Retropod

Somehow, in the depths of his personal misery towards the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson once again found his powerful way with words.

George Washington and his fellow partiers racked up a hefty bill--$15,000 in today’s currency--celebrating the completion of the Constitution.

In 1998, the world briefly panicked over an asteroid that seemed headed straight for Earth.

Suzanne Lenglen was physically ferocious, always fashionable and a disrupter of convention.

The very first pride parade was held in 1964 and was a bit calmer than what we think of today.

In 1868, Ellicott City, Md. flooded. The lack of rain made the natural disaster totally bizarre and unexpected.

Eleanor Roosevelt held news conferences just for female reporters. The men were not impressed.

Linda Brown and her father Oliver Brown are heroes of the civil rights movement. The backstory of the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education is more complicated than what you learned in school.

When the NRA was founded in 1871, its primary concern was not gun rights or the Second Amendment.

Designer Louis Réard left automotive engineering to work in his mother’s lingerie business. He decided to compete with another design to create the world’s smallest swimsuit.

Andrew Higgins wasn't in the Army. He wasn't a paratrooper. He was a wild and wily genius, a tough, crafty, businessman. And he built the built the boats that brought troops ashore at Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Oregon’s original constitution banned black people from the state, and the law stayed in the constitution for well over 100 years.

'A Wrinkle in Time' author Madeleine L'Engle said she received 26 rejection letters from publishers.

The man who called the police on the Watergate burglars never received the credit he deserved.

When the White House was built over 200 years ago, it lacked certain modern conveniences. A hodgepodge of improvements have been added over the years.

The Boy Scout movement began 110 years ago on a tiny island just off the southern coast of England.

At a White House luncheon, actress Eartha Kitt would not let the president or the first lady avoid the issue of the Vietnam War. She paid a heavy price for her boldness.

If you love gossip, drama and D.C. politics -- this story is the gift that keeps on giving.

On the day before D-Day, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech to the troops that totally masked how nervous he actually was.

The spy business is all about masking the truth. One CIA agent’s deceptions and sham identities were so enterprising that he earned the nickname “Master of Disguise." Related episodes The rat that helped win the Cold War The pistols that almost fell from the sky The pistols that almost fell from the sky That time the CIA stole a Russian submarine The ax that killed Leon Trotsky

Joseph Stalin wanted his political rival dead. When bullets didn’t do the job, his intelligence service tried something even more gruesome. Related episodes The rat that helped win the Cold War The pistols that almost fell from the sky The pistols that almost fell from the sky That time the CIA stole a Russian submarine

When a Russian sub sank at the height of the Cold War, the CIA got help from Howard Hughes and created a fictitious mining operation to snag the vessel at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Related episodes The rat that helped win the Cold War The pistols that almost fell from the sky The ax that killed Leon Trotsky

During World War II, U.S. intelligence operatives devised a plan to airdrop one-shot handguns, nicknamed the Liberator pistol, to allies in Europe in hopes of ending the war quickly. Related episodes The rat that helped win the Cold War That time the CIA stole a Russian submarine The ax that killed Leon Trotsky

In the first of a weeklong series of episodes about spies, subterfuge and intelligence, a look at how the CIA used dead rats to send secret messages in the former Soviet Union. Related episodes The pistols that almost fell from the sky That time the CIA stole a Russian submarine The ax that killed Leon Trotsky

In the 1950s, Dr. Virginia Apgar created a quick test that nurses have since performed on millions of babies just after birth. She is considered one of the most important figures in modern medicine — a world that almost pushed her away.