The HistoryNet Podcast

This British Colonel Traveled with Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg. He?d Already Had His Share of Surprises..mp3

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 11:00:09 +0000

Nobody wanted the A-10 Warthog — now It's the military's most beloved plane

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 11:00:10 +0000

The A-10 Warthog has survived repeated attempts to put it out to pasture. Now its time may finally be up.

They were sent on a suicide mission at Cedar Creek. Their victory rallied the Union.

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 11:00:14 +0000

The fierce clash proved to be a fitting coda for the resolute 8th Vermont.

They say he burned down the Reichstag. But was he drugged into confessing?

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 11:00:13 +0000

Mystery surrounds the infamous burning of the Reichstag in 1933.

Kars fortress stands as a monument to a turbulent past

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:00:08 +0000

For centuries Armenian residents of the Transcaucasian stronghold of Kars watched invaders come and go—until its final betrayal.

This journalist risked his life to reveal the horrors of lynching in the South

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 11:00:10 +0000

Lynching investigator Walter White risked everything to tell Americans the truth.

John Fetterman isn't the first ill politician to serve. Here are examples from history

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 11:00:12 +0000

From the Founding Fathers to the present day, illness has impacted politics.

The death of Crazy Horse: Fables and forensics

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 12:00:08 +0000

Just who killed the Lakota fighting man remains in dispute.

The Ercoupe is easy to fly — but you better not be in a hurry

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 12:00:13 +0000

It was supposed to be an airplane for the people.

These Civil War warriors fought with the pen, and not the sword

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 12:00:12 +0000

Partisan poets stoked the fire to keep the South’s combat spirit alive.

The mysterious death of Johnny Ringo

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:00:10 +0000

The gunman’s body was found beneath a tree, pistol in hand—but was it suicide?

Minié ball: The Civil War bullet that changed history

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:00:15 +0000

What's a Minié ball, and why was this type of bullet—which is actually conical—used extensively during the American Civil War?

What if the Marines had skipped Iwo Jima

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:00:15 +0000

What would have happened if the U.S. hadn't sent men to take this small atoll, site of that iconic photo? Would it have cost the war?

This German baroness dodged cannonballs during the American Revolution

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:00:14 +0000

Hessian officer's wife Frederika von Riedesel and her children were nearly shot during the battle of Saratoga.

'Weary of So Much Suffering': Letters from the Sheridan Field Hospital

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 12:00:16 +0000

Nurse Jane Boswell Moore wrote poignant letters about her interactions with the patients of this Winchester, Va., hospital.

'Medicine Flower' Brought the West East

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 12:00:08 +0000

Ethnologist Frank Cushing embraced Zuni culture right down to his Indian name.

Kidnapped during World War II, these German corpses proved a headache for the U.S. Army

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 12:00:11 +0000

Four dead Germans traveled on a wild journey, resulting in what the Monuments Men called "Operation Bodysnatch".

This Supreme Court ruling on prayer in public schools made America go nuts

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 12:00:15 +0000

On June 25, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court declared prayer in public schools unconstitutional.

Robert E. Lee endured a precipitous reset in Maryland

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 12:00:16 +0000

Though the Lost Orders forced the Confederate commander to fight on unfavorable ground at Sharpsburg, he survived the bloody clash with his army intact.

Meet the man who sent the world's largest flying machine to its doom

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 12:00:11 +0000

Christopher Birdwood Thomson was determined to fly the R101 airship to India, whether it was ready for the trip or not.

One of this Western director's scenes looked so real that it provoked actual gunfire

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 12:00:14 +0000

In 1902, Harry Buckwalter teamed with William Selig to make short-reel Westerns.

Zap! American railroads go electric

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 12:00:08 +0000

After 70 years of steam and smoke, American rail began to plug in.

Joe Hooker was an ineffectual general, but does he deserve credit for transforming the Union cavalry?

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 12:00:13 +0000

Hooker had his shortcomings, but what he did in revitalizing his army’s cavalry corps was monumental.

Napoleon's imperial guard tells of his fight for the emperor

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 12:00:14 +0000

An infantry captain who served in Napoleon's elite troops tells of the army's quest for glory.

Sharpshooter Billy Dixon owes his legacy to his widow

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:00:13 +0000

Olive Dixon spent 40 years making sure Texans would always remember her heroic husband.

This German general made a deal with the devil

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 12:00:14 +0000

German General Ludwig Beck supported the Nazis—until he didn’t. He paid with his life.

WWI American pilots wanted a great fighter plane. Instead, they got the Nieuport 28

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 12:00:13 +0000

The Americans flying in World War I wanted the Spad XIII. They got the Nieuport 28 instead.

One family, 10 sieges: How Spain's Guzman family spent centuries battling for Gibraltar

Sun, 18 Feb 2024 12:00:14 +0000

The Guzman family’s quest to dominate the Rock of Gibraltar gives the phrase “family feud” a whole new meaning.

The Turkestan Incident

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 12:00:11 +0000

How two F-105 pilots and their commander got entangled in the geopolitics of the Vietnam War.

The Arikara War: avenging Americans

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 12:00:12 +0000

Entrepreneur William Ashley’s attempt to trade for Arikara horses led to a ‘beach’ battle that inflicted 30 percent casualties on his brigade and inspired an outraged Colonel Henry Leavenworth to punish the Missouri River tribe.

No, the London Blitz wasn't started by accident

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 12:00:07 +0000

It is becoming commonly accepted that the German night bombing of London on Aug. 24, 1940 was due to a “blunder” of Luftwaffe pilots.

When is a Mustang not a Mustang?

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:29:06 +0000

Australia’s CA-15 was one of the world’s fastest piston-engine fighters, but it was obsolete by the time it first flew.

White Oaks, New Mexico: the onetime haunt of Billy the Kid

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 12:00:10 +0000

The New Mexico Territory town had a violent beginning, as Billy the Kid and other outlaws came here to sell stolen livestock, drink, shoot and otherwise blow off steam.

When a Vietnamese ally was wounded, two American soldiers had to choose obedience or compassion

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 12:00:15 +0000

There was a time when U.S. helicopters were forbidden from rescuing wounded South Vietnamese soldiers.

Nobody could scale the walls of China's Forbidden City except this American soldier

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 12:00:11 +0000

A young American bugler turned the tide in China’s 1900 Boxer Rebellion.

This British officer developed a revolutionary rifle whose worth he was never able to prove in battle

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 12:00:10 +0000

Major Patrick Ferguson earned his nickname for his dogged determination to remain in the American Revolutionary War and bring the upstart Patriots to heel.

The last surviving widow of the Civil War

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 12:00:14 +0000

A Missouri woman sacrificed much of her own life to help an aged Union veteran.

The old world soldier who conquered the new

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 12:00:10 +0000

In 1519 Hernán Cortés set out to invade the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, his boldness earning Spain a foothold in the Americas.

The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a great airplane until the propellers started falling off

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 12:00:12 +0000

Pan American World Airways wanted something special. Boeing responded with the 377.

The balloon pilots who went boldly where only animals had gone before

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 12:00:09 +0000

Project Manhigh took pilots to the edge of space.

Lewis and Clark's race against Spain

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 12:00:09 +0000

Thomas Jefferson had his eyes on Louisiana, and so did Spain.

The assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 12:00:08 +0000

Did the bloody downfall of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem put the United States on a slippery slope into a quagmire?

This 1945 New Guinea plane crash survivor became known as the Queen of Shangri-La

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 12:00:07 +0000

In 1945 Women’s Army Corps Cpl. Margaret Hastings went down aboard a C-47 in a remote New Guinea valley, launching an improbable story of survival.

The bomber that almost wasn't

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 12:00:11 +0000

WWII's Convair B-32 Dominator never got the chance to live up to its name.

Mexican War: The proving ground for future American Civil War generals

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:00:13 +0000

For young American army officers of the time, the Mexican War was not only the road to glory, it was the road to promotion — a proving ground for future Civil War generals.

Most POWs want to go home — but after World War II, some faced death on arrival

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 12:00:09 +0000

After WWII, questions rose about which nation POWs belonged to or even whether they would be killed upon going home.

Patsy Cline's final flight

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 12:00:13 +0000

What the fatal airplane crash of the country star says about flying then and now.

One week before this pioneering aviator's tragic death, an American watched him work

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 12:00:13 +0000

German inventor Otto Lilienthal had flown more than 2,000 times before his glider failed him.

The man behind Monty

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 12:00:11 +0000

Bernard Law Montgomery's chief of staff, Sir Francis de Guingand, made things easier for a difficult general.

Marilyn Monroe's Death: Early victim of the opioid epidemic

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 12:00:11 +0000

Once a Hollywood scourge, opioid overdoses are now an everyday plague across America. She was one of its most famous victims.

The 100 greatest generals of all time

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 12:00:10 +0000

These are the most important military leaders in history, from the classical era to the present day.

The 20th Maine's Little Round Top hero had a hardscrabble life

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 12:00:19 +0000

How Joshua Chamberlain saved Andrew Tozier's life — after the war.

The suicide charge of two killer Cheyennes

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:00:14 +0000

After his father berated Head Chief for not living like a man, the bitter young Cheyenne showed him how to die like one.

The man who saved Korea

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 12:00:13 +0000

Matthew B. Ridgway, who brought a beaten Eighth Army back from disaster in 1951, was a thinking—and fighting—man's soldier.

The surprising story of Japan's B-17 fleet

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 12:00:13 +0000

The Japanese rebuilt and tested three captured B-17s, but for the most part were unable to capitalize on the secrets the bombers revealed.

The fighting for this Italian town was so brutal they called it the Stalingrad of the Adriatic

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 12:00:06 +0000

In an excerpt from his new book, acclaimed author James Holland describes the horrific struggle for Ortona.

The top 10 one-eyed commanders of all-time

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 12:00:14 +0000

Despite physical impairment, these captains let nothing stand in the way of their vision for war.

Facing doom at the Battle of the Bulge, this tank commander wouldn't back down

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 12:00:14 +0000

Learn how to defend against an overwhelming attack from a brilliant U.S. tank commander.

Pat Garrett was the last great frontier lawman — even without his Billy the Kid Fame

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 12:00:17 +0000

The lanky lawman who shot Billy the Kid has never been half as understood or appreciated as the young outlaw with whom he is forever linked.

Operation Highjump: 1946-47 Expedition to explore Antarctica from the air

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 12:00:16 +0000

In a combined effort not long after World War II, the U.S. Navy employed ships, airplanes and helicopters to explore and map Antarctica’s frozen reaches.

The MiG-25 terrified the West until a defector exposed its true nature

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 12:00:10 +0000

The once-top-secret Soviet interceptor turned out to be a Potemkin Village of an airplane.

This Abilene marshal was almost beheaded on his way out of office

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:00:14 +0000

‘Bear River Tom’ Smith stood up to Wyoming Territory vigilantes before earning his spurs as a Kansas cow town marshal.

This famed director was used to saying 'action,' Now he would experience some for himself at Midway.

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 12:00:06 +0000

John Ford found himself filming the battle at a pivotal time in the Pacific War.

The truth about JFK and his PT Boat's collision with a Japanese destroyer in WWII

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 12:00:11 +0000

The PT-109 disaster made JFK a hero. But his fury and grief at the loss of two men sent him on a dangerous quest to get even.

Rejected! These famous people were turned down by the military. At least at first

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 12:00:15 +0000

Some were rejected on the basis of height and race — others for undescended testicles...

The US Army envisioned using dogs in the Pacific to sniff out enemy Japanese soldiers. Things did not work out as planned.

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 12:00:14 +0000

Japanese-American soldiers and canines trained together for a bizarre, secret mission.

Omar Bradley, the general's general

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 12:00:14 +0000

Omar Bradley entered World War II as George Patton’s junior, but emerged as Patton’s commanding officer. Nevertheless, he found himself unable to emerge from the other man’s shadow. Bradley was inextricably bound to him.

The 9 greatest Supreme Court justices

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 12:00:12 +0000

The 9 greatest Supreme Court justices of all time were bold thinkers who wouldn't survive today's confirmation process.

The real story behind 58 Confederate bodies tossed in a well

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 12:00:09 +0000

What occurred on Daniel Wise’s farm in September 1862?

They saw the horrors of war: A nurse and 3 soldiers describe Shiloh and Corinth

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 12:00:11 +0000

The Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Corinth brought war’s harsh reality to the Western Confederacy.

Requiem for a forgotten West Texas cow town

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 12:00:11 +0000

Colorado City, which boomed in the 1880s thanks to the railroad and abundant water, was no stranger to violence.

The day the world's best aviator killed Will Rogers (and himself)

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 12:00:08 +0000

Even world-famous pilots can make fatal mistakes.

The South Vietnamese pilot who performed a daring feat to save his family

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 12:00:12 +0000

As his country crumbled, a South Vietnamese pilot attempting a high-risk landing on the Midway depended on the ship’s quick-thinking crew to save his family from disaster.

The deadliest Nazi POW massacre On US soil took place after WWII ended

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 12:00:13 +0000

The army guard wanted to “get his Germans someday.” So he killed sleeping prisoners.

The sky seemed the limit for Union General Fitz John Porter. Then came Second Bull Run

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 12:00:09 +0000

Desperate to redeem his family name, Porter soon joined the ranks of West Point.

The day Miss America almost got shot down over Vietnam

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 12:00:15 +0000

Laurel Schaefer-Bozoukoff faced both controversy and mortal danger as she showed support for the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Schaefer-Bozoukoff remembers her life-changing war journey.

The Gloster Gladiator looked outdated when WWII started. It was.

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 12:00:12 +0000

The story of the RAF's last biplane has become a mixture of fact and fancy.

Penicillin: The wonder drug of World War II

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 12:00:11 +0000

How mold in a petri dish became the soldiers' lifesaver.

The 'Hello Girls' arrived in Europe before the first Doughboys. Here's why they were so crucial

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 12:00:12 +0000

It took more than half a century for the women to be recognized as veterans.

Rediscovered photos offer a window into the Army Arctic past

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 12:00:07 +0000

You just never know what you might find in storage...

The men who followed Davy Crockett to the Alamo

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 12:00:17 +0000

The frontiersman was but the most famous of the handful of Tennessee Mounted Volunteers at the site.

The famed American aviatrix secretly on the Nazi payroll

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 12:00:13 +0000

As World War II neared, Laura Ingalls took to the skies in the name of U.S. isolationism—and in support of Nazi Germany.

The Christmas bombing of Hanoi: A great victory or an epic blunder?

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 12:00:14 +0000

Was the December 1972 bombing of Hanoi a great victory that brought "peace with honor"? Or was it a blunder that cost South Vietnam its freedom?

The Beast turned loose in New Orleans

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:00:15 +0000

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler cleans up and clamps down on the rebellious Crescent City.

Target Berlin: The first air-raid on the German capital

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 12:00:10 +0000

The first air raid on the German capital was carried out at night by an antiquated French bomber.

The History of Pie

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 12:00:14 +0000

Before they became a dessert staple, pies were a treasured table companion for kings and commoners alike. But in the right hands, they were also an effective weapon.

The Carpathian Winter War, 1915

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:00:14 +0000

The "Stalingrad of World War I" was an epic bloodletting between the million-man armies of Russia and the inept Habsburg Empire.

The Allies' billion-dollar secret: The proximity fuze of World War II

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 12:00:07 +0000

An engineering triumph developed under strict wartime secrecy, the proximity fuze vastly increased the lethality of anti-aircraft guns and field artillery.

The fight at Cedar Creek was over. So why couldn't Union troops let their guard down?

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 12:00:21 +0000

Despite the Union’s victory, Jubal Early still haunted the Shenandoah Valley.

The 10 worst fighter planes of World War II

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 12:00:17 +0000

From the Brewster Buffalo to the Me-210, here are the fighter planes that belong in the WW2 hall of shame.

'The duty to respect is different than the duty to protect.': A return to Normandy

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 12:00:13 +0000

Despite nearly a decade passing since this editor's first — and dramatically different, i.e. better, travel conditions — the emotions Normandy evoked were the same.

The American Civil War through the eyes of the French

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 12:00:10 +0000

The French newspaper Le Temps provided a fresh perspective of the American conflict.

Smallpox blankets: myth or massacre?

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 12:00:12 +0000

The dreaded disease was a scourge on the indigenous people of America. But did white settlers deliberately engage in biological warfare?

A Soviet icebreaker spelled doom for Allied ships in the Pacific

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 12:00:09 +0000

The unexpected alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union helped a Kriegsmarine raider wreak havoc in the South Seas.

Riches and ruin on the high road to the Klondike Gold Rush

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 12:00:13 +0000

An 1896 gold strike along the namesake river in northwestern Canada brought a flood of characters who survive in the written works of Jack London and others.

The Royal Navy diver who mysteriously vanished

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 12:00:16 +0000

Lionel “Buster” Crabb, one of the Royal Navy’s most celebrated divers, disappeared while spying on a Russian warship in 1956.

A first-hand account of the 1863 New York City draft riots

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 12:00:10 +0000

A week after Gettysburg, Elizabeth Oakes Smith watched in horror as violence consumed her city.

The Gurkhas of Nepal are some of the world's toughest fighters

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 12:00:10 +0000

Armed with kukri knives, the Gurkha warriors have distinguished themselves in combat for hundreds of years.

Were U.S. pilots crash landing in Sweden on purpose?

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 12:00:12 +0000

During World War II, American crews found sanctuary—and fun—in the neutral Scandinavian country.

The 3 feudal warlords who unified Japan

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 12:00:16 +0000

Warlords Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu worked both together and at odds to forge a nation from a feudal war zone.

The sailor who fought at Pearl Harbor with his football pads on

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 12:00:12 +0000

“I had all my padding on. They couldn’t hurt me there! I was well protected with all my padding on except my helmet and spikes,” Ganitch recalled in an interview with the American Veterans Center.

Fighting for survival in Oregon during the Civil War

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:00:10 +0000

With no Gettysburg or Chickamauga on hand, Oregon Cavalry tried to ‘chastise’ the Paiute.

The WWII quest to save Norway's gold

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 12:00:10 +0000

When Germany attacked Norway, it aimed to capture the country's gold. The Norwegians stayed one step ahead.

A 34-day war over a patch of Amazonian Jungle

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 12:00:15 +0000

A border dispute between Ecuador and Peru with Spanish colonial origins, the 1995 Cenepa War was waged using the latest in technology.

Western lawman Bass Reeves, the invincible man-hunter

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 12:00:10 +0000

Casualty rates among deputy U.S. marshals were extremely high in Indian and Oklahoma territories, but Reeves completed his long reign there unscathed while making life miserable for outlaws…white, black or Indian.

The Battle of Surigao Strait: the last battleship duel

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 12:00:13 +0000

Japan’s Shoji Nishimura rushed on, impatient to find either glory or death in Surigao Strait. He found both.

The American socialite who saved thousands from the Nazis

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Young and glamorous, wealthy socialite Mary Jayne Gold bucked first impressions to help thousands of refugees escape Vichy France.