American History Episodes

From 1001 Stories For the Road

"Amelia Earhart (pt. 2) Crash, Capture & Cover-Up":  Our Story: In AMELIA EARHART PT II we will discuss a mountain of witness (direct and indirect) testimony telling us that Earhart and Noonan survived their crash and were taken to Japanese...

A trail of Naval Intelligence photos, airplane parts, and witnesses to Amelia Earhart's crash landing on Barre Reef at Milii Atoll in the Marshalls point to the fact she and Fred Noonan survived their flight only to end up as prisoners of the Japanes...

This true story, often called "The War in Athens, Tennessee", describes the actions of the citizens of a small town, in this case mostly GI's recently returned from the battlefields of WWII, as they armed themselves to insure a fair election against a ...

"Blood Brothers: The True Story That Inspired the John Wayne Movie "The Sons of Katie Elder". On the evening of January 19th, 1889, two wagons and a buggy slowly crossed Dry Creek, two miles east of Graham, Texas. The lead wagon held six prisoners, four of them being the Marlow Brothers, chained together in pairs by manacles attached to their ankles, and a guard named Phlete Martin. The second wagon carried Deputy U.S.Marshall Edward Johnson, three guards, plus spare weapons and ammunition, whil...

This long-lost American tale tells the true story of two young girls, Abigail and Rebecca Bates, the daughters of a lighthouse keeper in Scituate, Massachusetts, who turn back a British warship during the War of 1812. Early in September, 1814, a Br..

"Unsinkable Molly Brown- A Rags To Riches Story of a Titanic Survivor"-Born Margaret Tobin Brown to poor Irish immigrants in Hannibal Missouri in 1867, "Maggie" Brown worked stripping tobacco leaves to support her family until the age of 18, when she moved with her sister to Leadville, Colorado to help establish a blacksmith shop. There she met James Joseph (J.J.) Brown, a miner who was also a son of Irish immigrants. Brown strucj it rich when he figured a way to extract silver from the mine's l...

"The Legend of Snowshoe Thompson" is one of the most enduring tales of the American West. A Norwegian immigrant, Thompson tried his hand at gold mining during the gold rush in California and Nevada but when he married, he went to work delivering mail through the snowed in passes of the Sierra Mountains of Eastern California and Western Nevada, fashioning "snowshoes" mounted on long pieces of oak, and becoming an expert at cross country and downhill skiing. For twenty years he brought desperately...

"The Silent Witness at Appomattox"- This episode tells the little known story of the McLean family's unwilling participation at both ends of the Civil War, beginning with their Northern Virginia farmhouse being bombarded at the Battle of Bull Run in 1861, prompting them to move. They choose to move to safer climes 120 miles south in the quiet village of Appomattox Courthouse, where one of the last battles of the Civil War takes place, and where their house, by pure coincidence, is used as the si...

"Quantrill's Raiders and Bloody Kansas"- In August of 1863, an armed force of 400 men descended upon the anti-slavery town of Lawrence, Kansas and proceeded to systematically destroy it. Seven years before, Lawrence Kansas was sacked and burned mainly due to its being known as an anti-slavery town. Then, the war in Kansas, an anti-slavery state, and Missouri, a pro-slavery state, had already started, and was to continue at a level of butchery that exceeded anything seen during the Civil War. Sou...

"The Great Train Crash in Crush, Texas"-On Sept. 15th, 1896, the KATY railroad staged a big publicity stunt in North Central Texas that drew an estimated 40,000 onlookers. The draw: a staged crash of two steam powered locomotives. A carnival atmosphere prevailed all day as the railroad delivered crowds eager to witness the event and have some fun in the process. But when the locomotives collided and both pressurized boilers exploded, the scene turned dreadly. references: Wikipedia "The Town of C...

"Baron Von Steuben: The Man Who Saved The American Revolution"- In the bleak winter of 1777 the American Continental Army was in miserable condition. The enemy had scored decisiove victories in New York and at Brandywine and was warmly ensconsced in Philadelphia while Washington's beleagured troops, 10,000 of them, lacked food, clothing, and arms in their bleak encampment at Valley Forge. General Washington knew his troops must be trained and morale built in time for a springtime campaign, and h...

"Jack Jouett's Midnight Ride" -"Listen my children, and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere...". So goes the immortal poem of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in describing Paul revere's famous ride to warn American patriots that the British were approaching Boston. But there was another ride, one much less famous but likely much more important, made by a patriot named Jack Jouett in Charlottesville in 1781, that may well have saved Thomas Jefferson and three other signers of the Decla...

"Custer's Last Stand-the Last Man Standing"The incredible story of 7th cavalry trooper Frank Finkel, who for fear of being branded as a deserter, waited 44 years to tell his story of what happened once the action started and Custer's attack began. In the years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 70 so-called "lone survivors" had come forward, only to have their stories discounted as lies. Thanks to the work of various historians, and documents that support their research, Finkel's story has ...

"The Heroes of Kamdesh"- On Oct. 3, 2009 a Taliban-led force of 150-300 insurgents attacked a US Army Outpost in the Kamdesh area of Afghanistan and nearly wiped it out, save for the heroic actions of the ground and air troops that fought to defend it. 8 Americans were killed in the 12 hours of close combat. After the attack, a number of US Commanders who had been responsible for decisions made prior to the attack were disciplined. This episode honors all those who stand ready to sacrifice their...

"The First American Road Trip"- In 1903 there were only 150 miles of paved roads in America. The new fangled automobiles were considered by most to be a passing fad. On May 19th of that year, at a gentleman's club in San Francisco, a Vermont doctor named Horatio Nelson Jackson, believing that cars were the future of America, accepted a $50 bet that he could drive from California to Albany. Jackson, his mechanic Seawall Crocker, and a pit bull named Bud were to earn their places in the pages of h...

"The Day John Wayne Went to Harvard"- Screen legend John Wayne accepts an invitation from Harvard to appear on stage before 1,600 students to defend his unabashed patriotism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices