American History Tellers

November 18, 1928. Mickey Mouse makes his big screen debut in Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser. Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19...

In October 1860, railroad engineer Theodore Judah looked out across California’s Sierra Nevada range, dreaming of a railroad that would connect the United States from coast to coast. It was the start of a decade-long endeavor to build the world’s first transcontinental railroad. Two competing railroad companies would eventually begin construction, but laying nearly 2,000 miles of iron track across...

Many people are familiar with Powhatan, the Paramount Chief who ruled over a vast network of more than 30 tribes in the Chesapeake region when the English arrived in 1607. But it was Powhatan’s brother, Opechancanough, who came closest to wiping out the English colony at Jamestown. Today, Lindsay is joined by Dr. James Horn, President of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. He’s the author of A B...

In April 1613, years of bloody warfare culminated in the kidnapping of the paramount chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas. The English colonists in Jamestown offered to return her in exchange for stolen weapons, English prisoners, and corn, but their proposal was met with silence. In the meantime, Pocahontas befriended English colonist John Rolfe. Rolfe poured his energy into cultivating a tobacco...

In the summer of 1609, a hurricane struck a large English fleet bound for Virginia on a rescue mission. Some of the battered survivors safely landed in Jamestown, but the flagship Sea Venture and the provisions it carried were lost. The already hungry colonists were forced to face the winter without those much-needed supplies. That fall, Powhatan Indians laid siege to Jamestown. Roughly 300 coloni...

In January 1608, fire blazed through the English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. Nearly every building was reduced to ash. The destruction meant that the colonists would have to brave the winter with nothing but the clothes on their backs. More than ever before, their survival depended on the goodwill of the paramount chief Powhatan. As the colony’s leaders desperately searched for gold, mistru...

October 14, 1947. US Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, a feat many aviators previously believed impossible. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser. Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily. See Privacy Policy a...

In December 1606, three ships carrying 104 settlers left England and set sail for Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. Six months later, they arrived on a narrow peninsula in the James River and founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in mainland North America. From the start, faction and infighting threatened to tear the colony apart. And soon, the colonists’ pursuit of gold and glory wou...

After the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, the ocean liner's fame only continued to grow. Today, Lindsay is joined by journalist Daniel Stone to discuss how generations of people searched for the sunken Titanic, the holy grail of wrecks. He charts the ship’s fandom, from mere enthusiasts to an obsessive who claimed ownership of the vessel. Daniel Stone is the author of Sinkable: Obsession, the Deep Sea,...

September 30, 1520. Suleiman the Magnificent becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and sets his sights on conquering Europe. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser. Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California P...

On April 16, 1912, shocked survivors of the Titanic made their way to New York aboard the rescue ship, RMS Carpathia, and news of the tragedy began to spread around the world. Congress and the British Board of Trade both launched investigations into maritime safety regulations, seeking justice for the 1,500 victims of the disaster. As years went by, the public’s fascination with the event only gre...

Just past midnight on April 15th, 1912, only 20 minutes after striking an iceberg, the Titanic began taking on water in her forward hull. Captain Edward Smith quickly realized the ship was doomed to sink and issued orders to start loading the lifeboats. But with only 20 lifeboats on board, more than half the 2,200 passengers and crew would be left behind. As the severity of the disaster spread amo...

September 16, 1920. A horse-drawn wagon explodes in the middle of New York’s financial district, killing 30 people. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser. Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy N...

When the RMS Titanic launched in April of 1912, it was the pinnacle of luxury and the largest vessel to ever set sail. It was also an engineering marvel, as sophisticated as the most elegant hotels, and deemed incapable of sinking. But on its maiden voyage, in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, the Titanic collided with a massive iceberg. Within minutes, the ship began to take on water, and...

In 1981, a gunman fired six shots at Ronald Reagan after the president gave a speech at a Washington D.C. hotel. Over the next several hours, split-second decisions made by Secret Service agents and D.C. hospital staff would determine whether Reagan would live or die. Amidst Cold War tensions, as Reagan lay unconscious in an operating room, questions would emerge over the presidential line of succ...

September 2nd 1666: the Great Fire of London begins in a bakery on Pudding Lane, before quickly spreading and reducing one third of London to ashes. This episode originally aired in 2022. Support the show!  Join  Into History  for ad-free listening and more. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser. Go to  HistoryDaily.com  for more history, daily. See Privac...

On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in his presidential limo through downtown Dallas. His violent and public death became one of the most traumatic moments in the nation’s history — and one of the most controversial, as Americans debated the mystery around his killer, Lee Harvey Oswald. The tragedy also thrust Vice President Lyndon Johnson into the White House, w...

In September 1901, President William McKinley visited the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York to deliver a speech celebrating American achievements at home and abroad. But waiting in the crowd in Buffalo was an embittered Polish-American laborer seeking to prove his commitment to the anarchist cause. Leon Czolgosz fired two bullets, striking the 25th president and sparking a rush to save...

Description: August 19, 1991. A group of Communist Party hardliners attempt to save the collapsing Soviet Union by staging a coup against party leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. This episode originally aired in 2022. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser. Go to HistoryDaily.com for...

On April 14th, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln died hours later, shocking the war-torn nation and becoming the first President to be assassinated in office. But he would not be the last. Sixteen years later, no action had been taken to protect the commander-in-chief. When James Garfield became president in March 1881, a disturbed...

The job of guarding the President’s life belongs to the men and women of the United States Secret Service. There have been many highs and lows in the agency’s more than 150-year history – most poignantly the assassination of JFK in 1963. On today’s show Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig joins host Lindsay Graham to discuss the agency’s response to assassination attempts...

August 5, 1969. Police in Atlanta, Georgia raid a screening of Andy Warhol’s underground film Lonesome Cowboys, triggering a wave of protests that sparks the gay rights movement in the Deep South. This episode originally aired in 2022. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to www. IntoHistory.com . History Daily is a co-production of Airship and No...

There’s no job description for the role of First Lady of the United States. Betty Ford described it as being “much more than a 24-hour job.” First Ladies move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue along with the President and have to forge their own path. They are scrutinized for what they wear, what they say, and how they raise their children. Perhaps because of that, it tends to be a tight-knit sorority...

In the summer of 1989, Michelle Robinson was an up and coming lawyer at a Chicago law firm when she met a charming associate named Barack Obama. The two would soon marry, and despite her distaste for politics, Michelle eventually stepped up to support her husband’s bid for the presidency.  The Obamas made history when they became the first Black President and First Lady, but they would have t...

July 22, 1942. The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto, transporting hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths at the Treblinka Extermination Camp. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to  IntoHistory.com . History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser. Go to  HistoryDaily.com  for more history, daily. See P...