Stuff You Missed in History Class

The Hagley Woods Murder

31 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In 1943, a skeleton was found in a tree near Birmingham, England. More than 70 years later, it's still unknown who the deceased was and how the body e...

A Cruise Through History's Ghost Ships

26 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There have been numerous instances of ships found adrift with no one on board. Four of those nautical mysteries are featured here, with some truly chi...

Vincent Price: A Talk With His Daughter Victoria Price

24 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

If you only know of Vincent Price from his films, you may be surprised by his rich life story. Victoria Price joins the show to talk about her famous ...

Interview: Anne Byrn's 'American Cake'

19 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Baking expert Anne Byrn joins Holly to talk about the place of cake in U.S. history, from the early colonies right up to the modern era. The relations...

Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol

17 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

From 1897 to 1962, a small theater in Paris gave became famous for its grisly, terrifying plays. The Theatre du Grand Gignol became a cultural fixture...

The Orphan Tsunami

12 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In January of 1700, a tsunami struck the coast of Japan. While the connection between earthquakes and tsunamis was known, it actually took a very long...

Vardø Witch Trials

10 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

At the height of Europe's witch trials, the northern coast of Norway had a disproportionate number of executions for sorcery. The small fishing commun...

The Bell Witch

05 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1800s, a family in Tennessee allegedly experienced what seemed to be a haunting on their family farm. Many narratives have blossomed from...

The Cod Wars

03 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Fishing plays vital role in the culture and economy of both the United Kingdom and Iceland. A dispute between the countries over fishing territory sta...

SLCC Live! Robber's Roost, Outlaw Hideout

28 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, a chunk of rough and unwelcoming stretch of territory in the Canyonlands area east of the Di...

The New Orleans 1900 Race Riot

26 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In July 1900, an interaction between New Orleans police and two black men set off a chain of horrific events. A man hunt, bloodthirsty mobs and sensel...

SLCC Live! How Historical Fiction Gets Made

21 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy and Holly were joined by authors Bryan Young, E.B. Wheeler and Brian McClellan during Salt lake Comic Con for a talk about how authors weave rea...

Mary Alice Nelson, aka Molly Spotted Elk

19 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Molly was born on Indian Island, Maine, and she turned to dance to help her family make ends meet. But because audiences and companies in the U.S. pus...

Live at the DMA: Pierre de Coubertin and the Modern Olympics

14 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Coubertin had a vision to unite the world through sport, and he eventually managed to launch the modern Olympic Games. But those first few times out, ...

John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

12 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, set out to create an armed revolution of emancipated slaves. Instead, it became a tipping point leading ...

The Montgolfier Brothers and Their Balloons

07 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

As man was looking to the skies and yearning to fly, two inventive brothers came up with an idea to set humans aloft. The Montgolfiers were among many...

The London Match Girls Strike of 1888

05 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The London Match Girls Strike of 1888 was an important labor rights event in Britain. Women working in a match factory took a stand against hazardous ...

Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation with John B. King

31 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Secretary of Education Dr. John B. King Jr. discusses the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which gave rebelling states 100 days to return to the...

Thomas Day’s Quest for the Perfect Wife

29 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Eighteenth-century Englishman Thomas Day decided that the only way to have a perfect wife was to create one. So he adopted two orphans and attempted t...

The Boy Jones, After Buckingham

24 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Even though Edward Jones served two prison sentences for his intrusions into Buckingham palace, it seems that the authorities were willing to do almos...

The Boy Jones, Queen Victoria's Persistent Intruder

22 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Not long after young Victoria became queen, a young man got into Buckingham Palace, wandered around, and attempted to steal several items. It was mere...

Anglo-Cherokee War

17 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

During the French and Indian War, a clash between Cherokee tribes and the British -- who had been allies -- slowly escalated on the southern end of th...

Anne Bonny & Mary Read

15 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Famed lady pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read are often requested as a topic by listeners. But telling their story requires navigating some rather suspe...

Yosemite and James Hutchings, Pt. 2

10 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Because he saw himself as Yosemite's ambassador, Hutchings was surprised when the state of California told him his land claim was invalid. He fought t...

Yosemite and James Hutchings, Pt. 1

08 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Once Yosemite had been seen by white men, it became the focus of a great deal of attention, both for its natural wonders and for the potential money t...

Bracero Program

03 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

For parts of the 20th century, the U.S. and Mexico had agreements in place allowing, and even encouraging, Mexican nationals to enter the U.S. to perf...

Butter v. Margarine

01 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Industries and governments had a really weird preoccupation with protecting people from margarine way before it was made with the hydrogenated oils th...

Isaac Merrit Singer

27 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

While his name is most strongly associated with the sewing machine, Isaac Singer's life is a tale far beyond the story of mechanized stitching. A phil...

Desmond T. Doss

25 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Doss was the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor, though he's not the only one. Two other men, Thomas W. Bennett and Joseph ...

U.S. Contraband Camps

20 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When three escaped slaves showed up at a Union position during the U.S. Civil War, the decision of how to handle the situation fell to Maj. Gen. Benja...

Unearthed! in July!

18 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We're halfway through the year, and we have SO MANY unearthed items already! So, after polling listeners, we're adding a mid-year edition of our Unear...

Aviatrix Lilian Bland

13 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Miss Bland was a jockey, a sports photographer, a journalist, a car dealer and a pioneer farmer. She also built Ireland's first powered airplane, enti...

Mary Ann Shadd Cary

11 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

She was a black Canadian-American who became the first woman in North America to publish and edit a newspaper. She advocated against slavery, for bett...

The Late Victorian Manure Crisis

06 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many cities were facing the same issue: so much horse manure, they couldn't keep up with it. It created unhygienic ...

The Jacobite Rising of 1745

04 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Portrayals of this piece of Scottish and English history are often simultaneously romanticized and oversimplified. It's a great deal more complicated ...

The Discovery of 'Planet' Ceres

29 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

For a long time, astronomers believed that there must have been a planet lurking in the gap between Mars and Jupiter. What they found was Ceres, and t...

The Achaemenid Empire

27 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Achaemenid Empire was founded by Cyrus II in the 6th century B.C.E., and it became an empire unlike any the world had seen up to that point. Lear...

Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement (Part 2)

22 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Because of his previous ties to the Communist Party, his race, and his sexual orientation, the McCarthy era was extremely dangerous for Rustin. This w...

Bayard Rustin, 'Angelic Troublemaker' (Part 1)

20 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Bayard Rustin was an openly gay black man born in 1912. He spent his life working tirelessly for equal rights, peace, democracy, and economic equality...

Harriet Tubman, Union Spy (Part 2)

15 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There was a whole lot more to Harriet Tubman's life and work than her time as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. During the United States Civil ...

Harriet Tubman & the Underground Railroad (Part 1)

13 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Most people are familiar with her involvement with the Underground Railroad, but Harriet Tubman was also a spy for the Union during the Civil War, amo...

Raymond Bessone, Mister Teasie-Weasie

08 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

British hair guru Raymond Bessone became the first celebrity hair stylist by leveraging the post-war desire for glamour and his own innate skill at ma...

Saint Gertrude of Nivelles

06 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

She's sometimes called the patron saint of cats, and the story of Gertrude's religious devotion starts when she was just a young child. Her family's h...

The Eruption at Heimaey

01 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In 1973, after a series of earthquakes, a fissure opened up on the eastern side of the Icelandic island of Heimaey. As the eruption developed over tim...

The Women of Bauhaus

30 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

While the Bauhaus school is well known, and its original manifesto proclaimed an environment of equality, most of the women who went to the school wer...

April Calahan on France's Fashionable Resistance

25 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Fashion historian April Calahan joined Holly for a talk about the surprising ways that women of France protested German occupation during WWII. Learn...

Tarrare, a Case of Polyphagia

23 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Insatiable hunger completely dominated every aspect of this French man's existence in the 18th century. His life took a series of twists and turns, bu...

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

18 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

No starving artist, Vigée Le Brun was the first woman to ever become a court painter in France when she was commissioned to paint Marie Antoinette. S...

Six Impossible Episodes: Possible Apocrypha

16 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We get a lot of requests for topics that are very interesting, but for which there's very little information. In some cases, those people or events ma...

Hercules Mulligan, Spy on the Inside Pt. 2

11 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

After years of protesting and resisting British rule in New York, Mulligan passed important information on to George Washington, possibly saving his l...

Hercules Mulligan, Spy on the Inside Pt. 1

09 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Hercules Mulligan was indeed a real person who passed intelligence to George Washington, mostly through two means - one was an enslaved man named Cato...

Women in the USPS

04 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Women have been part of mail delivery in the U.S. since colonial times, but it took centuries for women postal workers to become commonplace. Even thr...

Live From FanX: Nazis, the Occult and Indiana Jones

02 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It's fairly common knowledge that the Nazis were prolific looters and that there was occult interest among the officers of the organization. How weird...

Live From FanX: Salt Lake City's Place in Film History

27 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

You may not know that Salt Lake City has been home to some key moments in film history. Guest host Bryan Young joins Holly to talk about everything fr...

A Brief History of the 'White Wedding'

25 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wondered why so many of today's weddings feature white dresses, tiered cakes and registries for silver and dishes? Queen Victoria (and t...

The Easter Rising of 1916

20 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Easter Rising is considered to be one of the most pivotal events in modern Irish history, and it was a precursor to a number of other events that ...

A History of Pizza Live at C2E2

18 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Pizza-like foods go way, way back in history, long before we associated the delicious dish with Italy. How did pizza's pedigree develop, and how did i...

Oliver Haugh, Serial Killer Pt. 2

13 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

After his parents' home burned down under mysterious circumstances, Oliver Haugh was put on trial for murder. Haugh did little to help his own case, a...

Oliver Haugh, Serial Killer Pt. 1

11 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In his early career Dr. Haugh claimed to be working on the next step in human evolution. But he was really a man enslaved by his addiction to cocaine ...

The Shared Sign Language of Martha's Vineyard

06 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

By the early 18th century, it was not uncommon for people in Martha's Vineyard to be deaf from birth. This had a profound effect on the culture of Mar...

Interview: Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso

04 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Kali Nicole Gross joins Tracy to discuss a murder that took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1887. The details of the investigation and tria...

Zheng He and the Treasure Ships

30 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Zheng He led expeditionary voyages from China in the 15th century. While there are many tall tales about his accomplishments, his actual life was pret...

The Tupac Amaru Rebellion

28 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Tupac Amaru rebellion was a conflict between Spain and its colonies in South America which took place from 1780 to 1783. Learn more about your ad...

WASP of WWII with Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck, Part 2

23 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The duties of the women of the WASP evolved over time, and some of them were quite dangerous. And once the program ended, there were -- and still are ...

WASP of WWII with Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck, Part 1

21 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII was formed to see if women could fly military aircraft, and potentially free up male noncombat pilots to ser...

Knitting's Early History

16 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Because of its functionality in providing needed clothing for humans, knitting has been around for a long time. Exactly how long isn't entirely clear,...

Denmark's Early Royalty and the Jelling Stones

14 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The beginning of Denmark's monarchy more than a thousand years ago is linked to two large rune stones at Jelling. Is it possible that the stones were ...

The Crescent Hotel and Norman Baker

09 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Eureka Springs, Arkansas is home to a beautiful Victorian hotel with a long and winding history. A colorful part of that history involves a man who cl...

Hildegard von Bingen

07 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Hildegard was a Christian mystic of medieval Europe who was way, way ahead of her time. If she had lived a few hundred years later, and been male, peo...

Leprosy and the Ko'olau Rebellion

02 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When Hansen's disease was introduced to Hawaii, businessmen, especially from the U.S., were having an increasing influence on the Hawaiian government....

The Great Vowel Shift, or A Brief History of English

29 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Language is alive. It shifts and changes; pronunciations and spellings morph throughout time. English is no exception. Learn more about your ad-choic...

China and Japan After the Doolittle Raid

24 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

After the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, the punishment that Japanese forces doled out in China for their part in helping the U.S. was brutal and devastatin...

The Crayola Crayon Story

22 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It's now a childhood classic, but the modern Crayola crayon has roots in the same company where carbon black was made for car tires at the turn of the...

Robert Smalls: From Contraband to Congress

17 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

After his daring and impressive escape from slavery, Smalls was considered to be contraband, which was a term used for formerly enslaved people who jo...

The Incredible Escape of Robert Smalls

15 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Smalls was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1839. He escaped from enslavement during the U.S. Civil War, in a particularly dram...

Jimmy Doolittle and the Doolittle Raid

10 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Doolittle Raid was an attack on Japan launched by the U.S. in retaliation for Pearl Harbor. But the leader of the mission was a legend long before...

A Brief History of the Pietà

08 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

While Michelangelo's sculpture of Mary holding the deceased body of Christ is the most famous depiction of that moment in art, that scene has been the...

The Vanport Flood

03 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

On May 30, 1948, a flood destroyed Vanport, Oregon. What really makes the story more than a historical footnote is how it tied in to the racial makeup...

The Bawdy House Riots of 1668

01 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In early modern London, there was a tradition of sorts where apprentices would amass on holidays and physically destroy brothels. One of the largest s...

Queen Victoria: The Lady Hastings Scandal

27 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Queen Victoria reigned for more than six decades, but her early years as ruler were peppered with a number of disastrous missteps. By participating in...

The Honey War

25 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Honey War wasn't really about honey. It was a dispute over state lines. There are some bee trees in the mix, as well as some truly sub-par surveyi...

Courrières Mine Disaster of 1906

20 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

One of the worst mining tragedies in history, the explosion that sent fire through the Courrières mine tunnels claimed more than a thousand lives. It...

The Schoolhouse Blizzard

18 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In 1888, a blizzard so sudden and severe hit the American Midwest and claimed the lives of hundreds, some of whom died just outside the safety of shel...

Dame Nellie Melba, Part 2

13 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The second part of our episode on the Australian diva focuses on her career in the early 1900s, her charity work and her belief that singers had to wo...

Dame Nellie Melba, Part 1

11 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Born Helen Porter Mitchell in Melbourne, Australia in 1861, Nellie Melba would rise to fame as a singer. Her life was everything you'd expect from a d...

Author Interview: Fashion History With April Calahan

06 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

April has two books out about fashion history, one featuring historical fashion plates, and another on the pochoir technique used to create fashion il...

Unearthed in 2015, Part 2

04 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More of the 2015 news items of historical significance! The second part of this topic includes firearms, letters, blackboards, sculpture and of course...

Unearthed in 2015, Part 1

30 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

As has become an annual tradition on the show, we're capping off 2015/starting 2016 with a roundup of things that have been unearthed, either figurati...

The Whiskey Rebellion

28 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Resistance to excise taxes levied against U.S. whiskey distilleries in the 1790s led to violence and rebellion. Tensions finally came to a head on Chr...

The Krampus and Friends Holiday Special, Part 2

23 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In addition to the characters we talked about on our last episode, there are even more colorful holiday traditions that may be a bit surprising to peo...

The Krampus and Friends Holiday Special, Part 1

21 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Krampus has become really popular in recent years, but there are many holiday characters from various cultures around the world that all have fascinat...

The Disappearance of the Sodder Children

16 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The Sodder family's West Virginia home caught fire on Christmas Eve, 1945. Five of the children were never seen again, though their bodies weren't rec...

Our Most-requested Episodes (We Already Have)

14 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

We often get episode requests, but because there are so many episodes in the back catalog, some of the most common requests have already been covered....

Katharine Dexter McCormick: The Money Behind the Pill

09 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Katharine McCormick made her mark in two different areas: She was a big part of the movement for women's suffrage in the U.S. And, she was a huge - an...

The Road to the Declaration of Sentiments

07 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott met in London in 1840 and bonded instantly over a shared anger at injustices against women. Their friendship ...

A Brief History of Diving Technology

02 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have always longed to explore underwater, but the need to breathe air has been an obstacle. From as far back as the 4th century B.C.E., clever ...

The Gallipoli Campaign

30 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most infamous aspects of World War I was its long, brutal stalemate along the enormous system of trenches known as the Western Front. The p...

Sophia Duleep Singh, Part 2: Suffragette Princess

25 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Sophia Duleep Singh's education was focused on turning her into a proper lady, in line with her status as a princess. But she also became deeply invol...

Sophia Duleep Singh, Part 1: Princess In Exile

23 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A princess of the Sikh empire, Sophia Duleep Singh grew up in Great Britain, and was Queen Victoria's god daughter. But her childhood was not exactly ...

St. Clair's Defeat, or the Battle of a Thousand Slain

18 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In 1791, a confederation of Native American tribes destroyed about half of the American army. The catalyst for that conflict was a lengthy period in w...