Dave Does History

In the summer of 1787, while America’s greatest political minds were huddled in Philadelphia crafting the Constitution, another crucial act of nation-building was quietly unfolding in New York. The Confederation Congress, often remembered more for its failures than its triumphs, passed the Northwest Ordinance—one of the most influential pieces of legislation in American history.

This wasn’t just a law about land. It was a blueprint for how liberty could stretch westward. It promised new states, public education, religious freedom, and most striking of all, it outlawed slavery in the territory. It defined how the nation would grow, who would have rights, and where the line between slavery and freedom would be drawn.

Today on Dave Does History, we’re going to pull back the curtain on this powerful but often forgotten moment in our past. Because before there was a Bill of Rights, there was the Northwest Ordinance—and it changed everything.

On July 12, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rolled into Pueblo, Colorado aboard his special train, stood on the rear platform, and delivered a brief but memorable speech.

The weather was pleasant, the crowd was cheerful, and FDR, ever the showman, tossed out a line that still echoes today: “We want to make democracy work.”

It sounded noble. It sounded patriotic. But what did he mean by it? And how did that idea of democracy compare to the one envisioned by the Founding Fathers?

In this episode of Dave Does History, we’re going back to that moment on the rails to dig into the deeper meaning behind Roosevelt’s words. Was democracy broken in 1938? Or was FDR just redefining it to fit his growing vision of federal power?

As always, we’re bringing a skeptical eye and a love of liberty to the microphone, so buckle up. History’s pulling into the station.

On this episode of Dave Does History, we set our sights on one of the toughest warships to ever sail under the American flag—the USS Nevada.

Launched in 1914 and sunk, finally, in 1948, the Nevada wasn’t just a battleship. She was a brawler. She took a torpedo at Pearl Harbor, shook off six bombs, stood back up, and got back into the fight.

She bombarded beaches from Normandy to Okinawa and even stared down two atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll. And when it came time to sink her, the Navy had to throw everything it had just to put her under.

Today we’re telling her story, from her dramatic solo sortie during the Day of Infamy to her rediscovery on the ocean floor decades later. It’s a story of steel, fire, and defiance—and of a ship that simply refused to die.

This is the saga of the USS Nevada.

Today on Dave Does History, we’re cracking open one of the dustier chapters of the American presidency—one that begins not with fireworks and fanfare, but with cherries and spoiled milk.

When President Zachary Taylor died unexpectedly on July 9, 1850, the nation turned to a man most Americans barely knew: Vice President Millard Fillmore.

What followed was a presidency built on compromise, cautious pragmatism, and just enough action to hold the country together—for a while. Fillmore didn’t make grand speeches or lead men into battle. He was, by many accounts, a decent man in an indecent time.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore Fillmore’s rise from a log cabin in upstate New York to the highest office in the land, the political drama that defined his presidency, and why history has been, let’s say, less than kind to his legacy.

Strap in. It’s time to meet the most forgotten man ever to save a Union.

July 9, 1755. The forests of western Pennsylvania echoed with musket fire, panic, and the cries of wounded men as the mighty British Empire came face to face with a kind of war it didn’t understand.

At the center of it all was a proud general who wouldn’t listen, an outnumbered enemy who knew the terrain, and a young Virginian named George Washington who refused to break.

The Battle of the Monongahela should have been a victory. Instead, it became one of the most humiliating defeats in British colonial history.

In this episode of Dave Does History, we’ll walk you through the bloody path to Fort Duquesne, unravel the leadership failures of General Edward Braddock, and witness the moment Washington’s legend truly began.

This wasn’t just a battle. It was a brutal lesson in arrogance, terrain, and the unforgiving nature of frontier warfare. Stick around. This one gets personal.

On July 8, 1898, one of the Wild West’s most infamous con men met his end not in a saloon or a courtroom, but on a weathered dock at the edge of Skagway, Alaska.

Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith had made a career out of charming suckers and swindling prospectors, running everything from fake lotteries to rigged card games. He called himself a protector of order, but the people of Skagway saw through the illusion.

When Soapy’s gang robbed a returning miner of his gold, the town finally had enough. What followed was a tense standoff between vigilantes and outlaws that exploded into a deadly shootout on the Juneau Wharf.

This episode of Dave Does History dives deep into the man, the myth, and the final moments that ended a criminal empire with a crack of gunfire. It's a true tale of greed, grit, and a town that decided to fight back.

On this episode of Dave Does History, we’re heading back to the summer of 1520, deep into the heart of Mesoamerica, where a broken band of Spanish conquistadors found themselves surrounded by thousands of Aztec warriors on the dusty plains of Otumba.

Hernán Cortés was battered, outnumbered, and on the brink of ruin. What happened next wasn’t a miracle—it was desperation, steel nerves, and a reckless cavalry charge that changed history.

Today, we’ll dive into the truth behind the Battle of Otumba, cut through the myths of Spanish superiority, and explore how the conquest of the Aztecs nearly ended before it began.

This isn’t your high school textbook version. This is a story of betrayal, blood, and blind luck, and it just might change the way you see the so-called conquest of the New World.

Buckle up. Cortés is cornered, and the empire is on the line.

He’s remembered for one of the boldest lines in American history—“I have not yet begun to fight!”—but the real John Paul Jones was far more complicated than a single quote.

In this episode of Dave Does History, we sail straight into the stormy life of the man who took the American Revolution to Britain’s own shores, fought a burning ship into legend, and became both a national hero and an international headache.

Born in Scotland, chased out of the Caribbean by scandal, and later knighted by a French king before falling from grace in Russia, Jones lived a life as wild and unpredictable as the sea itself.

Was he the founding father of the U.S. Navy, or just a pirate with better branding? Join us as we dig beneath the myth to find the man who fought like hell—and made sure we’d never forget his name.

Before America declared its independence, before anyone started talking seriously about revolution, the colonists made one last desperate appeal to their king. It was called the Olive Branch Petition, and it wasn’t a threat. It was a love letter.

In this episode of Dave Does History, we’re going back to the summer of 1775, when American leaders still believed King George III might save them from Parliament’s abuses. They begged. They praised him. They even prayed for his long reign.

But what they got in return wasn’t peace. It was silence—and then a proclamation branding them as rebels.

Today we’ll explore the heartbreak and hope behind the Olive Branch Petition, why John Dickinson thought it could work, and why the king’s cold rejection slammed the door on reconciliation.

It’s a story of loyalty, disappointment, and the moment America stopped pleading and started fighting. Stay with us.

On this episode of Dave Does History, we’re headed down to the bluffs of Mississippi, where, on July 4th, 1863, the city of Vicksburg surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant.

While the cannons still cooled in Gettysburg, Grant’s army delivered the blow that split the Confederacy in two and gave President Lincoln reason to declare that “the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.”

It wasn’t just a military victory, it was the moment the Union took hold of the Mississippi River and, with it, the momentum of the entire war.

We’ll explore the campaign, the siege, the suffering, and the human drama that unfolded in those trenches and caves. This wasn’t a day of fireworks for the South. It was a day of reckoning.

Stick around as we dig into the surrender of Vicksburg and why it changed everything.