John Philip Sousa was more than a composer. He was the heartbeat of an emerging America, a man whose marches made a young nation stand taller. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1854, Sousa rose from a Marine Band apprentice to the most recognized bandleader in the world. His music carried the pride of parades, the dignity of ceremony, and the thrill of unity.

Yet behind the polished brass and crisp snare rolls was a man wary of the new century. He distrusted the phonograph and the player piano, calling them “canned music” and warning that machines might steal the soul from art. Still, the sound of The Stars and Stripes Forever endures as his defiant answer.

Tonight, we march alongside the man who gave America its rhythm and refused to let progress silence the spirit behind the song. This is Dave Does History.

In November 1940, in the cold and deadly North Atlantic, a converted passenger liner named HMS Jervis Bay faced an impossible task. She was the only escort for Convoy HX 84 when a German pocket battleship, the Admiral Scheer, appeared on the horizon. Her captain, Edward Fegen, ordered the merchant ships to scatter and turned his under-armed vessel straight toward the enemy. What followed was twenty minutes of pure courage, a hopeless stand that saved thirty-one ships and hundreds of lives. This is the story of a sacrifice so complete it stunned even the enemy. The Jervis Bay went down in flames, her flag still flying, and her captain was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Tonight, we remember one of the most heroic and selfless moments in naval history, when an old liner met a modern warship and proved that bravery can hold the line against overwhelming firepower.

On November 4, 1921, the rhythm of modern Japan stopped cold at Tokyo Station. Prime Minister Hara Takashi, the first commoner ever to lead the nation, was on his way to Kyoto when a railway worker stepped from the crowd and plunged a knife into his chest. In an instant, Japan’s fragile experiment with democratic, party-based government came undone. Hara had been called both the father of constitutional politics and the boss of a corrupt machine, a realist who believed democracy could work only if people learned to listen. His murder exposed the fault lines of a country still torn between samurai pride and parliamentary progress. Tonight on Dave Does History, we tell the story of the man who tried to build Japan’s first democracy, the assassin who ended it, and how his death set the nation on a road that led, inexorably, toward war.

John Willis Menard’s story begins with hope and collides with history. In 1868, he became the first African American elected to the United States Congress, a victory that symbolized the promise of Reconstruction. Yet when he arrived in Washington to claim his seat, Congress refused to recognize him. Undeterred, Menard stood before the House and delivered a calm, reasoned defense of democracy itself, becoming the first Black man ever to speak on the floor.

His life did not end there. Menard went on to serve in Florida, write poetry, publish newspapers, and champion freedom across borders. From the White House of Abraham Lincoln to the streets of New Orleans and the shores of Key West, he never stopped believing in America’s potential to live up to its ideals. His story is one of persistence, intellect, and the enduring struggle for representation in the land that promised liberty.

In this episode, we explore James K. Polk, the eleventh president of the United States and one of the most effective yet controversial leaders in American history. Known as the first "dark horse" candidate, Polk rose from relative obscurity to win the White House in 1844 on a bold platform of territorial expansion.

During his single term from 1845 to 1849, he achieved every major goal he set, including lowering tariffs, establishing an independent treasury, settling the Oregon boundary, and acquiring vast western lands through the Mexican-American War. Yet his aggressive pursuit of Manifest Destiny reopened the explosive question of slavery in new territories, accelerating the sectional crisis that would erupt into civil war. Join us as we examine Polk’s relentless ambition, his complex relationship with slavery, and the paradox of a president who reshaped the nation while planting seeds of its near destruction.

In this episode of Dave Does History, we uncover the dark, forgotten side of Sir Isaac Newton, the man who defined the laws of motion and gravity but also brought those same laws crashing down on London’s criminal underworld.

When England’s economy teetered on collapse in the 1690s, the Crown turned to Newton, not as a scientist, but as a weapon. As Warden of the Royal Mint, he traded telescopes for testimony, equations for evidence, and used his brilliance to hunt counterfeiters in a city drowning in fraud.

His greatest adversary was William Chaloner, a master criminal bold enough to challenge Newton himself. What followed was a battle of intellect and will that ended at the gallows.

This is the story of Isaac Newton’s war on crime, where the man who measured the heavens proved equally capable of measuring guilt—and enforcing justice.

It was Halloween night, 1837. The Mississippi River was swollen and dark, a restless current running beneath a starless sky. Near Profit Island Bend, north of Baton Rouge, two steamboats met in the black water and changed history. One carried cargo. The other carried over seven hundred Creek men, women, and children forced from their homeland under government contract.

When the Monmouth collided with another vessel, the wooden hull split wide, and within minutes the river swallowed more than three hundred lives. It was the deadliest steamboat disaster on the Mississippi before the Civil War, and one of the most forgotten.

In this episode of Dave Does History, we revisit that tragic night and the world that allowed it to happen. This is not just a story about a wreck. It is a story about removal, greed, and the moment when progress demanded a terrible price.

John Adams was not a marble statue. He was a man of nerves, pride, and passion who helped build a new nation while wrestling with his own humanity. As the second president of the United States and one of the sharpest minds of the Revolution, Adams fought for independence, defended the rule of law, and gave the young Republic its conscience.

In this episode of Dave Does History, we explore the life of a founder who refused to bend to popularity. From his fiery debates in Congress to his complicated friendship with Jefferson, from his partnership with Abigail to his struggle to govern in a divided nation, Adams lived by conviction, not convenience. He left office unloved but undiminished, a man who believed that principle was the soul of freedom. Two centuries later, his stubborn integrity still speaks to the heart of the American experiment.

For thousands of years, the cat has walked beside us, never behind us. It has been worshipped as a god, cursed as a demon, and loved as a companion. From the temples of ancient Egypt to the cobblestone streets of medieval Europe, and now to the quiet hum of our living rooms, cats have shaped human history in ways we are only beginning to understand.

In this episode of Dave Does History, we explore the curious and enduring bond between people and their feline counterparts. We will travel through time to uncover how this creature went from divine protector to persecuted outcast to cherished pet. Along the way, we will see how science now confirms what cat lovers have always known, that these mysterious animals not only soothe our hearts but sharpen our minds. The story of the cat is, in many ways, the story of ourselves.

Today we tell the story of Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens—a name you won’t find carved on the National Mall, but one that should be there all the same. Laurens was born rich in Charleston, fought poor with Washington, and dreamed big enough to try freeing the enslaved in the middle of a slaveholding revolution. He was fearless to the point of foolishness, brilliant to the point of isolation, and loved his friends with a devotion that still stirs debate. He fought for liberty not just for himself, but for everyone, and he died before he could see what little of it the world would allow. This is the story of John Laurens, the soldier who tried to make freedom mean what it said.