Shaking America

New York gangster Vincent Gigante feigned insanity for decades in an attempt to avoid prosecution, wandering the streets in a bathrobe and slippers. His lawyer claimed he was not mentally fit for trial, but in reality Gigante was the most powerful Mafia boss in the country for years.

  During the Cold War the Soviet Union tricked the American military into believing that the US had less long-range bomber jets than the Soviets.  This resulted in a massive increase in defense spending to combat a threat that didn't exist -- the so-called "Bomber Gap". 

The presidency of Ulysses S Grant was riddled with scandals, including one of the largest cases of tax evasion in American history -- the White House Whiskey Ring.

Lady Six Sky was a warrior-queen of the Maya during their Classical Age.  She took a ruined city on the brink of destruction and turned it into a powerful kingdom filled with monumental art.

Within the ranks of the United States Military the term “Ace” is given to pilots who manage to shoot down five enemy planes.  The level of skill and ability necessary to achieve this dangerous accomplishment was and is incredibly rare.   During World War II a farm boy from Wisconsin named Richard Bong became the top flying ace of the US, downing forty Japanese aircraft throughout the conflict.  He...

At the height of the Cold War the US government developed a plan to launch a nuclear warhead into the moon as a show of military strength.   Named Project A119, this absurd program was spearheaded by the Air Force in 1958 and has since been declassified. 

 Abraham Lincoln is one of the most lauded presidents in American history.  But could he fight? We take an in-depth look into Honest Abe's fighting ability. 

Led by a woman named Elizabeth Peratrovich, Alaskan Natives campaigned for civil rights in 1945 -- twenty years before Martin Luthor King Jr.  

During World War II more than six thousand Alaska Natives volunteered to serve as the eyes and ears of the US military in the northern territory.  They were instrumental in defending America against a new type of weapon: Japanese balloon bombs being floated across the Pacific.

Cheng Chui Ping, known in the New York criminal underworld as Sister Ping, was a human smuggler.  She moved thousands of Chinese immigrants into America using her grocery shop as a front. A vicious and powerful figure in organized crime, Ping controlled a multi million dollar snakehead smuggling ring, earning her the moniker “The Mother of All Snakeheads”.

Lincoln Ellsworth was a wealthy polar explorer who surveyed Antarctica by air in 1935.  He and his men attempted to map the last uncharted continent by in a single engine plane even as massive storms and brutal conditions pushed them to their limits.

During the War of 1812 the British army captured Washington, D.C. and began burning the city to the ground.  They were interrupted by an act of nature unlike anything seen before or since in the Capitol. A massive hurricane and tornado combination hit Washington, dousing the fires and crippling the British forces.  Interpreted by the American civilians as an act of God, this powerful storm helped...

Isadore Blumenfeld, also known as Kid Cann, was an organized crime boss who operated out of Minnesota.  After the passing of Prohibition in 1920 Blumenfeld used the newly created black market to make himself a fortune in illegal liquor sales, becoming the region’s most successful bootlegger.    He was known for his flashy personality and way of dressing and for his reputation for violence. His for...

During World War II a select group of Japanese American soldiers were chosen for a bizarre secret military experiment.  Convinced that Japanese people had a distinctive scent, the US Army attempted to train dogs to recognize and hunt down those with Japanese blood.  To accomplish this strange mission they used new recruits as dog bait -- forcing the dogs to seek out and attack the soldiers.

The title of first European to discover the Americas is credited to Icelandic sailor Leif Erickson, but the first actual attempt by Europeans to settle the New World was led by a woman named Gudrid. Gudrid and her husband would found an outpost and explore the continent, eventually causing a series of violent encounters with the native peoples. She would go on to earn the title of "The Far Tr...

In 1968, ten days before the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, around ten thousand mostly student demonstrators gathered in Tlatelolco Square to protest their country’s authoritarian regime.  In response, the Mexican Army massacred the protestors, opening fire on the crowd and killing hundreds.  

In the year 1780, deep in the Pine Barren forests of New Jersey, a gang of marauders, criminals and British sympathizers  terrorized local American colonists.  These bandits would emerge from the Barrens to steal from travelers, break into homesteads and raid local towns before escaping back into the woods.  Over time they earned the name "the Pine Robbers". They called the dense forest...

Joseph Medicine Crow was a scholar, a cultural leader, and a writer. He also was an incredible soldier who thoroughly and repeatedly humiliated the Nazis in World War II. By taking an enemy hostage, taking an enemy's weapon, stealing an enemy's horse and leading a successful war party Joseph accomplished all of the prerequisites for becoming a War Chief of the Crow.  This achievement was...

Before Party Pizzas and Pizza Rolls, there was Rose Totino.  A first-generation Italian American, Rose's hard work and ingenuity created a multi-million dollar frozen pizza empire while popularizing pizza across the Midwest and beyond.

Banning books is a practice that has existed since the first book came off the printing press.   Even in the US, a country that prides itself on its free speech, books have been banned for various (and almost always illegitimate) reasons.   Here is a short history of banned books in the US and how the practice harms American society.

Jean Lafitte was an infamous pirate and smuggler who ran the black market port of Barataria in the swamps of Louisiana.  Flamboyant and charismatic, Lafitte was a public enemy of the US government until he helped Andrew Jackson defend New Orleans from a British attack in the War of 1812.

Around 1100 CE the massive city of Cahokia dominated the Mississippi floodplain.  It contained a variety of colossal earthen mounds and had a population of 30,000 people, making it the largest (and possibly first) city in North America at the time.   Two hundred years later the city was completely deserted. What happened to Cahokia and its people?

The Landsat Program is a NASA-led operation that shows us earth from space.  It helps us understand our environment and has saved millions of lives by allowing scientists to predict crop yields worldwide.   At the heart of the program's early years was a woman named Valerie Thomas, a brilliant young African American physicist who would become one of the most respected inventors of her generat...

Joe Louis and Max Schmeling fought each other in two iconic, culturally significant boxing matches.  The two men remained defiant in the face of racism and became good friends after their careers ended.

The covert installation of Weather Station Kurt was the only armed German incursion into North America.  This top-secret automatic weather station was built by Nazi scientists in an effort to win the war in the Atlantic.