History Talk, the history podcast from Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective

When we think about Martian explorers today, we mostly hear about two rovers that trawl small zones of the planet: the Opportunity rover that exceeded a marathon's distance in 2015, and the Curiosity rover that is trying to track down habitability in the planet's ancient past. Neither of these rovers would have been possible, however, without the Marnier 9 mission, that began in 1971. The Mariner...

On April 6, 1896, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games filled a refurbished Panathenaic stadium to its 50,000 capacity, with similar numbers of spectators thronging the adjacent streets and surrounding hillsides. Written by John R. and Margaret M. Gold. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video and textual versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/reviva...

President Harry Truman signed the European Recovery Act into law on April 3, 1948. The Marshall Plan, as it’s more commonly known, was intended to revive the economies of war-torn Western Europe. Extending nearly $13 billion to primarily France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and West Germany, the program was an ambitious foreign aid effort and an unprecedented display of U.S. global power. Written by...

On April 20th, 1914, Colorado state militiamen attacked a massive tent colony erected by striking miners and their families who had been evicted from their company homes, killing eighteen of them, including women and children. The attack sparked a pitched battle. Between September 1913 and the end of April 1914, 75-100 people were killed and dozens more injured and jailed. Written by Scott Ward. N...

Espionage has become more complex and increasingly valuable. The times change, but spies remain. Here are ten of history’s top spies. Written by Robert J. Kodosky. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video and textual versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/connecting-history/top-ten-origins-spies-lies-and-moles-oh-my. Video production by Laura Seeger, Dr. Nicholas B....

On March 12, 2004, South Korea’s then President Roh Moo-hyun was impeached, a historic first for the Republic. Written by David Fields and Jinwan Park. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video and textual versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/impeachment-roh-moo-hyun-and-patterns-south-korean-politics. Production by Katherine Weiss, Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle,...

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a monk and professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg, circulated his 95 Theses—95 statements critiquing what he saw as papal abuses of power. Written by Karen Spierling. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Textual and video versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/october-2017-martin-luther-and-reformation. Pro...

When Idi Amin, commander of the Ugandan Army, seized power in Uganda on 25 January 1971, there was hope among many Ugandans that a new beginning beckoned. Written by Richard Reid. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Textual and video versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/idi-amins-uganda-coup-1971. Video production by Katherine Weiss, Dr. Nicholas B. Brey...

Fossey replaced a fallacious stereotype of a King Kong-like, violent gorilla with an almost idealized image of a gorilla that was intelligent, family-oriented and peaceful. Written by Rob Schubert. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Textual and video versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/december-2015-dian-fossey-conservationist-mist. Production by Kathe...

Sixty years ago this May, the U.S. Border Patrol enacted “Operation Wetback,” a campaign to deport Mexican workers who were in the country illegally. The program succeeded in rounding up over 1 million people, most of them men. Regardless of one’s views on the matter, we would be wise to recognize that the current crisis has its historical origins decades earlier. Written by Delia Fernández. Narra...

On October 30, 1974, the so-called “Rumble in the Jungle,” George Foreman’s 1974 heavyweight title defense against Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire took place. The fight was a major turning point in the careers of both men, particularly Ali. Written by Marc Horger. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video and textural versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/index.php/...

Friedan’s book encouraged women to break free of what she called “the feminine mystique,” a concept insisting that women’s true fulfillment was to be found through dedication to household labor and their roles as wives and mothers. Written by Susan Hartmann. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video and textual versions of this podcast are available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/feminine-mys...

Although observations and attempted treatments of diabetes date back to ancient times, the most important milestone occurred when a new treatment—insulin injection—was first successfully used on January 23, 1922. Written by Jim Harris. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/first-insulin-injection-treatment-diabetes. P...

Beginning on November 20, 1945, the International Military Tribunal consisting of representatives from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union—the four major Allied powers—worked together to bring 22 former Nazi leaders and their organizations to justice. Written by Francine Hirsch. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available at htt...

Augustus had an almost unmatched impact on Roman politics, culture, and society and—through the widespread influence of Rome—on the way modern countries structure and imagine themselves. Written by Brendan McCarthy. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/august-2014-celebrating-roman-emperor-augustus. Production...

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated existing trends that put at risk the viability of many colleges and universities, as well as that of the towns and cities in which they are located. With the post-COVID-19 shift to more remote work, and millions of people moving to more affordable and livable cities, a place that wants to attract talent will require a thriving academic environment. This represents...

Few place names in American history produce such a visceral response as Pearl Harbor, the Hawaiian bay that housed the U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1941. Written by Greg Hope. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/december-2016-pearl-harbor. Video production by Laura Seeger, Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle, and Katherine Weiss...

On July 28, 1951, representatives of 26 states, meeting in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations, signed the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Written by Eric H. Limbach. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/defining-refugees-1921-and-1951. Video production by Katherine Weiss, Dr. Nichola...

Rosetta Tharpe crossed many boundaries: of genre (playing both gospel and secular music), of gender (playing in a “male” style on a “male” instrument), and even of sexuality. Written by Delano Lopez. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/march-2015-mother-rock-and-roll. Audio production by Katherine Weiss, Dr. N...

On July 1, 1927, the Nicaraguan revolutionary leader Augusto Nicolás Calderón de Sandino, a.k.a. Augusto “César” Sandino, proclaimed his manifesto extolling continued Nicaraguan resistance against U.S. intervention in his country. Written by Craig Verniest. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/sandino-manifesto-nicarag...

Besides the Wilsonian internationalists, who wanted the Treaty and Covenant ratified unchanged, there were those who wanted to add so-called reservations to the treaties: conditions to U.S. acceptance and participation in the League that the other signatories would have to accept. Written by Thomas W. Bottelier. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Textual and audio versions of this video are a...

On Sunday, 18 March 1962 the Algerian War for Independence came to an end. At least, on paper. That paper, simply entitled “Declarations Drawn up in Common Agreement,” was signed in a town on the French side of Lake Geneva better known for its bottled water than its role in diplomatic history: Evian-les-Bains. Written by Andrew H. Bellisari. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual versio...

Facing the harrowing task of rebuilding a life in the wake of the Holocaust, many Jewish survivors, community and religious leaders, and Allied soldiers viewed marriage between Jewish women and military personnel as a way to move forward after unspeakable loss. Proponents believed that these unions were more than just a ticket out of war-torn Europe: they would help the Jewish people repopulate af...

On March 9, 1848, the twenty-three members of the Hanau People’s Commission—leading citizens of the small German city on the Main River, upstream from Frankfurt—declared their participation in the quickly-spreading upheaval of the March Revolutions of 1848. Written by Eric H. Limbach. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video production by Katherine Weiss, Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle, and Laura...

Conflict has defined Arab-Israeli relationships for many decades, with the interstate warfare of the 1940s-1980s giving way in the 1990s and after to a roiling confrontation between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people of the Israeli-occupied territories. Since the 1940s, the United States has striven to contain, manage, or resolve the conflict, with some notable successes and numerous p...