HISTORY This Week

May 15, 1940. It’s opening day. San Bernardino, California is a city on the rise, and to meet this new demand for cheap, good food, two brothers have created a restaurant: McDonald’s Famous Barbecue. You can order a PB&J sandwich, barbecued pork, baked beans, and yes, a hamburger. It’s a work in progress, but Dick and Mac McDonald never stop innovating. How did the McDonald brothers engineer a...

May 5, 1862. The French have landed in Mexico. Napoleon III wants to conquer the country and assert France’s imperial dominance in the Americas. In his way? The Mexican army, held up in the city of Puebla. The Battle of Puebla will come to define this struggle: a European monarch against a fledgling democracy, led by Benito Juárez. Mexico’s victory will be especially celebrated by Latinos in the U...

April 27, 1951. The United States has been putting pressure on Denmark for a long time. Because the small European kingdom has something the Americans really, really want: Greenland.  Today, they sign a treaty that will basically let the U.S. military build whatever it wants on this frozen island. They end up constructing an air base, but then turn to a much more ambitious project, underground. Ho...

HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes this Monday! We're kicking things off with a look at America's longtime fascination with Greenland, and how the U.S. military used the island to expand its Cold War nuclear ambitions.

April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. But in just five years time, the emperor will be dead and Cixi will be planning a coup to take power for herself. How will she ever succeed?  Special thanks to our guests: Jung Chang, author of Empress...

Imagine if you could ask someone anything you wanted about their finances. On What We Spend, people from across the country and across the financial spectrum are opening their wallets—and their lives—to tell you everything: what they make, what they want, and—for one week—what they spend.

April 14, 1970. Apollo 13 is a quarter million miles from Earth, speeding towards the Moon, when a sudden explosion rocks the ship. Against all odds, the astronauts pull off one of the most remarkable survival missions in NASA history. 55 years after this harrowing flight, Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell explains exactly what it took to save his spaceship. Special thanks to Captain Jim Lovell, John...

April 10, 1912. As the RMS Titanic pulls away from a crowded port on the south coast of England, it almost crashes. Just in time, it’s able to turn off its engines and prevent a collision with a smaller ship. Four days later, though, a serious disaster will not be avoided, and the Titanic’s first voyage will be her last. But during her brief life, the vessel is a microcosm of the Gilded world arou...

April 3, 1974. Across America, many people wake up this morning thinking it will be a normal day. But in the next 24 hours, almost 150 tornadoes will hit the United States. It will be the largest tornado outbreak in the nation's history. Why did so many deadly tornadoes hit on this one day? And how did it spur life-saving changes that are still with us decades later? Thank you to our guests: Greg...

March 29, 1951. The world is waiting for the jury’s verdict. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have been accused of spying for the Soviet Union, conspiring to send atomic secrets to America’s enemy in the Cold War. Ethel and Julius are tried in court together, and after the jury finds both Rosenbergs guilty, they receive the same punishment – the death penalty. But while they were treated the same, these...

March 20, 1703. Today, almost fifty men, scattered around the city of Edo, Japan, are waiting to die. They’re all former samurai who had served the same lord – and they all carried out a deadly revenge attack in his name. Their story will go down in history as the legend of the 47 Ronin. Why did these men decide that to be loyal samurai, they had to die? And how did this moment live on for centuri...

March 14, 1991. The Birmingham Six have been in prison for 16 years. Each of these six Irishmen was found guilty of 21 counts of murder back in 1975 – held responsible for bombs detonated at two popular pubs in Birmingham, England. They were accused of being part of an IRA terror campaign, but have maintained their innocence since the moment they were arrested. It turns out... they were telling th...

College holds a mythic place in American culture, but behind the polished campus tours and glossy brochures lies a far more complicated reality. Each episode of Campus Files uncovers a new story that rocked a college or university. Consider this your unofficial campus tour.

March 3rd, 1907. Dr. Sigmund Freud invites a guest into his office, Dr. Carl Jung. This is a meeting of the minds, about... the mind. Psychology. Freud and Jung will spend the next 13 hours discussing the unconscious, the hidden forces in our brains that guide our thoughts and decisions. They're two of the first doctors to explore this mysterious terrain, and this marathon meeting will spark a tru...

February 26, 1924. 10 Defendants enter a courtroom in Munich. They are being charged with an attempted coup. They tried to overthrow the government of the Weimar Republic… and almost succeeded. All eyes are on the second defendant to enter the room. When the judge reads this man’s name into the record, he identifies him as a Munich writer named Adolf Hitler. Today: Hitler’s first attempt to seize...

February 24, 1893. Most homes don't have electricity. And yet, one of the technology's pioneers, Nikola Tesla, is about to give the world a glimpse into a fully electrified future. He takes the stage at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and begins a demonstration. He shoots sparks out of his hands, makes himself glow, and turns on some lightbulbs. The lightbulb part doesn't sound that impres...

February 23, 2005. New York City's culinary elite gather at Gotham Hall. Tuxedoed waiters pass around champagne flutes and decadent hors d'oeuvres, as famous chefs like Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain pose for photos and gossip with their peers before the night’s main event: an announcement that could change their lives and the fate of America's dining scene. Édouard Michelin takes the stage. His...

February 15, 1935. The American Medical Association, the AMA, is holding an emergency meeting in Chicago. The crisis? The possibility that the federal government is about to pass universal health insurance. Health insurance is a new concept in America at this time, but President Franklin Roosevelt's administration is looking to include it in a package that will include another piece of new legisla...

February 11, 2005. FBI agents bust down the door of a cinder block house near the University of Kentucky campus. Amid flash grenades and screaming teens, they arrest three students – plus a fourth student in a nearby dorm. The crime? Stealing almost $750,000 of rare books and manuscripts from the library at Transylvania University. Why did four freshmen decide to actually go through with their rea...

January 28, 1986. It's freezing in Central Florida, a historically cold day. That's bad news for citrus growers, and for NASA, which is scheduled to launch the Space Shuttle Challenger from Cape Canaveral this morning. Engineers have ben cautioning NASA that cold temperatures can make space launches dangerous. And yet, NASA decides to move ahead. They consider it an "acceptable risk" and send seve...

To further celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're re-releasing our classic episode about the Children's Crusade, an effort to bring the youth of Birmingham, Alabama into the Civil Rights Movement in order to affect change across the country. April 20, 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walks out of Alabama’s Birmingham Jail after being held for a week for peacefully protesting. He spent mos...

January 15, 1969. It's been less than a year since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Friends, family, and followers are gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. King preached. They are there to remember him on his birthday, honor his legacy, and present a goal: an official celebration of his birthday every year, a holiday to commemorate his life and his struggle. Get...

January 15, 1939. It's finally working! After countless mechanical issues, the first operational ski lift in the state of Utah is taking people up the mountain so they can glide down its slopes. Skiing conditions are ideal in the town of Alta, and this lift will allow this relatively new sport to explode in popularity. But as beautiful as Alta is, there's also a looming threat... avalanches. Alta...

January 8, 1964. In his State of the Union address, Lyndon Johnson unveils his War on Poverty, an effort to tackle subpar living conditions and create jobs across the United States. Johnson discovers that declaring war—even one on an idea—always comes with great costs. Why did LBJ pick poverty as one of his major initiatives? And what is the legacy of the war he started? Special thanks to Doris Ke...

New Year's Eve, 1958. Cuba's president, Fulgencio Batista, is throwing his annual New Year's Eve party at his home in Havana. It's usually a blowout. But this year, the vibes... aren't so great.  Government officials and Cuban elites drink champagne and pick at arroz con pollo as the clock ticks closer to midnight. But there's a palpable anxiety in the air. They aren't just counting down to the en...