History Notes

On December 2, 1980, four churchwomen—Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan—became victims of escalating violence toward church members who sided with the poor in El Salvador. Written by Stephanie M. Huezo. Narration by Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Textual and video versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/mil...

In 1919, Eugene Christophe was awarded the first yellow jersey, but he did not win the Tour de France that year. Learn about the history of the yellow jersey and why it was adopted as a symbol of the race. [Correction: As of 2022, France has held 7 races solely in France since 1947.]   Written by Darcy Benson. Narration by Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is avail...

On September 20, 1519, five ships carrying about 270 men sailed westward from the Spanish port of  Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Their goal was to reach the Spice Islands of Maluku and open a new trading route for Spain.   Written by Dani Anthony. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available athttps://origins.osu.edu/milestones/magellan-circumnavigation...

In February-March 1616, the Catholic Church issued a prohibition against the Copernican theory of the earth’s motion. This led later (1633) to the Inquisition trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) as a suspected heretic. Written by Maurice A. Finocchiaro. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/febru...

On June 28, 1914, one event changed the world. A Bosnian-Serb youth Gavrilo Princip, aged only 19, shot and killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austrian throne, and his wife Sophie as their motorcade passed by on the streets of Sarajevo. Written by Brenna Miller. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.ed...

The atomic age began between heartbeats at 8:15 am on August 6, 1945 when the Japanese city of Hiroshima was leveled by an atomic bomb. Three days later, the United States dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, marking the first time humanity broke atoms in anger. Written by Craig Nelson. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/mi...

In March 1869, Mendeleev delivered a full paper to the Russian Chemical Society spelling out the most significant aspect of his system, that characteristics of the elements recur at a periodic interval as a function of their atomic weight. This was the first iteration of the periodic law. Come along with us as we explore the history of the periodic table of elements. Written by Ann E. Robinson. Na...

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the United States—and the world—in ways that hearken back to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In this country, in 1933, 25 percent of the workforce was unemployed , another 25 percent underemployed. We haven’t reached those figures yet, but there’s a very real possibility we may arrive there soon. Written by Allan M. Winkler. Narration by Nicholas Breyfogle....

Epidemics figure prominently in what we call “Early” American history—a past often animated by the meeting between Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans in the Americas. The idea that diseases such as smallpox, measles, typhus, and influenza decimated Indigenous communities in the Americas is a commonly held one. Like so many of our popular conceptions of Early American history, however, this...

From February 22 to 25, 1986, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos gathered on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue to protest President Ferdinand Marcos and his claim that he had won re-election over Corazon Aquino. Find out more about the People Power Revolution in the Philippines in this piece written by Mark John Sanchez. Narration by Nicholas Breyfogle. A textural version of this video is available at...

On 20 November 1975, Spanish General Francisco Franco died in bed, signaling the unceremonious end of one of Europe’s longest dictatorships (1939-1975). Written by Andrea Davis. Narrated by Nicholas Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/death-franco-spanish-civil-war

Written by Erin V. Moore. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/connecting-history/hiv-covid-affordable-health-care-lessons . This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami Univer...

In July 1995, in the final days of the Bosnian War, over 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys were killed in the Srebrenica massacre. As the largest case of mass violence in Europe since World War II, Srebrenica serves as a poignant reminder of the dynamics and consequences of extreme nationalism, the long legacies that acts of violence leave on individuals and communities, and the importan...

The real origins of the iPhone’s power stems from the pioneering efforts of communication innovators that preceded the AT&T engineers of the 1920s. The story of wired long-distance communication really begins with the Western Union post-diggers who laid the first American transcontinental telegraph in 1861 and the Atlantic Telegraph Company that dropped the first transatlantic telegraph cable...

In August 1942, the most famous battle of the Second World War began. More than four million combatants fought in the gargantuan struggle at Stalingrad between the Nazi and Soviet armies. Over 1.8 million became casualties. More Soviet soldiers died in the five-month battle than Americans in the entire war. But by February 2, 1943, when the Germans trapped in the city surrendered, it was clear tha...

As national governments and the global scientific community struggle to contain the spread of the coronavirus, they have also spent the last few months confronting a different type of outbreak.  Misinformation about the current public health crisis—which has either denied the existence of the virus entirely or framed it as an intentional product—has proliferated at an alarming rate. It has al...

On the surface, HIV/AIDS and Covid-19 seem as dissimilar as two viruses could possibly be. Yet, the ways in which the Soviet Union reacted to the arrival of HIV/AIDS, and how it spread in the first years of the outbreak, yield valuable insights into our current coronavirus pandemic.   Written by Svetlana Ter-Grigoryan. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is...

In geologic years, the Galapagos Islands are infants. Located on the perpetually moving Nazca tectonic plate, the islands were formed through repeated volcanic activity. Layer by layer, the islands have risen off the ocean floor, forming a chain that is approximately five million years old.    Written by David Bernstein and narrated by Nicholas Breyfogle. A textual version of this video...

On August 25th, 1944, the Allies liberated Paris from Nazi occupation, ending more than four years of fear, hunger, and death. Learn more about this important moment in World War II, as well as the soldiers and civilians who took part in the liberation.   Written and narrated by Lauren Henry.  A textual version of this video is available at http://origins.osu.edu/milestones/the... . &nbs...

When we reflect on the history of government response to natural disasters such as plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and now Covid-19, we discover that the expectation that central governments should play a role in recovering from such disasters can be traced back to the actions of three Roman emperors of the 1st century: Titus, Nero and Tiberius. This podcast traces their histor...

Australian scientists have been successful in growing the Wuham virus in a lab, increasing the possible development of a vaccine for the Corona virus. Just what do we know about the history behind the creation of vaccines? Find out the most important things to know in "Top Ten Origins: Vaccination" written by Dr. Christopher Otter. This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Pers...

On April 13, 1919, in Jallianwala Bagh, a square near the Sikh Golden Temple of Amritsar in India, British soldiers led by Colonel Reginald Dyer fired on an unarmed, non-violent crowd of Indians. Learn  what led up to the massacre and its repercussions.   Written by Archana Venkatesh. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at http://origins.o...

The Black Death was the second pandemic of bubonic plague and the most devastating pandemic in world history. It was a descendant of the ancient plague that had afflicted Rome, from 541 to 549 CE, during the time of emperor Justinian. The bubonic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, persisted for centuries in wild rodent colonies in Central Asia and, somewhere in the early 1300s, mutat...

Because of COVID-19, N95 respirators and cloth masks—their availability and their efficacy—now dominate the news and are at the heart of often vitriolic public debates. Both futuristic and somehow archaic at the same time, millions now depend on their use to prevent infection of a potentially deadly illness.   Written by James Esposito. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual versio...

Recent estimates suggest that the 1918 flu claimed as many as 50 million lives around the world between 1918 and 1919, killing more people in a single year than the entire “Black Death” of the 14th century. On its centennial anniversary, it is worth remembering the history of the “Spanish” flu and how it set us on the path towards our modern flu vaccine.   Written by Dr. Jim Harris. Narration...