Hintertales: Stories from the Margins of History

Matthew Henson was just 12 years old when he walked from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, and into a position as a cabin boy on a merchant ship. But his greatest trek would come three decades later and take him to the very top of the world. Some scholars even believe he was the first man to reach the North Pole.

On December 23 of the first year of the Siege of Sarajevo, an American war correspondent arranged a ride in an armoured Land Rover, bribed his way through a Serbian checkpoint, and entered the besieged city. He was caught off guard by what he found.

More than 5,000 men - and a few brave women - applied to be part of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition in 1914. The 27 men chosen to accompany him on the Endurance would experience the adventure of a lifetime - and one of the greatest survival stories of all time.

Ada Annie Rae-Arthur was a force to be reckoned with. Nothing could stand in the way of her dream for a garden on the west coast of Vancouver Island - not the dense rainforest, not the four husbands she outlived, and certainly not the cougars that threatened her goats and hens.

This Hintertale was written and performed by Margaret Murphy.

Felice Benuzzi caught his first glimpse of Mount Kenya from behind barbed wire at Camp 354, a British POW Camp near Nanyuki, Kenya.  It was love at first sight. Over the course of eight months, Benuzzi convinced two other Italian POW’s to join him in preparing for the adventure of a lifetime: to escape from prison camp with the sole purpose of climbing the second highest peak in Africa.

The daughter of illiterate sharecroppers, Bessie Coleman dreamed of a life above the clouds. Her ambition led her to an aviation school in France, where she became the first black woman in the world to earn an international pilot's license. Her courage and determination remain a testament to anyone faced with seemingly impassable obstacles.

Gordon Wilson had every right to hate the terrorists who killed his youngest daughter at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Northern Ireland. Instead he prayed for them and campaigned tirelessly for peace.

The child of illiterate immigrant parents and a resident of the Tewksbury Almshouse, at age 14 Anne Sullivan couldn't even read or write her own name. By the time she died, she was one of the most respected teachers in the world.

Without the devotion and sacrifice of Anne Sullivan, there would be no Helen Keller as the world knew her. But though Anne chose to live in the shadow of her famous student, her own life story was as extraordinary as Helen's - at least that's what Helen herself believed.

Historians estimate that hundreds of women secretly enlisted on both sides of the American Civil War - most remaining undiscovered until they were wounded, captured, or killed. 
This Canadian woman had her own reasons for joining the Union Army.