This Day in History

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 19th. Just one day before Kamala Harris will be sworn in as America’s first woman vice president, we look back to this day in 1966, when Indira Gandhi became India’s first-ever female prime minister. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 18th. Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday, when millions of Americans have the day off from work and school in honor of the civil rights hero. In 1986, King became the first modern private citizen to be honored with a federal holiday. For the many who admired his leadership of the civil rights movement,...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 17th. It was almost the perfect crime: On this day in 1950, 11 men stole $2.7 million--more than $29 million today--from the Brinks Armored Car Depot in Boston. The men staked out the depot for more than 18 months to determine when it would hold the most money, stole plans for the building’s alarm system, and then entered t...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 16th. The average American adult consumes more than 500 alcoholic drinks annually. So one can only imagine how we’d feel today about the news that greeted the nation on this day in 1919-- that the 18th amendment, banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of “intoxicating liquor” had become the law of the land. Learn...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 15th. Fiery hot molasses might have been the last thing Bostonians expected to see when they left their homes on this day in 1919. But that’s just what flooded the streets of the city’s North End when a 58-foot-high tank filled with 2.5 million gallons of crude molasses exploded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 14th. These days, American presidents regularly log thousands of flight miles a year on Air Force One, but back on this day in 1943, air travel was still a rarity. That’s when Franklin Roosevelt flew on a Boeing 314 Flying Boat to a World War II strategy session with British prime minister Winston Churchill in Casablanca, b...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 13th. Most people only retire once. But basketball legend Michael Jordan is not most people. And on this day in 1999, Jordan announced his retirement from basketball, for the second time. His first retirement had come six years earlier after winning three consecutive NBA championships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 12th. It’s probably the most famous painting in the world, and more than 6 million people visit the Louvre museum each year to see the Mona Lisa for themselves. But for two years between the summer of 1911 and this day in 1913, almost no one saw it all. The painting went missing thanks to a group of thieves posing as museum...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 11th. In a typical year, more than 5.5 million people visit the Grand Canyon. The canyon, which is a mile deep and is the only North American site considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world, was made a national monument on this day in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 10th. Texas is the largest producer of oil in the United States, and it all started on this day in 1901, when a drilling derrick at Beaumont, Texas, produced an enormous gusher of crude oil. The gusher coated everything within hundreds of feet and signaled the advent of the American oil industry. Following the discovery, pe...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 9th. When Steve Jobs announced the debut of the iPhone on this day in 2007, few could have predicted the effect it would have on modern life--except maybe Jobs, who called it a “revolutionary and magical product.” When it went on sale in the United States six months later, amid huge hype, thousands of customers lined up at...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 8th. With the U.S. national debt currently at more than $27 trillion and climbing, we look back to this day in 1835, when America's debt was completely paid off, a long-held goal of then-President Andrew Jackson. Jackson called the debt “a moral failing” and vetoed a number of spending bills throughout his tenure, putting a...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 7th. Crowds flock to the Leaning Tower of Pisa precisely because of its famous lean, but on this day in 1990, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public amidst fears it might topple over completely. Experts then spent 11 years and $27 million fortifying the tower without completely eliminating the tilt that made it...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 6th. These days telegrams are basically obsolete, but when inventor Samuel Morse demonstrated the technology for the first time on this day in 1838, they were revolutionary. The telegraph, which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, completely changed long-distance communication, reaching the heig...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 5th. Late last year, news broke that the U.S. divorce rate had hit a 50-year low, with only 14.9 marriages out of every 1,000 ending in divorce. But even with this record decline, divorce was a lot more rare way back on this day 1643. That’s when Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony divorced her absent--and adulterou...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 4th. On this day in 1853, Solomon Northup finally legally obtained his freedom after being enslaved for 12 years. Northup was born a free man in 1807 in upstate New York. A talented fiddler, Northup was convinced by two circus performers to join their troupe, but then was drugged and sold into slavery in New Orleans. Learn...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 3rd. There have been more than 40 women inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since this day in 1987, when Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, became the very first. Franklin is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million albums while winning 18 Grammy Awards. Franklin’s Hall...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 2nd. With President-elect Joe Biden promising to hire a diverse staff that, as he says, “looks like America,” we look back to this day in 1890, when President Benjamin Harrison hired Alice Sanger as the White House’s first-ever paid female staffer. Sanger, a skilled stenographer, served as presidential secretary to Harrison...

Happy New Year, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on January 1st. More than a century and a half after his death, Abraham Lincoln remains one of our most admired presidents--thanks in large part to what he did on this day in 1863. That’s when Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, calling on the Union Army to free all slaves in states still in rebellion. Learn m...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 31st. New Year’s Eve looks a little different this year, but the ball drop in New York City is still on, albeit without an audience. As you say goodbye to 2020 and watch the brightly lit ball descend tonight, you might take a minute to thank Thomas Edison, who made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light b...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 30th. Though it lasted less than 70 years, it had an enormous impact on world history: On this day in 1922, the USSR, or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was established. The new state was the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoic...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 29th. Today marks 130 years since the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry killed 146 Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee on the PIne Ridge reservation in South Dakota. The cavalry initially surrounded a group of Lakota and demanded they surrender their weapons. As this was happening, a fight broke out between one of the Lakota and a U.S. sol...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 28th. The humpback whale. The bald eagle. The gray wolf. What do all these animals have in common? Their survival was ensured by the Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law on this day in 1973. The act, which was championed by President Richard Nixon, is considered one of the most significant and successful envir...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 27th. If you’ve ever dreamed about life in Neverland with Wendy, Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys, then you know the story of Peter Pan by British author JM Barrie. Years before Peter Pan was adapted into a book, it was written as a stage play, which was first performed in London on this day in 1904. Learn more about your ad c...

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on December 26th. If you’re celebrating Kwanzaa today, you’re taking part in a tradition that dates back to this day in 1966. That’s when the very first Kwanzaa was celebrated in Los Angeles under the direction of Cal State professor Maulana Karenga. The seven-day holiday was designed by Dr. Karenga as a celebration of African America...