History Shorts

11:14

Nellie Bly Around the World

History Shorts ·

2026/10/07

In 1889, 25-year-old journalist Nellie Bly boarded a steamship in New York carrying one small bag, one dress, and a remarkable assignment: Travel around the world faster than Phileas Fogg. Inspired by Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, Bly raced across oceans and continents by steamship and train. Along the way, she even stopped in France to meet Jules Verne himself. America followed her progress by telegraph. More than a million people entered a newspaper contest predicting exactly when

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16:56

Warsaw 1920 - The Battle that Saved Europe

History Shorts ·

2026/10/01

In August 1920, the Red Army approached Warsaw, and the newly independent Polish state appeared to be on the verge of collapse. The stakes stretched far beyond Poland. Bolshevik leaders hoped victory could help carry revolution westward, particularly toward a politically unstable Germany. Then the battlefield changed dramatically. Polish commander Józef Piłsudski launched a daring counteroffensive south of Warsaw, striking into a vulnerable section of the Soviet front and threatening its rear

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15:41

South Sea Company - The Original Economic Bubble

History Shorts ·

2026/09/28

In 1720, London was gripped by an investment frenzy. Companies appeared almost overnight, promising fortunes from everything imaginable—and sometimes from nothing at all. One notorious prospectus supposedly offered shares in "an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is." Investors bought in anyway. At the center of the mania stood the South Sea Company, whose shares skyrocketed during 1720 before spectacularly collapsing. Politicians were implicated, fortunes disappeared, and

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17:10

Two Days in Berlin 1961 - Cold War (Almost) Turns Hot

History Shorts ·

2026/09/27

On October 27, 1961, ten American tanks and ten Soviet tanks faced each other across Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin—loaded, ready, and separated by barely 100 meters. For sixteen hours, a single shot could have triggered a confrontation between two nuclear superpowers. But behind the scenes, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev were communicating through a secret backchannel. Kennedy offered a way out: withdraw the Soviet tanks first, and the Americans would follow. Khrushchev did. The Soviets

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16:36

Seven Days in Korea - To Fight or Not to Fight?

History Shorts ·

2026/09/26

At 4:00 a.m. on June 25, 1950, North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. Within days, President Harry Truman moved from supplying the South Koreans to ordering American air and naval support—and then committing U.S. ground troops. He did so without asking Congress for a declaration of war, presenting American intervention as action in support of the United Nations. At a press conference, the conflict was famously described as a "police action" rather than a war. The

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16:36

Eight Days in Manila - When the U.S. Became an Empire

History Shorts ·

2026/09/24

On May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay. Then the cable went silent. For nearly a week, Americans had no reliable news from the Philippines. Newspapers speculated that Dewey had been defeated, captured, or perhaps had never fought at all. Meanwhile, events in Manila kept moving. Dewey worked with Filipino revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo, whose forces soon resumed their campaign against Spanish rule. By the time news of Dewey's victory reached the United

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12:20

Four Days in April - The Spark of the Civil War

History Shorts ·

2026/09/23

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. For 34 hours, thousands of shells rained down on the fort. Remarkably, no one was killed during the bombardment. The first fatality came after the surrender. As the Union garrison fired a ceremonial salute to the American flag before evacuating, a cannon accidentally exploded, killing Private Daniel Hough. Three days later, Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion. The

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34:20

Inside the National WWI Museum, w/ Christopher Warren

History Shorts ·

2026/09/18

Dr. Christopher Warren, Vice President of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, joins History Shorts for a full conversation about the Great War, memory, and why World War I still matters. The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City is America's official museum and memorial dedicated to the First World War. Visitors enter across a glass bridge over 9,000 poppies—each representing 1,000 combatant deaths—before encountering one of the world's most

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15:49

Battle of Blair Mt. and the Origins of 'Redneck'

History Shorts ·

2026/09/17

In 1921, thousands of armed coal miners marched through the mountains of West Virginia. Many wore red bandanas around their necks—one historical association behind the term "redneck." Their destination was Blair Mountain, where company-backed forces waited. What followed became the largest armed labor uprising in American history. For days, miners and defenders exchanged gunfire across the mountains while private aircraft dropped bombs. Eventually, federal troops arrived, and the miners surrendered

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13:23

The Truth About the Mad Queen of Madagascar

History Shorts ·

2026/09/14

In 1828, Queen Ranavalona I took the throne of Madagascar—and began one of the most controversial reigns in African history. Determined to preserve Malagasy independence from growing European influence, Ranavalona expelled missionaries, restricted Christianity, resisted foreign powers, and fiercely defended traditional customs. Her methods could be brutal. Forced labor, military campaigns, executions, and the infamous tangena ordeal contributed to enormous suffering and population loss. European

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37:53

Fascism Didn't Come From Europe, w/ Joseph Kelly

History Shorts ·

2026/09/11

When Americans watched fascists march down Main Street in the 1930s, they told themselves it was a European import—new, foreign, un-American. Joseph Kelly says that story is wrong. In The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818–1915, Kelly traces a homegrown political tradition from the Missouri crisis through a Southern police state and Jim Crow, then out across the nation after the Spanish-American War as Anglo-Saxon nationalism: the claim that this country belongs to a master race

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13:48

Anti-German Hysteria of World War I

History Shorts ·

2026/09/07

Before World War I, German was everywhere in America. Millions of Americans spoke it. German-language newspapers flourished. Schools taught it. Churches worshipped in it. Entire communities conducted daily life in German. Then America entered the war. Suddenly, the language of millions of Americans became the language of the enemy. German books were removed from libraries. Schools dropped German classes. German-language newspapers disappeared. Some states restricted—or even prohibited—the teaching

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14:15

Russia's Invisible Rocket Man

History Shorts ·

2026/09/05

He launched Sputnik. He sent Yuri Gagarin into space. He helped turn the Soviet Union into the world's first space superpower. And almost no one knew his name. Sergei Korolev was the brilliant engineer behind the Soviet Union's greatest early triumphs in the Space Race. But before becoming the architect of its space program, Korolev had been arrested during Stalin's purges, tortured, sent to the Gulag, and nearly killed by the government he would later help make famous. Even at the height of his

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25:42

The Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy w/ Ben Macintyre

History Shorts ·

2026/09/04

Ben Macintyre joins History Shorts to discuss his new book Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy. In 1981, Tehran was still reeling from the Iranian Revolution. The Shah was gone, Ayatollah Khomeini's regime was consolidating power, and the Soviet Union was actively working to exploit the chaos. Into this dangerous environment stepped KGB Major Vladimir Kuzichkin—a highly skilled Soviet intelligence officer who would become one of the most important double agents of the

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13:02

Geronimo Surrenders

History Shorts ·

2026/08/27

For decades, Geronimo resisted attempts by the United States and Mexico to confine the Apache people to reservations. His small band repeatedly escaped into the rugged mountains of the Southwest, pursued by thousands of American troops across some of the most unforgiving terrain in North America. By 1886, however, the pursuit was nearing its end. On September 4, Geronimo and his remaining followers surrendered to General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. His surrender effectively brought the

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39:58

The Insane 1909 Coast-to-Coast Race That Changed...

History Shorts ·

2026/08/21

Join me for an epic conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eric Moskowitz about his gripping new book The Hardest, Longest Race: Henry Ford and the Cross-Country Contest That Changed America. In 1909, a handful of fearless drivers tackled the first true transcontinental automobile race — 4,106 miles from New York to Seattle over terrible roads, mountains, mud bogs, and sabotage. At the center was Henry Ford and his underdog Model T in a story filled with grit, mechanical genius,

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13:07

Nizari Ismailis & the Origin of the Word 'Assassin'

History Shorts ·

2026/08/20

The word "assassination" is spoken around the world, but its origins are rooted in one of history's most misunderstood groups. The medieval Nizari Ismailis have long been portrayed as a secretive cult of drug-fueled killers, a reputation shaped by hostile chroniclers and popularized centuries later by Marco Polo. Modern historians, however, find little evidence that the famous hashish story was ever true. Instead, the Nizari Ismailis were a small Shia Muslim community surrounded by powerful enemies

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12:01

The Union Spy in the Confederate White House

History Shorts ·

2026/08/19

While the Civil War raged on the battlefield, one of the Union's greatest victories came through espionage. In the heart of the Confederate capital, Elizabeth Van Lew quietly built a sophisticated spy network that reached into prisons, government offices—and even the Confederate White House itself. To avoid suspicion, Van Lew deliberately cultivated a reputation as "Crazy Bet," convincing her neighbors she was harmless while secretly directing one of the most effective intelligence operations of the

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14:01

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

History Shorts ·

2026/08/18

On March 25, 1911, flames tore through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, claiming the lives of 146 workers in just eighteen minutes. Most were young immigrant women trapped behind locked exit doors, with no safe escape. As horrified crowds watched from below, many made the impossible choice to jump. The tragedy shocked the nation. Although the factory owners were acquitted of manslaughter, public outrage transformed grief into action. Sweeping labor reforms followed, establishing new

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23:54

Paul Revere's Ride: The Night That Saved America, w/...

History Shorts ·

2026/08/17

Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Kostya Kennedy — bestselling author, former Sports Illustrated senior writer, and the man who's brought us unforgettable portraits of legends like Joe DiMaggio, Pete Rose, and Jackie Robinson. His latest book, The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America, takes us back to that fateful night, separating myth from reality and showing why Paul Revere's ride wasn't just a poem — it was a pivotal moment that helped save the fledgling American cause. We're

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