This Day in History

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 13th. Dresden, Germany, was once known as one of the most beautiful cities in Western Europe, full of artistic and architectural treasures, but today it’s better known as the site of a massive Allied bombardment that took place on this day in 1945, as World War II was coming to a close. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 12th. Americans consistently rank our 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln, as the greatest in American history, and on this day in 1809, Honest Abe was born in a log cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Lincoln was elected president at age 51, just before the outbreak of the Civil War. By the time Lincoln was inaugurated, seve...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 11th. Thirty-one years ago today, former South African president, Nobel Prize winner, and revered activist Nelson Mandela, the leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, was released after 27 years in prison. Mandela spent 18 of those years at the notoriously brutal Robben Island, where he was forced to do hard...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 10th. “All the News that’s Fit to Print”...If that phrase sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been printed on the front page of one of the country’s largest and most well-respected newspapers, The New York Times, since this day in 1897. The words were written by Adolph Ochs and started appearing in print soon after he bough...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 9th. In just over a month, it will be daylight saving time, that time of year most Americans love to hate. And on this day in 1942, at the suggestion of President Franklin Roosevelt, daylight saving time became the law of the land. It was World War II, and Roosevelt was hoping the move would help conserve energy needed for...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 8th. Winter snowstorms are nothing new to New Englanders, but the one that ended on this day in 1978 was one for the record books, dumping 55 inches of snow on parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island over three days. The blizzard whipped up powerful wind gusts of nearly 100 miles per hour, while 50-foot waves wiped out sea...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 7th. The British have given America Shakespeare, James Bond and Harry Potter, but none of these imports caused more of a sensation than the Beatles, who arrived in New York on this day in 1964. Three thousand screaming fans caused a near riot when the Fab Four stepped off the plane at JFK, just six days after the release o...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 6th. If British royals are making the news these days, it’s usually Meghan and Harry, but back on this day in 1952, it was 27-year-old Princess Elizabeth, who was crowned Queen Elizabeth I at just 27 years old. Elizabeth never expected to be queen. But when her uncle, King Edward VIII, gave up the throne to marry American...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 5th. In a case that echoed into the 21st century, Byron De La Beckwith finally was convicted of killing civil rights activist Medgar Evers on this day in 1994, more than 30 years after the tragic murder. Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his home, while his wife and three small children were inside. Learn more about...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 4th. On the heels of a contentious election, we look back to this day in 1789, when George Washington won his first election by a unanimous Electoral College vote. He repeated the feat to win a second term in 1792. Washington is the only president ever to have been unanimously elected. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 3rd. This day in 1959 is known as the day the music died, the anniversary of the day rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens were killed when the small plane Holly chartered to take them to their next tour date crashed during stormy winter weather. The musicians’ deaths...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 2nd. Today is Groundhog Day, which was first celebrated in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on this day in 1887. This unusual American holiday grew out of the German tradition of using hedgehogs to help predict the length of the winter. When German immigrants moved to Pennsylvania, they replaced hedgehogs, which are not native...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 1st. If you were alive on this day in 2003, then you probably remember where you were when you heard the news that the Space Shuttle Columbia had broken up upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere over Texas. Tragically, all seven astronauts aboard were killed. Columbia, the first of America’s space shuttles, flew 28 missions a...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 31st. With just days left until the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs face off in Super Bowl 55, we look back to this day in 1988, when quarterback Doug Williams led what is now known as the Washington Football Team to victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 22. Williams, the first-ever Black quarterback...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 30th. Just 12 days after the nation celebrated Martin Luther King Day, we look back to this day in 1956, when the civil rights leader’s Montgomery, Alabama, home was bombed by an unidentified white supremacist terrorist. Although King’s wife Coretta was at home with the couple’s infant daughter Yolanda, neither was harmed....

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 29th. It’s the state that produces more of the nation’s wheat and wheat flour than any other--on this day in 1861, Kansas became the 34th U.S. state. Kansas achieved statehood after a bitter--and violent--debate over whether or not slavery would be legal within its borders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastcho...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 28th. Thirty-five years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger, carrying 6 astronauts and teacher Christa McAuliffe, set to become the first ordinary citizen to travel into space, exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. Hundreds on the ground, including Christa’s family, stared in disbelief as the...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 27th. On this day in 1945, during World War II, Soviet troops liberated the survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camps, finally revealing to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there. 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz, and thousands were also used for medical experiments under the auspices of the ca...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 26th. Today it’s home to 25 million mostly law-abiding citizens, but on this day in 1736, Great Britain’s first fleet arrived in Australia carrying 736 convicts that had been banished to Australia. Of course, Australia was already home to an estimated 1 million aboriginal people from 250 nations. Learn more about your ad ch...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 25th. The next Winter Olympic Games are set to be held in Beijing, China, in February 2022. That contest will come 98 years after the very first Winter Olympics began in Chamonix, France, on this day in 1924. Those first games featured many of the same sports fans enjoy today, including hockey, skating, bobsled, skiing and,...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 24th. World War II officially ended on September 2, 1945, but that came as news to a Japanese soldier found hiding on Guam on this day in 1972, 28 years after the Japanese surrender. The soldier had no idea the war was over. He had gone into hiding after the U.S. captured Guam from Japan in 1944, and spent the next three de...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 23rd. Studies show that women are now becoming doctors in greater numbers than men, but that was far from the case on this day in 1849, when Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman physician in the United States. Born in Great Britain, Blackwell attended what is now Hobart College, in New York state, and later became a p...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 22nd. Queen Elizabeth II has reigned as England’s monarch for 68 years. That makes her the country’s longest-reigning monarch, having been on the throne about five years longer than her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria II, whose historic 63-year reign came to an end with her death on this day in 1901. Learn more about...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 21st. Amid recent news that aviation startup Boom Supersonic will test out its new faster-than-sound jet later this year, we look back to this day in 1976, when the world’s first supersonic passenger jet, the Concorde, took its first public flights. At their cruising speeds, the innovative Concordes flew well over the sound...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 20th. Today is Inauguration Day, when Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. January 20th was also Inauguration Day for Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, Obama, Trump, and Franklin Roosevelt, who began his record fourth term on this day in 1944. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...