This Day in History

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 18th. Thanksgiving has been celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November since 1941, but it was actually on this day all the way back in 1777 that Americans celebrated the first day of national thanksgiving. That first celebration was held in honor of the American victory over the British at the Battle of Saratoga. Learn...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 17th. Prior to the pandemic, nearly 3 million people flew in and out of America’s airports each day. That number would likely have astonished Orville and WIlbur Wright, who made their famous first flight on this day in 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That flight--the first made in a self-propelled, heavier-than-air c...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 16th. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that just because something seems improbable, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. The same adage would apply to the tragedy that unfolded on this day in 1960 over the skies of New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 15th. The leaning tower of Pisa is one of Italy’s most famous tourist attractions, but between 1990 and this day in 2001 it was closed to the public, as a team of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to fortify the tower without eliminating its famous lean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adcho...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 14th. It was one of the saddest days in modern American history--on this day in 2012, a shooter killed 20 first graders and six school employees before turning the gun on himself at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Prior to the massacre, the shooter had killed his own mother, who was the owner of t...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 13th. On the heels of a tumultuous election, we look back to this day in 2000, when then-Vice President Al Gore conceded the presidential election to Texas governor George W. Bush. Gore had won the national popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, but narrowly lost Florida, giving the Electoral College to Bush, 271 to 266....

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 12th. Would you spend 5 million dollars on a notebook? That’s just what oil tycoon Armand Hammer paid on this day in 1980 for a notebook filled with drawings and writings from famed artist, architect and engineer Leonardo da Vinci. Written around 1508, the book contained 72 pages featuring 300 notes and detailed drawings r...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 11th. What would you do for love? That’s a question many were asking themselves on this day in 1936, when Great Britain’s King Edward VIII became the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 10th. Just one month after the historic election of Kamala Harris as the nation’s first ever woman vice president, we look back to this day in 1869, when Wyoming became the first territory or state in U.S. history to grant women the right to vote. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 9th. As the world continues to await a vaccine to help beat back the Covid-19 pandemic, we look back to this day in 1979, when a commission of scientists declared that smallpox had been officially eradicated from the earth. The disease, which ravaged humanity for centuries and killed about 30 percent of those who contracte...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 8th. It’s been 40 years since former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed by an obsessed fan as he returned to his apartment on New York City’s Upper West Side on this day in 1980. As a key member of the most successful band of the 20th century, Lennon’s death was mourned by millions around the world. Learn more about yo...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 7th. President Franklin Roosevelt called it a day “which will live in infamy”--on this day in 1941, a Japanese dive bomber appeared out of the clouds above the island of Oahu, Hawaii. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack on...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 6th. On this day in 1865, after 400 years, slavery was finally abolished in America with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. The ratification came eight months after the end of the Civil War. When the war began, some in the North were against fighting what they saw as a crusade to end slavery. Learn more about your ad...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 5th. It’s a maritime mystery that’s never been solved: On this day in 1872, a British captain spotted an American ship called the Mary Celeste sailing erratically with its sails fully raised near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 4th. So far at least, the historic New York City bar Fraunces Tavern has survived the pandemic. It’s been a beloved watering hole since even before this day in 1783, when it famously became the site of George Washington’s farewell to his Continental Army officers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 3rd. For now at least, the face of Andrew Jackson is front and center on every one of the nearly 9 billion 20-dollar bills in circulation. On this day in 1828, Jackson was elected the seventh U.S. president. His election marked a turning point in American politics, as the center of political power shifted from East to West...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 2nd. Actor Matt Damon turned 50 this year, some 23 years after his Oscar-nominated performance in Good Will Hunting, which premiered on this day in 1997. The film was a box-office smash and received nine Academy Award nominations, and two wins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 1st. Sixty-five years ago today, a 42-year-old African-American seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus to a white man. Her decision helped spark the civil rights movement in the United States. The local Black community soon organized a bus boycott, led by a young Reverend...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on November 30th. It’s a story that would have been right at home in the year 2020--on this day in 1954, the first modern instance of a meteorite hitting a human occurred in Alabama. The meteorite crashed through the roof of a house and into a living room, bounced off a radio and struck a woman on her hip. The victim, Elizabeth Hodges...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on November 29th. For decades, there has been speculation about what really happened on this day in 1981, when 43-year-old actress Natalie Wood drowned off the coast of California’s Catalina Island. Wood had been boating with her husband, actor Robert Wagner, at the time of her death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastcho...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on November 28th. To country music fans, it’s sacred ground--the Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting live from Nashville, Tennessee, on this day in 1925. Originally called Barn Dance, the Saturday-night show featured folk music, fiddling and the relatively new genre of country-western music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podca...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on November 27th. It’s that time of year when it’s easy for anyone to put on a few extra pounds--even, apparently, the president. On this day in 1911, then-White House housekeeper Elizabeth Jaffrey wrote in her diary about a conversation she’d had with President William Howard Taft and his wife about the president’s ever-expanding wai...

Happy Thanksgiving, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on November 26th. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” That iconic line is from one of the most beloved films in Hollywood history, Casablanca, which premiered in New York City on this day in 1942. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on November 25th. London’s famed The Mousetrap is one of the many live events forced to close by the pandemic. But it’s still the longest-running play in history, and it all started on this day in 1952, when the murder-mystery written by novelist and playwright Agatha Christie opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. Learn more ab...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on November 24th. It was one of the most groundbreaking scientific works in history: On this day in 1859, “On the Origin of Species” by British naturalist Charles Darwin, was published. In it, Darwin argued that organisms gradually evolve through a process he called “natural selection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...