American History Tellers

In April 1954, a group of first graders lined up in the gymnasium of an elementary school in McLean, Virginia for the start of the Salk polio vaccine trials. In an era before widespread federal government involvement in public health, the National Institute of Infantile Paralysis executed an unprecedented experiment involving nearly 2 million children and tens of thousands of doctors, nurses, and...

By the late 1940s, the National Institute of Infantile Paralysis had raised millions of dollars to pay for patient care and laboratory research. But polio cases were reaching record levels, and scientists were no closer to a cure. Frustrated by the slow progress, Basil O’Connor resolved to recruit fresh talent to the cause. He soon found what he was looking for in a young and energetic researcher...

After two turbulent decades in the ice trade, Frederic Tudor had finally made it. Expanding into the American South had paid off, with cities like New Orleans delivering steady profit. But Tudor’s insatiable appetite for risk kept pushing him to bet everything – again and again – even as losses mounted and disaster loomed. As he entered his 50s, Tudor seemed ready to slow down. But when he was off...

In the summer of 1921, 39-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt was on vacation with his family when he developed a fever, muscle aches, and chills. Pain spread to his legs, and soon, he was paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors diagnosed him with polio, which was fast becoming America’s most dreaded infectious disease. Every summer, polio struck without warning, causing swimming pools and movie the...

By 1816, Frederic Tudor had spent a decade shipping New England ice to Cuba—with little to show for it. Setbacks and vanished profits nearly ruined him, and a gamble on shipping tropical fruit had left him barely solvent. Then a chance conversation sparked a bold new idea: expand the ice trade into the American South.  Tudor rushed to South Carolina, only to clash with state officials who ref...

In 1806, Frederic Tudor set out to build a fortune by shipping ice from his family’s pond near Boston to the tropical Caribbean—an audacious idea no one believed in. But turning frozen water into profit proved far harder than he imagined. By 1809, an embargo had halted his shipments, his debts had mounted, and Tudor himself landed in jail. Still, he refused to abandon the dream that everyone else...

In 1801, a young Boston merchant named Frederic Tudor made a life-changing visit to Cuba. There he had a wildly ambitious idea: he would ship New England ice to the sweltering Caribbean, where no one had ever seen frozen water – let alone tasted a cold drink or ice cream.  Lacking experience and money, Tudor was mocked by seasoned ship captains who called his plan foolish. Still, by 1806 he’d...

In 1620 the Pilgrims arrived in a land already shaped by centuries of Native history. For the people who lived there, the Wampanoag, it was Patuxet—a place with its own stories, its own politics, and, as the Pilgrims soon learned, a complicated history of encounters with Europeans. In this episode Lindsay is joined by David Silverman, professor of history at George Washington University and author...

December 1, 1934. Leningrad mayor Sergei Kirov is assassinated by a lone gunman, giving Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin the justification to purge the Communist Party of his rivals. 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 Privac...

In May 1622, the Pilgrims were still reeling from Squanto’s betrayal when a ship appeared in Plymouth Harbor, carrying an advance party for a rival English colony. Governor William Bradford reluctantly agreed to host the men while they searched for a site to settle. But the newcomers strained Plymouth’s limited food supplies, pushing the hungry colony to the brink of starvation. As the new arrival...

November 24, 1859. Charles Darwin sparks a scientific revolution by introducing the theory of evolution in his book On the Origin of Species. 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...

"The winter of 1620-21 took a deadly toll on Plymouth Colony. The Pilgrims had only just begun to construct their homes when illness began spreading through the settlement. Their flimsy shelters offered little protection from the freezing weather. As dysentery, pneumonia, and scurvy ravaged the colony, only a handful were left to build the settlement, care for the sick, and bury the dead. And the...

"In the fall of 1620, the Mayflower embarked on a 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Over the next nine weeks, its passengers and crew battled fierce storms and rampant illness. They had left England dangerously late in the season, and provisions ran low. In the ship’s cramped cabins, the Puritan Separatists shared close quarters with a group known as “Strangers” who did not share their...

In the early 1600s, an orphaned teenager named William Bradford joined a clandestine congregation of passionate Puritan worshipers in the village of Scrooby, England. Every Sunday, he met in secret with the radical group known as Separatists, who believed that the Church of England was corrupt, and that the only way forward was to break with it entirely. But defiance of the Church of England was a...

In the aftermath of the deadly shootout at the OK Corral, the residents of Tombstone are sharply divided over whether to indict the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. As the town teeters on the edge of all-out war, Wyatt Earp decides to take justice into his own hands leading to a vengeful ""Vendetta Ride"" that puts Wyatt on the wrong side of the law. Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podc...

Tensions boil over in Tombstone, Arizona as the Earp brothers confront the Clanton and McLaury outlaw gang, resulting in a 30-second shootout that leaves several dead. With the town divided over the Earps' actions, the brothers face an onslaught of assassination attempts as they try to maintain order in the lawless frontier town. Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recomm...

After several months of anxiety, the tensions in Tombstone finally explode into violence as Ike Clanton and his friends provoke the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday into a deadly showdown. Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletter Listen to American History Tellers on the Wondery App or wherever you ge...

In the 1880s the booming silver mining town of Tombstone, Arizona was home to one of the most famous gunfights in American history. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Wyatt's brothers try to bring law and order to a small town, but they clash with a gang of outlaw cowboys, leading a legendary final showdown: the Shootout at the OK Corral. Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated re...

In early 1864, a group of Union prisoners made a daring escape from Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia - the capital of the Confederacy. Known for its sadistic guards and horrific conditions, Union Officers at Libby suffered from hunger, lice, and the freezing cold. In this episode, Lindsay is joined by historian Dr. Robert P. Watson, author of Escape!: The Story of the Confederacy’s Infamous Libb...

During World War II, the United States housed hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers who had been captured as prisoners of war. Camp Papago Park, located in Phoenix, was built to hold captured German U-boat crew members, some of the most well-trained and ardent members of the German military. Authorities hoped that the harsh Arizona desert would deter any escape attempts, but they underestimated...

In 1909, a young convicted train robber named Frank Grigware began a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Leavenworth was the nation’s first federal penitentiary, touted as a state-of-the-art facility. But in the early 20th century, its prisoners endured bleak conditions, rigid routines, and harsh punishments. In the spring of 1910, Grigware and five fellow inmat...

Located amid the treacherous waters of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was designed to hold the most-wanted prisoners in America, and developed a reputation as an unbreakable fortress. But from the moment Frank Lee Morris set foot on the island in 1962, he was determined to break free. Together, with three other conspirators, he hatched a cunning plan that would become one of...

In February 1864, more than 100 Union Army officers broke out of Libby Prison, an infamous Confederate prisoner of war compound in Richmond, Virginia. It was the largest prison break of the Civil War. Libby held more than 1,000 Union officers who were crammed into the former tobacco warehouse. They faced rampant illness, meager rations, and constant abuse from sadistic guards. As conditions worsen...

In the early 1850s, as people continued to flood West, California’s booming cities experienced rapid growth, but also turmoil. Fires regularly swept through hastily erected towns, and battles broke out between lawless miners and new, civic-minded residents who wanted to clean up the burgeoning cities. Meanwhile, women arriving in male-dominated gold country found rare opportunities to thrive in bu...

For white settlers, the Gold Rush offered a chance for fortune, but for California’s Native inhabitants, the sudden hunger for gold spelled disaster. As the numbers of miners grew, they forced Native people off their ancestral lands, often starving or slaughtering them in the process. As California became a state, informal policies that discriminated against indigenous Californians became law. Soo...