This Day in History

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...

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...