Stuff You Missed in History Class
Episodes
Unearthed! in 2018! Part 1
31 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's time for Unearthed 2018, where we talk about the historical things discovered or dug up in the past year. Part one includes a bunch of research i...
SYMHC Classics: Catherine de' Medici, Italian Orphan
29 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're revisiting a 2010 episode from Katie and Sarah about Catherine de' Medici, who remains the most famous female member of the Medici clan. O...
Unearthed: Francisco Franco
26 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We’re taking a look at Francisco Franco and the Spanish Civil War. We've talked about Spain’s parliament voting to exhume the remains of dictator ...
Christmas Triple-Feature: Stille Nacht, St. Nick & Scrooge
24 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're taking a look at three creative works that have become staples of the Christmas season. All three of them have played a huge part in how people ...
SYMHC Classics: Charles Dickens Takes America
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This episode revisits the story of Charles Dickens on tour, featuring previous hosts Sarah and Deblina. Dickens is best known for chronicling life in ...
Buddy Bolden and the Birth of Jazz
19 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bolden is often referred to as the first jazz performer, and his playing is legendary. But his life story, cluttered by lack of documentation and misi...
The Trial of Mary Queen of Scots
17 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Stuart is one of history’s most memorable figures, with myriad compelling chapters in her life. The Babington Plot was a convoluted bit of intr...
SYMHC Classics: Rival Queens -- Mary Stuart and Elizabeth I
15 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we revisit an episode from 2009 in preparation for a new episode coming this week about the Babington Plot. Although they were cousins, Elizabet...
Interview: Hayley Milliman of Museum Hack
12 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Museum Hack writer Hayley Milliman joins Holly to talk about the company's irreverent approach to getting people excited about history, and discusses ...
Six Impossible Episodes: Deja Vu in the U.S. and Canada
10 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Several times over the past few years, we’ve done an episode on something from U.S. history, and afterward we’ve gotten notes from listeners about...
SYMHC Classics: Les Filles du Roi
08 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting an episode from 2014: the Filles du Roi, or King's Daughters. While the building of a population in a new colony seems like a tricky ...
Nell Donnelly Reed
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nell Donnelly Reed built a successful business starting before women even had the right to vote in the U.S. Her story combines fashion, education, wor...
The Rise of the Straw Hat and the Riot of 1922
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Straw Hat Riot of 1922 is a strange piece of history, and it all centered around the boater hat. How did how the boater become so important to men...
SYMHC Classics: Philo T. Farnsworth
01 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're revisiting the life of Phylo T. Farnsworth, often called the "Father of Television." His initial idea for electronic television came to hi...
Auguste Escoffier
28 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Any chefs in our listening audience undoubtedly know about Auguste Escoffier, but people who haven’t studied cuisine may not realize that this one m...
Friedel Klussmann and San Francisco's Cable Cars
26 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
San Francisco’s cable cars are the last working system of their kind. The reason they haven’t been completely replaced by more modern modes of tra...
SYMHC Classics: Cosmetics From Ancient Egypt to the Modern World
24 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting an episode from 2014 about makeup, which has a rich and lengthy history that spans the globe and crosses cultures. From 10,000 B.C.E....
The Mirabal Sisters
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There were four Mirabal sisters -- Minerva, Patria, Maria Teresa, and Dede. The sisters are national heroes in the Dominican Republic, but they weren’...
SYMHC Live: The USO and Bob Hope
19 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This show, performed live at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, covers a brief overview of USO history, and then delves into Bob Hope...
SYMHC Classics: Stede Bonnet, the Gentleman Pirate
17 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we revisit our 2013 episode on Stede Bonnet, who left his family in 1717 and became a pirate. Despite having no seafaring experience, Bonnet's b...
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte
14 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree. She lived at a time when a lot of change was happening in t...
Dwight Frye
12 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you don’t know Dwight Frye by name, you’ve probably seen one or two of his performances. He was one of the lesser-known horror actors that help...
SYMHC Classics: Encephalitis Lethargica
10 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're revisiting one of our scariest episodes of all time, from 2013. From 1916 to about 1927, a strange epidemic spread around the world. It ca...
Kristallnacht
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kristallnacht was a massive act of antisemitic violence that was named for the shards of glass left littering the streets in more than a thousand citi...
Shirley Chisholm
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From her college years, Chisolm was politically active. Her drive and desire to make positive change led her to many political firsts, including being...
SYMHC Classics: 5 Historical Storms
03 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're traveling back to a 2012 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina about catastrophic storms, which are almost historical characters in thei...
SYMHC Live: Not Dead Yet - Safety Coffins and Waiting Mortuaries
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For the west coast tour, Holly and Tracy talked about the fear of being buried, which reached a fever pitch in Europe and the U.S. from the 18th to th...
Pisadiera & Baba Yaga
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
These are two entities with a number of similarities: They’re both women, often described as crones or hags, and there’s no clear origin point for...
SYMHC Classics: The Sisters Fox - They Talked to Dead People
27 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This 2011 episode from Sarah and Deblina features the Fox family, which began hearing strange noises in 1848, and sisters Maggie and Kate started comm...
The Beheading of Sir Walter Raleigh
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Among other things, Sir Walter Raleigh was a courtier, an explorer, a historian, a Member of Parliament and a soldier. He was part of England’s defe...
Charles Addams, Part 2
22 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After TV producer David Levy adapted the cartoons of Charles Addams into "The Addams Family," Charlie's life changed in a number of ways. As Addams ag...
SYMHC Classics: He Was Killed by Mesmerism
20 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting a 2010 Halloween episode from Sarah and Katie. Today, Franz Mesmer is hailed as the father of hypnosis. His original pursuit was call...
Charles Addams, Part 1
17 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Addams was a compelling figure. He visited cemeteries for fun, he raced cars, he collected crossbows. But Addams surprised a lot of people in ...
The Sinking of the SS Princess Sophia
15 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The sinking of the SS Princess Sophia was a massive tragedy for both Canada and the United States. But it was also really overshadowed by the end of W...
SYMHC Classics: The House of Worth and the Birth of Haute Couture
13 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we revisit an episode from 2014. Before Charles Worth, the idea of ready made clothes for purchase didn't really exist. Neither did the idea of ...
The Allegedly Haunted Island of Poveglia
10 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This uninhabited Italian island that has come to be called all manner of scary things, including, “plague island,” “island of ghosts,” and “...
Vernon Lee
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Violet Paget, more often known by her pen name Vernon Lee, was a historian and an art and literary critic, and she wrote on myriad subjects including ...
SYMHC Classics: The Trial of Goody Garlick
06 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting a 2013 tale of a witch trial. Decades before the Salem trials, an East Hampton woman was tried for witchcraft. Before Lion Gardiner's...
Alvin York
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We’re coming up on the centennial of the act of heroism that earned Alvin York the Medal of Honor. His name is known thanks to the 1941 film “Serg...
Peg Entwistle, Ghost of Hollywood
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Her story is often told in a sort of sloppy shorthand: She went to Los Angeles to become an actress, failed, and then became desperate. But that isn’...
SYMHC Classics: Mary Anning, Princess of Paleontology
29 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're revisiting an episodefrom Sarah and Deblina about Mary Anning. She started hunting for fossils in Lyme Regis in the early 1800s. Around 18...
Interview: Mindy Johnson and the Women of Disney, Pt. 2
26 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of this interview, Mindy busts some myths about women and their work in the Walt Disney Studio, and shares some stories of how new techniq...
Interview: Mindy Johnson and the Women of Disney, Pt. 1
24 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mindy Johnson has spent years tracking down the stories of the women who shaped Walt Disney's life, and the success of the Walt Disney Studios. She co...
SYMHC Classics: Victoria Woodhull, Little Queen for President
22 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we revisit a Sarah and Deblina episode from 2011. In 1872, the Equal Rights Party nominated Victoria Woodhull for president, but her radical vie...
Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Science
19 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Magnus Hirschfeld was a groundbreaking researcher into gender and sexuality in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work was dedicat...
SYMHC Live: Anne Royall
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we've got our live show from our recent East Coast tour, all about Anne Royall. She was a travel writer and a muckraking journalist way before T...
SYMHC Classics: The Radium Girls
15 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we revisit an episode from prior hosts Sarah and Deblina. Between in 1917, hundreds of women got jobs applying radium-treated paint to various p...
Lady Anne Blunt, Part 2
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As Anne matured and her marriage fell apart, she continued to travel between the Arabian desert and England, always working to improve her horse breed...
Lady Anne Blunt, Part 1
10 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Anne was the daughter of Ada Lovelace (and the granddaughter of Lord Byron). While she was born into England’s aristocracy in the 19th century, her ...
SYMHC Classics: The Oneida Utopia
08 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode revisits preacher John Humphrey Noyes founding the Oneida community in 1848. In this episode, Deblina and Sarah recount the rise and f...
Christine de Pizan and the Book of the City of Ladies
05 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Christine de Pizan is often described as a late-Medieval writer. But just “writer” does not really sum up everything she did. She wrote verse, m...
Interview: Anne Byrn's 'American Cookie'
03 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're delighted to have Anne Byrn back on the show to talk about her latest book, "American Cookie." Anne shares her vast knowledge of historical baki...
SYMHC Classics: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 2
01 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting part two of the Great Moon Hoax! As the New York Sun's series of astonishing moon discoveries concluded, most people recognized that ...
A Condensed History of Air Conditioning
29 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From hand fans to today’s high-end air conditioning technology, people have always found ways to deal with heat and humidity. And as mechanical cool...
The Georgia Gold Rush
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 1820s, north Georgia became the site of the first gold rush in the United States, predating the more famous California gold rush by two de...
SYMHC Classics: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 1
25 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting a silly two-parter from 2015. In August 1835, the New York Sun ran a series about some utterly mind-blowing discoveries made by Sir J...
The Battle of Ambos Nogales
22 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Two cities, both named Nogales, were established, one on each side of the U.S.-Mexico border, after the Gadsden Purchase but before Arizona’s stateh...
Interview: Mary Robinette Kowal on the 'Lady Astronaut' Duology
20 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Robinette Kowal’s work has inspired several episodes of the podcast. She has just written a pair of books that are called the Lady Astronaut du...
SYMHC Classics: Bessie Coleman, Daredevil Aviatrix
18 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today revisits an episode from Sarah and Deblina about Bessie Coleman, who dreamed of becoming a pilot. Because she was a black woman, no American fli...
Lucretia Mott
15 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This is the studio version of our live show from this years Seneca Falls Convention Days at Women's Rights National Historical Park. Lucretia Mott was...
Zoot Suit Riots
13 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The word “riot” here is really a misnomer. This conflict wasn’t so much about property damage as it was about attacking people. It also wasn’t...
SYMHC: Hedy Lamarr and Wireless Technology
11 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today's classic revisits an episode from Sarah and Deblina. Hedy Lamarr was an extraordinarily beautiful film star, but she wasn't just another pretty...
Levi Strauss
08 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Levi’s story is historically interesting because it touches on a lot of important moments in U.S. history. His business was tied to the California G...
Battle of Amiens
06 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Amiens, near the end of World War I. Amiens was the start of what came to be known as the ...
SYMHC Classics: 5 Historical Hoaxes
04 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode revisits a Sarah and Deblina episode about historical hoaxes. For example, a N.Y. cigar maker once commissioned a gypsum skeleton to p...
John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams Abroad
01 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
John Quincy Adams probably comes to mind as the son of second U.S. President John Adams, and the 6th president of the U.S. But he and his wife, Louisa...
Unearthed! in July, 2018, Part 2
30 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Continuing the 2018 mid-year edition of unearthed goodies, this episode will cover shipwrecks, exhumations, repatriations, and edibles and potables. ...
SYMHC Classics: The Johnstown Flood
28 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today's show revisits a 2012 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina. On May 31, 1889, the South Fork dam gave way, sending 20 million tons of w...
Unearthed! in July, 2018, Part 1
25 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The July edition of Unearthed! is a two-parter this year. We’re breaking with tradition and starting with a few things that happened at the very end...
Author Jason Porath: Tough Mothers
23 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jason is back to talk about his follow-up to his book "Rejected Princesses." This one is called "Tough Mothers" and it's all about feisty, smart and s...
SYMHC Classics: Gertrude Bell, The Uncrowned Queen of Iraq, Part 2
21 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The second installment of this Sarah and Deblina classic two-parter follows Gertrude Bell on her adventures after World War I begins. The British army...
Dred Scott vs. Sandford part 2
18 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When Dred Scott v. Sandford was decided in 1857, the court decision ruled that enslaved Africans and their descendants weren’t and could never be ci...
Dred Scott vs. Sandford part 1
16 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dred Scott v. Sandford is one of the most notorious Supreme Court cases of all time. It wasn’t just about Dred Scott. It was also about his wife Har...
SYMHC Classics: Gertrude Bell, The Uncrowned Queen of Iraq
14 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This classic revisits an episode from Sarah and Deblina, talking about Gertrude Bell, the first woman to graduate with a First in Modern History from ...
Libertalia: Legendary Pirate Utopia
11 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Libertalia, which, in truth, may be completely fictional, is called a pirate settlement, though the man who spearheaded it claimed he wasn't actually ...
Annie Edson Taylor, Niagara Daredevil
09 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Annie Edson Taylor was the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Taylor’s whole barrel trip was part of a much bigger story of daredevi...
SYMHC Classics: How the New York Draft Riots Worked
07 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting an episode from 2011 featuring previous hosts Sarah and Deblina. To recruit troops for the U.S. Civil War, the Federal Congress passe...
Emma Lazarus
04 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Emma Lazarus became one of the United States’ first successful Jewish American writers, moving in the New York literary scene of the late 1800s. She...
Victorian Orchidelirium
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Orchids date back millions of years. But in the 1800s, the plants became a status symbol and the cornerstone of a high-dollar industry. Collecting the...
SYMHC Classics: Dr. Virginia Apgar
30 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This episode revisits the life of Dr. Virginia Apgar, who broke new ground in the fields of obstetrics and anesthesiology in the middle of the 20th ce...
Great Train Wreck of 1918
27 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of one of the worst train wrecks in United States history. More than 100 people died. And even though it’...
Elizabeth Jennings Graham
25 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s topic is a person who is sometimes called a 19th-century Rosa Parks. When Elizabeth boarded a horse-drawn streetcar in Manhattan in 1854, a ...
SYMHC Classics: Mansa Musa and the City of Gold
23 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode revisits a Sarah and Deblina episode that revisits a tale of incredible wealth. When emperor Mansa Musa went on a pilgramage from Timb...
Six Impossible Episodes: Evacuating Children
20 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
All six of today’s topics are mass evacuations of children and youth because of a war or other unrest, and include Kindertransport, Operation Pedro ...
The Tunguska Event
18 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On June 30, 1908 at approximately 7:15am, the sky over Siberia lit up with what was described by witnesses as a massive fireball, or the sky engulfed ...
SYMHC Classics: Alan Turing, Codebreaker
16 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This is a revisit of a Sarah and Deblina episode on Alan Turing, who conceived of computers decades before anyone was building one. He also acted as a...
Hurricane San Ciriaco
13 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hurricane San Ciriaco struck Puerto Rico at a precarious point in its history. The United States had just taken possession of the island, and the 40 o...
Julian Eltinge, Greatest of All Impersonators of Women
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Eltinge was one of the highest-paid and most famous actors of the early 20th century, and acted alongside Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Rudolph...
SYMHC Classics: The Mystic Margery Kempe
09 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're traveling back to a 2013 episode about Margery Kempe. Born in the 1300s, Margery had 14 children with her husband before dedicating her life to ...
The Colorful Life of Carmen Miranda
06 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Carmen Miranda is one of those historical figures who remains hugely iconic – we STILL see her image, or some derivative of it, on a regular basis. ...
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ida B. Wells-Barnett connects to a lot of episodes in our archive. She fought against lynching for decades, at a time when it wasn’t common at all f...
SYMHC Classics: We All Scream for Ice Cream
02 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting a yummy topic from 2013! There is actually some disagreement about the actual origin point of ice cream, but almost everyone agrees i...
Winsor McCay, Part 2
30 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Even as his career in comics was at its zenith, Winsor McCay continued to explore other business ventures for his art. He added vaudeville performance...
Winsor McCay, Part 1
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
McCay is credited as a pioneer in early animation. But before he made drawings come to life, he worked as a billboard artist, an artist-journalist, an...
SYMHC Classics: Five Historical Robots
26 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we revisit an episode on the technology of yesteryear. Long before Czech playwright Karel Capek coined the term "robot" in his 1920 play "R.U.R....
James Whale
23 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
James Whale created iconic films in the early half of the 20th century. He's one of the main reasons that Universal Pictures became synonymous with th...
The Defenestrations of Prague
21 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Defenestrate” just means “to throw out of a window.” And apart from sounding like the punch line to a joke about Daleks … there has been a ...
SYMHC Classics: From Brontë to Bell and Back Again
19 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting another episode from Sarah and Deblina., in which they talk about how the Brontë sisters quickly rose from obscurity to notoriety af...
Frank Lenz, the Cyclist Who Vanished
16 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1890s, Frank Lenz started a bicycle tour around the world. He never finished, and his ultimate fate remains uncertain, though there are pretty ...
Nisei in World War II: The MIS, 100th and 442nd
14 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team were segregated units for soldiers of Japanese descent that were created during WWII...