The Y in History

The 1956 Grand Canyon Air crash, the 1977 Tenerife Air Disaster and the 2005 Air France 744 crash were air disasters that had a lasting impact on avaiation safety. 

The Tiananmen Square protests started in April 1989 with students protesting in favor of a proper state funeral for the popular but disgraced reformist leader, Hu Yaobang. Tensions between the Student Leaders and Chinese government escalated due to a series of missteps from the Chinese government. On June 4, 1989, army tanks rolled into the Tiananmen Square to crush the revolt via military might. 

The Spanish-American War of 1898 marked the first milestone of the US making an appearance as a global power. But the period between the two World Wars was one of isolation for the US. However, once it entered WWII in 1941, the US showed it military, economic and financial might, emerging as a global Super power, by the end of the War.

After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the CIA began a covert operation known as "Operation Cyclone", aiming to support Afghan mujahideen through funding, training, and supplying weapons. Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region became the hub for the mujahideen training camps. Gradually, Pakistan expanded its terror training infrastructure and expertise to its north eastern border with Ind...

European Explorers kicked off globalization during the Age of Discovery as they ventured to find a sea route to India and circumnavigate the globe. This was followed by the first wave of globalization from 1870 to 1914. Post WWII, the US led the establishment of a new financial order which culminated in China joining the WTO in December 2001.

After taking over from the French, the US oversaw the successful opening of the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914. 3 Chief Engineers - Wallace, Stevens and Goethals overcame several odds, both engineering and manpower related, during their respective tenures, to see the Canal through to completion. Equally commendable was the contribution of Chief Sanitation Officer, William Gorgas in defeating the...

Post the Oct 7 attack by Hamas, Israel declared war in Gaza. Initially, the civilian population was asked to migrate South, but subsequently, Southern Gaza was attacked as well, leading to a human catastrophe. Towards late 2024, several Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were assassinated, but peace continues to evade the region, with both sides hardening their stance. But, there is a glimmer of hope.

On October 7, 2023, HAMAS surprised Israel by infiltrating into Israeli territory after breaching its defenses along its border with Gaza. Who were the masterminds and who were the financiers? And how did HAMAS manage to keep Israel in the dark about this operation? Tune in for some eye-opening revelations.

During and after WWII, the Cambridge Five spy for the KGB while working within the British government. CIA's billion dollar spy volunteers to be a mole to exact revenge on Soviet Russia. The Head of German Military Intelligence during WWII tries to sabotage Hitler's plans as he gets disillusioned with Hitler's leadership.

On April 3, 1948, President Harry Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948, aka the Marshall Plan. Named after Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe, the Plan contributed $13.3 billion in aid to 16 European nations between 1948 and 1951. The successful design, plann...

In 2010, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case that corporations (and, by extension, unions and other groups) may make unlimited expenditures on messages encouraging votes for or against specific candidates, so long as they're not coordinated with candidates or parties. This gave birth to Super PACs and a foray of oligarchs in the US democratic pr...

Several times during the Cold War, the World came dangerously close to a nuclear disaster. In 1961 and 1968, B52 Bombers carrying nuclear bombs met with accidents nearly leading to a nuclear catastrophe. In 1983, one Soviet Lt. Col. single handedly saved the world from WWIII when he categorized an alarm about 5 missiles being launched at the Soviet Union, a false alarm. NATO conducted a WWIII simu...

From a global perspective, there are four main models of health care, each of which takes a different approach both legislatively and in practical terms of how it affects a populace's ability to obtain health care coverage and services. In 1929, Blue Cross established the first employer-sponsored health coverage in Dallas as a partnership between the Baylor University hospital and its patients. On...

FDR led the US and the World out of the Great Depression, and success in WWII. Harry Truman followed suit but the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution formally set term limits on US Presidency. The JFK-Nixon election of 1960 was very close and Nixon refused to contest the results to keep America's image on the global front, intact. LBJ saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which led to th...

From the Dancing Plague of 1518 to the Korea Axe Tree Incident 1976, several bizarre events from history are reviewed in this episode. It includes the soldier who returned after 30 years and an animal species who emerged victorious in a fight with humans.

From the start of the Civil War to the election of 1928, the Republicans held a stranglehold on the US Presidency barring four Presidential terms from Democrats Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson. However, with the onset of the Great Depression at the time of the election of 1932, the entire political landscape underwent a massive change.

The first US Presidential Elections were held in 1789 and George Washington was elected President. John Adams polled the 2nd highest electoral votes and became Washington's VP. A tie in the Election of 1800 brought in the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, which established separate votes for the President and the VP from the election of 1804.  The Slavery debate dominated politics through mos...

Post 1956, several battles are fought between North and South Vietnam.  The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964 gives US President LBJ authority to increase US involvement in the Vietnam War. This is followed by targeted bombings under Operation Rolling Thunder by the US and counter offensives by the Viet Cong like the Tet Offensive. Agent Orange and Napalm droppings lead to a massive ecocide with s...

Japan occupies Vietnam temporarily, after defeating the French during WWII. After WWII, the French come back and Vietnam gets divided into North and South Vietnam at the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh becomes the leader in the North. The French support ex-Emperor Bao Dai in the South, but the US supports his Premier Ngo Dinh Diem. The conflict starts when the US refuses to hold elections in 1956 per t...

The July 20 plot was intended to assassinate Hitler and invoke Operation Valkyrie in Germany, post the assassination. LBJ and Nixon got the CIA to snoop on US students under Operation CHAOS. The Union soldiers initiated the Great Locomotive Chase during the Civil War, to cut off the Confederacy's supply routes.

In 1891 the Edison Company successfully demonstrated a prototype of the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. The first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience were the Lumière brothers in December 1895 in Paris, France. The first feature-length movie incorporating synchronized dialogue was The Jazz Singer in 1927. A 20-year stretch, from 1927 t...

Dictatorships can be classified into Military, Hybrid, Dynastic Civilian and the Democratically elected dictatorships. Dictators aspire to stay in power for a long time and do so by instilling fear in their citizens. And once they've achieved this, some prefer to build a cult following. But under certain circumstances Dictatorships can be toppled and replaced by Democracy.

The British arrived in Singapore in January 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles landed on the island, establishing it as a trading post for the British East India Company . Singapore declared independence from Britain in 1963 and became part of Malaysia. Due to political and cultural differences, Singapore separated from Malaysia and became independent in 1965. And that was the start of the economic mi...

In 1975, the Allahabad High Court finds Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices during the 1971 election and rules that she needs to step down as Prime Minister. This triggers a series of events that culminate in the imposition of Emergency in India - a period when all civil liberties of common citizens, are taken away by the government.

Norway's Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole in Dec, 1911. Tenzing and Hillary became the first to scale Mt. Everest in May of 1953. Yuri Gagarin had the world spellbound as he became the first human in Space in April 1961.