 1893. About 4,000 people are intently listening to a monk on a stage in Chicago. They’re at an event called Parliament of the World’s Religions – an unprecedented gathering of lead...

Blindspot: The Road to 9/11 from 2021-09-11T09:01

Episode 1: The Bullet. The 9/11 attacks were so much more than a bolt from the blue on a crisp September morning. They were more than a decade in the making. Our story starts in a Midtown Manhat...

9/11: Rescue on the Water from 2021-09-06T09:01

September 11, 2001. On a clear and sunny day, Captain Richard Thornton is piloting his ferry boat back and forth between New Jersey and New York City. But when he hears an airplane flying too low t...

The True Winnie-the-Pooh from 2021-08-23T09:01

August 24, 1914. A train pulls up to the lumber town of White River, Ontario, carrying a regiment of Canadian troops on board. On the tracks where they disembark is a small black bear cub. An ar...

The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa from 2021-08-16T09:01

August 21, 1911. On a Monday morning, a department store employee on a Paris street sees a man hurrying by. He carries a white-wrapped package and, as the employee watches, he throws something s...

Pop Music Pirates from 2021-08-09T09:01

August 14, 1967. Off the coast of England, a group of pirate ships has been fighting to stay afloat. These are pirates of a particular kind—less sword fighting and treasure hunting, more spinnin...

The Road Less Traveled from 2021-08-02T09:01

August 2, 1915. The poem appears in print for the first time this week, from Kentucky to Pennsylvania to Vermont. Every reader is transported to that same leafy path: “two roads diverged in a ye...

Jesse Owens Takes Germany from 2021-07-26T09:01

August 1, 1936. The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Adolf Hitler enters the stadium to a militaristic Wagner march. Swastikas flutter everywhere on the flag of the Nazi Party. When these ...

Fiddling with the Truth from 2021-07-19T09:01

July 19, 64 AD. The Circus Maximus is the main arena in ancient Rome at this time, where tens of thousands watch chariot races and gladiator fights. The stadium is surrounded by shops and bars a...

The Hunt for Hieroglyphs from 2021-07-12T09:01

July 15, 1799 (approximately). In the town of Rashid on the Nile Delta, French soldiers and Egyptian laborers are rebuilding an old, falling-down fort, when someone spots something unu...

The Last Archive: Scopes Monkey Trial from 2021-07-05T09:01

July 10, 1925. A group of Tennessee jurors is selected to judge the case of John T. Scopes, a high school science teacher. His offense? Teaching his students about evolution. Across the country, Am...

Introducing: Hope, Through History Season 2 from 2021-06-30T09:01

Welcome back to a new season of the C13Originals critically acclaimed Hope, Through History documentary limited series. Narrated and written by Pulitzer Prize Winning and Best Selling Hist...

A Mob Boss Starts a Movement from 2021-06-28T09:01

June 28, 1971. It’s the second annual “Unity Day” rally at Columbus Circle in New York City, organized by the Italian American Civil Rights League. Joe Colombo is the very public face of the Lea...

Two Fathers, One Fight from 2021-06-21T09:01

June 21, 1998. Father's Day. At the Church of the Atonement in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Jon and Michael Galluccio are ready to tie the knot, in front of family, friends, reporters, and one lone pi...

Watergate from the Inside from 2021-06-14T09:01

June 17, 1972. In the early morning hours, five men are caught after breaking into the Watergate building in Washington, DC. The failed break-in that night will eventually lead to the unraveling...

Witches Among Us from 2021-06-07T09:01

June 10, 1692. Bridget Bishop is loaded into a two-wheeled cart and brought from her Salem jail cell to a pasture on a hill, where a rope is hanging from freshly-installed gallows. A crowd forms...

The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street from 2021-05-30T09:01

May 30, 1921. Dick Rowland, a Black teenager, works as a shoeshine in the predominantly white downtown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. On his break, he goes into a nearby office building to use the restroom...

Sojourner's Truth from 2021-05-24T09:01

May 29, 1851. Akron, Ohio’s Old Stone Church is packed to the brim. It's the second day of a big convention on women's rights. Hundreds of activists are there, but when one of them, Sojourner Tr...

Not My Fingerprint from 2021-05-17T09:01

May 20, 2004. A lawyer named Brandon Mayfield walks out of a Portland, Oregon courtroom a free man. About two weeks earlier, Mayfield was arrested by the FBI because they thought they had his fi...

The Chinese Immigrants Who Built America from 2021-05-10T09:01

May 10, 1869. On the dusty, barren plains of Promontory Summit, Utah, a crowd is gathered to celebrate an American milestone – the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the first piece of...

Mother’s Day Mayhem from 2021-05-03T09:01

May 9, 1905. After weeks of illness and visits from ten different doctors, Anna Jarvis’s mother dies. In the days that follow, Jarvis makes a promise to herself: to fulfill her mother’s dream of...

Fighting for 504 from 2021-04-26T09:01

April 30, 1977. Nearly a month after entering San Francisco’s Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, a group of 150 demonstrators is going home. They’re singing, drinking champagne, and h...

The Brink of World War III from 2021-04-19T09:01

April 19, 1951. General Douglas MacArthur's plane touches down in DC just after midnight. He’s coming home from fighting the Korean War. Over twelve thousand people are there to greet this perso...

Killing the Gold Standard from 2021-04-12T09:01

April 18, 1933. It’s almost midnight in Washington, DC. Newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has gathered his economic advisors for a late-night meeting. He called this meeting to a...

More Than a Home Run from 2021-04-05T09:01

April 8, 1974. On a humid night in Atlanta, Hank Aaron is poised to make history. On the all-time home run leaderboard, Aaron is tied with the legendary Babe Ruth. With one swing of the bat, he ...

148 Tornadoes in 18 Hours from 2021-03-29T09:01

April 3, 1974. Across America, many people wake up this morning thinking it will be a normal day. But in the next 24 hours, almost 150 tornadoes will hit the United States. It will be then ...

Surrogacy on the Stand from 2021-03-22T09:01

March 27, 1986. Mary Beth Whitehead is in labor. She’s giving birth to a baby girl today, and her husband Richard is by her side. But the Whiteheads are not, contractually-speaking, this child’s pa...

Revenge of the Ronin from 2021-03-15T09:01

March 20, 1703. Today, almost fifty men, scattered around the city of Edo, Japan, are waiting to die. They’re all former samurai who had served the same lord – and they all carried out a deadly ...

Smash, Smash, Smash! from 2021-03-08T10:01

March 9, 1901. From a jail cell in Topeka, Kansas, temperance vigilante Carry Nation is hard at work. After her latest arrest for smashing up a bar with her infamous hatchet, Nation decides to s...

A War on Women from 2021-03-01T10:01

March 2, 1923. In Wichita, Kansas, Mary Irby and Euna Hollowell are being held at the county jail. The two women are charged with “lewdly abiding.” Translation: officials suspect them of carryin...

Jazz on the Record from 2021-02-22T10:01

February 26, 1917. At the Victor Talking Machine Company’s studio in Manhattan, five white men gathered to record the first jazz record in history. The Original Dixieland Jass Band’s release was...

Freedom Rides Down Under from 2021-02-15T10:01

February 15, 1965. Walgett, Australia. A group of about 30 Sydney students has traveled here on a fact-finding mission – a mission they’ll call a Freedom Ride, inspired by the efforts of Civil R...

The Capitol Attack of 1861 from 2021-02-08T15:13:44

February 13, 1861. The city of Washington DC is waiting. Bracing itself. For weeks, there have been threats that this day is going to get violent because pro-slavery voters feel the recently ele...

INTRODUCING: The Food that Built America from 2021-02-04T10:01

It takes bold visionaries risking everything to create some of the most recognizable brands on the planet. Listen

Sitting In for Civil Rights from 2021-02-01T10:01

February 1, 1960. Four young Black men, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Jibreel Khazan and Joseph McNeil gather outside the Woolworth department store in Greensboro, North Carolina. All four ar...

Houdini Defies Death from 2021-01-25T10:01

January 25, 1908. Harry Houdini is the most famous magician in America. He’s known for his escapes – from handcuffs, boxes, jail cells, even a giant football. But the escape act is getting old, ...

The Capitol Riots in Context from 2021-01-19T10:01

January 6, 2021. As Congress voted to affirm Joe Biden as the incoming president, rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to thwart the election certification. This insurrection shook the...

The First VP of Color from 2021-01-18T10:01:32

January 23, 1907. The Kansas legislature has convened to decide who will be the next US Senator from their state. The vote shakes out as everyone expected: front-runner Charles Curtis wins the s...

Off With Her Head from 2021-01-11T10:01

January 15, 1535. King Henry VIII has a decree. As of today, he is “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England". Which means: the Pope is no longer head of the Church in E...

Declaring War on Poverty from 2021-01-04T10:01

SEASON TWO PREMIERE – January 8, 1964. In his State of the Union address, Lyndon Johnson unveils his War on Poverty, an effort to tackle subpar living conditions and create jobs across the Unite...

Best Stories of 2020 from 2020-12-28T10:01

December 28, 2020. In this year-end recap, Sally sits down with HISTORY This Week producers McCamey Lynn, Julie Magruder and Ben Dickstein to discuss their favorite episodes f...

A Scrooge for the Ages from 2020-12-21T10:01

December 27, 1853. On a freezing, snowy night in Birmingham, England, 2,000 people have lined up outside the town hall. They’ve braved the temperatures for a landmark performance, Charles Dickens’ ...

The Thalidomide Disaster from 2020-12-14T10:01

December 18, 1970. Decades after the end of WWII a Nazi doctor is on trial. Today is judgment day in a long, difficult legal battle, but this case isn’t about war crimes. The German pharmaceutic...

The Thalidomide Disaster from 2020-12-14T10:01

December 18, 1970. Decades after the end of WWII a Nazi doctor is on trial. Today is judgment day in a long, difficult legal battle, but this case isn’t about war crimes. The German pharmaceutic...

The Crown Steps Down from 2020-12-07T09:00

December 11, 1936. Just yesterday, King Edward VIII of England officially abdicated the throne. And tonight, some ten million people will hear the reason from the man himself. He ...

Wartime Weapon Turned Medical Miracle from 2020-11-30T10:01

December 2, 1943. World War II is raging throughout Europe, but in the Allied port city of Bari, Italy, things have remained relatively quiet. The Allies are offloading tanks, guns and other equ...

A Toxic Turkey Day from 2020-11-23T10:01

November 24, 1966. Millions of spectators flood Broadway in New York City to watch the Macy’s Day Parade on Thanksgiving morning. The iconic floats – Superman, Popeye, Smokey the Bear – are set ...

The Inca's Last Stand from 2020-11-16T10:01

November 16, 1532. Atahualpa, the king of the Inca Empire, marches towards the city of Cajamarca in modern-day Peru, surrounded by 80,000 soldiers. Once he arrives, Atahualpa expects the Spanish...

The Muppet Revolution from 2020-11-09T08:45

November 10, 1969. It’s a Monday. Across the US, parents and babysitters and grandparents and aunts and uncles are turning on the TV, because there's a new show out today for kids: Sesame Street...

Stealing the Presidency from 2020-11-02T08:45

November 7, 1876. A little before midnight on election night, the Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes admits defeat and goes to bed. The Democrat Samuel J. Tilden has swept the electoral co...

It Was Said - Season 1 from 2020-10-28T07:00

It Was Said, a limited documentary podcast series, looks back on som...

Crisis in Cuba from 2020-10-26T07:30

October 27, 1962. 72,000 feet above Cuba, an American U2 spy plane flies over the island, capturing photo intelligence. It’s been 13 days since the CIA discovered Soviet nuclear missiles station...

Land of the Free? from 2020-10-19T07:00

October 19, 1814. An eager audience files into the Holliday Street Theater in Baltimore, about to see a debut performance, described as a “much-admired new song.” The composer of this song, Fran...

Anthrax Attacks from 2020-10-12T04:00

October 15, 2001. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle receives an innocuous-looking letter. It has childlike handwriting and an elementary school return address. When an intern opens the envelope...

Becoming the Dalai Lama from 2020-10-05T07:00

October 8, 1939. In the Tibetan city of Lhasa, thousands of people have flooded into the streets to welcome the next Dalai Lama, a young boy of 4 years old. He doesn't know it yet, but he'll bec...

No Representation, No Peace from 2020-09-28T07:00

September 30, 1765. Almost a decade before the American Revolution, delegates from four colonies gather in the first, unofficial meeting of the Stamp Act Congress. The congress has been called t...

The Diet Wars from 2020-09-21T07:00

September 24, 1955. President Eisenhower is asleep in his bed at his in-laws’ house in Denver. At around 2 AM in the morning, he’s jolted awake by chest pains. No one realizes it until the morni...

Grapes for Change from 2020-09-14T07:00

September 16, 1965. Cesar Chavez and the National Farmworkers Association have been plotting a Mexican-American labor strike for years, concentrating their efforts in the farming community of De...

Global Seed Vault from 2020-09-07T07:00

September 10, 2002. Thieves have broken into basements in two cities in Afghanistan to steal plastic containers. Those containers were holding seeds – extremely vital seeds. But the thieves didn...

Introducing: It Was Said from 2020-09-01T14:02:20

Words move humankind for good and for ill, and in the American experience, our most important public speeches have been both mirrors and makers of the nation's manners and morals at key moments ...

Shaving Russia from 2020-08-31T07:00

Sept 5, 1698. Tsar Peter the Great of Russia returns home from a year-long European tour. When noblemen, religious figures and friends gather to welcome him home, Peter pulls out a straight razo...

The First American Sex Scandal from 2020-08-24T07:00

August 25, 1797. Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury, has published a new pamphlet. At first, readers assume this is going to be another one of Hamilton’s pro-Federalist, ideol...

Suffrage isn't Simple from 2020-08-17T07:00

August 18, 1920. In the third row of the legislative chamber in Nashville, Tennessee, 24 year-old Harry Burn sits with a red rose pinned to his lapel. He's there to vote on the 19th Amendment, w...

The Birth of Hip Hop from 2020-08-10T07:00

August 11, 1973. At 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, 18-year-old DJ Kool Herc plays his first New York City party. The dance floor is packed, the energy is wild, and Herc gives the performance...

Killing Fairness from 2020-08-03T07:00

August 4, 1987. The Federal Communication Commission’s leadership has come together in Washington D.C. to decide the fate of a vital issue: fairness. For the previous 40 years, the FCC has attem...

Convert or Leave from 2020-07-27T07:00

July 31, 1492. In cities, towns and villages across late medieval Spain, whole districts have emptied out. Houses abandoned, stores closed, and synagogues—which until recently had been alive wit...

Public Enemy #1 from 2020-07-20T07:00

July 22, 1934. John Dillinger, America's most famous outlaw, is gunned down by federal agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. Dillinger's death is the final act in a crime spree that in...

Destroyer of Worlds from 2020-07-13T07:00

July 16, 1945. It happened within a millionth of a second. In the New Mexico desert in the early morning hours, a group of scientists watched in anticipation as the countdown began. It was silen...

Operation Mincemeat from 2020-07-06T07:00

July 10, 1943. 150,000 British and American soldiers storm the beaches of Sicily in the first Allied invasion of Nazi-controlled Europe. But the Nazis…aren’t really there to put up a fight. Hitl...

The Great Stink from 2020-06-29T07:00

June 30th, 1858. London is a world city, a global center of trade and commerce. But there’s something less glamorous going on in this bustling metropolis: the ...

Pride & Protest from 2020-06-22T07:00

June 28, 1970. Hundreds of people start to gather on Christopher Street in Manhattan’s West Village for an anniversary celebration. One year earlier, in that very same spot, the Stonewall Inn wa...

Freedom Summer, 1964 from 2020-06-15T07:00

June 21, 1964. James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, three civil rights activists in their early twenties, are reported missing in Mississippi. They are part of the first wave of F...

"Have You No Decency, Sir?" from 2020-06-08T07:00

June 9, 1954. Senator Joseph McCarthy has accused the United States Army of having communists within its midst. After rising to power during a time of great fear in America, McCarthy's name has ...

A Century of Stigma for Black America and Mental Health from 2020-06-01T07:00

June 1, 1840. U.S. Marshals are going door to door conducting the sixth-ever census in the United States. This year something is different – this is the very first time the U.S. government is as...

A Gilded Age Apocalypse from 2020-05-25T07:00

May 31, 1889. It’s raining in Johnstown, PA, causing some small flooding. But the townsfolk were used to it – this city of 30,000 was nestled in a valley between two rivers. What happened next w...

Captain Kidd and the Nazis from 2020-05-18T07:00

May 23, 1701. Captain William Kidd is hanged at Execution Dock in London. His death sentence cements his legacy as one of history’s most notorious pirates, but he went to the gallows c...

To Fight a Virus, and Win from 2020-05-11T07:00

May 14, 1796. Edward Jenner puts a theory to the test: can contracting one disease save you from another? Jenner goes down in history as the man who brought us one of the greatest advances in mo...

Beethoven's Silent Symphony from 2020-05-04T07:00

May 7, 1824. One of the great musical icons in history, Ludwig Van Beethoven, steps onto stage at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna. The audience is electric, buzzing with anticipation for a bra...

The Hunt for the Hunley from 2020-04-27T07:00

May 3, 1995. The Hunley has been missing for over 100 years. This Civil War submarine and all eight of her crew disappeared after completing the first successful submarine attack ever. When a te...

Introducing: Hope, Through History from 2020-04-23T20:00

Welcome to Hope, Through History with Jon Meacham. This limited series explores some of the most historic and trying times in American history, and how this nation dealt with these moments, the imp...

When the Environment United Us from 2020-04-20T07:00

April 22, 1970. Nearly 20 million Americans come out in solidarity for one of the largest mass movements of the century. It was called Earth Day. And 50 years later, we still celebrate this day....

"Houston We’ve Had a Problem” from 2020-04-13T07:00

April 14, 1970. Apollo 13 is a quarter million miles from Earth, speeding towards the Moon, when a sudden explosion rocks the ship. Against all odds, the astronauts pull off one of the most rema...

The First Flight Around the World from 2020-04-06T07:00

April 6, 1924. Four planes rest in the water, preparing for take-off. At 8:30 AM, they pick up speed and hit the air. Eight pilots have begun a dangerous mission: to be the first to fly around t...

The Deadliest Pandemic in Modern History from 2020-03-30T07:00

April 5, 1918. The first mention of a new influenza outbreak in Kansas appears in a public health report. That strain, later called the Spanish Flu, would go on to kill at least 50 million peopl...

When Basketball Meets Jim Crow from 2020-03-23T07:00

March 28, 1939. Two teams are facing off for the final game of World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, the first professional tournament to feature both white and black basketball t...

How Lady Luck Saved Vegas from 2020-03-16T07:00

March 19, 1931. Las Vegas is a small, desert town of a few thousand. And it’s not doing so well. In fact, people are worried it might turn into a ghost town. But then something big hap...

The Real Assassination of Caesar from 2020-03-09T07:00

The Ides of March, 44 BC. Ancient Rome’s most powerful dictator, Julius Caesar, is running late to a senate meeting. When he arrives, senators surround him and stab him 23 times. The assassinati...

Lionel, Stevie and Tina Walk into a Studio… from 2020-03-02T08:00

March 7th, 1985. “We Are the World” hits the shelves. It's an instant hit, breaking the top of the charts and making music history. This one song has the star power of 45 of the biggest singers ...

The DNA Debate from 2020-02-24T08:00

February 28, 1953. Two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, burst into a bar and exclaim that they have discovered the secret of life. But there was another person involved in the discove...

A Mole in the CIA from 2020-02-17T08:00

February 21, 1994. Early in the morning, FBI agents assemble near the home of Aldrich Ames. They wait for him to leave his house and then they pounce, arresting one of the deadliest double agent...

The Legacy of an Oscar from 2020-02-10T08:00

February 11, 1940. Hattie McDaniel becomes the first-ever African American to be nominated for, and then win, an Oscar. Her legacy is complicated. And the Oscar itself has been missing, mysterio...

When Black Men Won the Vote from 2020-02-02T08:00

February 3, 1870. The 15th Amendment is ratified, which establishes the right to vote for black men in America. While Jim Crow laws would grip the south by 1877, there was a brief, seven-year wi...

Surviving Auschwitz from 2020-01-26T08:00

January 27, 1945. This week, we commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, one of Nazi Germany's largest concentration and extermination camps. Auschwitz has since become a...

The Apple Ad That Changed the World from 2020-01-20T08:00

January 22, 1984. Apple launches the first Macintosh computer, with a showstopping Super Bowl commercial. The ad itself was revolutionary, but the product it launched almost single-handedly brou...

The Great Boston Molasses Flood from 2020-01-13T08:00

January 15, 1919. Boston PD receives a call: “Send all available rescue personnel...there's a wave of molasses coming down Commercial Street." The bizarre flood decimated Boston's North End. How...

Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined... from 2020-01-10T08:00

January 11th, 1964. The US Surgeon General announces: smoking is killing us. It’s an announcement that changed the course of American public health – and took years to finally come out. But it w...

Introducing: HISTORY This Week from 2020-01-02T21:04:21

This week, something momentous happened. Whether or not it made the textbooks, it most certainly made history. Join HISTORY This Week as we turn back the clock to meet the people, visit the plac...