The shocking murder of two American officers in the Joint Security Area between North and South Korea threatens to start a war. This is the story of the Panmunjom axe murder incident - and the American and South Korean response - commonly known as Operation Paul Bunyan.

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Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panmunjom_axe_murder_incident

https://ns.clementspapers.org/briefing-books/korea-tree-incident

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Korean_Axe_Murderers_at_DMZ_-_1976.jpg

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Today, if you want to listen to a something, chances are you can pop it up on your phone, and boom, there you go. But before that, there was the iPod, CDs, cassettes, and vinyl. But before that, there were wax cylinders. All the way back in 1888 they were the first commercial recording device. This is the story of the Phonograph Cylinder.

Sources

https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/articles-and-essays/history-of-edison-sound-recordings/history-of-the-cylinder-phonograph/ ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder ; https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/earliest-sound-recordings-short-history-cylinders

Images: By M. Dupres: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder#/media/File:Cilindrodefonografo.jpg

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In the 1920s, Emilio Carranza became an accomplished pilot, setting records for long distance flying throughout North America. His fame would spread, and he was dubbed the Lindbergh of Mexico. Sadly, he would die at the age of 22 while on a goodwill mission to the United States. This is the story of Emilio Carranza.

Sources

https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/why-mexican-aviation-legend-remembered-new-jersey-pine-barrens

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/emilio-carranza-memorial

https://weirdnj.com/stories/local-heroes-and-villains/carranza/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Carranza

Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emilio_carranza.jpg and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yonkers_Statesman_1928_06_14_12.jpg

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One of the most ubiquitous and highest selling foods in the United States is the banana. From the big box Walmart, to your local mom and pop grocery store everyone sells them. But the banana we eat today is very different from less than a century ago. And that is because the banana we used to eat almost went extinct. This is the story of why bananas used to taste so different.

Sources

https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/history-of-the-gros-michel-banana

https://www.planthealthaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Panama-disease-FS.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavendish_banana

https://www.britannica.com/science/Panama-disease

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On March 9, 1862, two ships met at Hampton Roads near where the James River flows into Chesapeake Bay. What followed was a historic clash - the first ever between iron clad ships. This is the story of the Monitor vs the Merrimack.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads

https://www.marinersmuseum.org/learn/explore-topics/uss-monitor-story/

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ironclads_battle_7.jpg

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With just 70 men the gladiator slave Spartacus planned a revolt and escaped. Turning those 70 men into over 70,000. And in the process defeated multiple Roman armies and became one of the biggest thorns in the side the Roman Republic ever saw. This is the story of Spartacus.

Sources

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/plutarch/plutarchs-crassus/plutarch-on-spartacus/

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-spartacus/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Servile_War

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tod_des_Spartacus_by_Hermann_Vogel.jpg

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Valentine’s Day is a $20 billion a year industry in the United States. So how did St. Valentine’s Day become such a big deal? Today we will tell you by looking at who St. Valentine really was - and how his day has evolved into one of the biggest holidays - money wise - in the world.

Sources

https://www.history.com/articles/real-st-valentine-medieval

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matija_Bradaška_-_Sv._Valentin.jpg

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In November of 1520 the king of Sweden and Denmark, King Christian II, betrayed the Swedish nobility. After a feast, he imprisoned dozens of nobles and clergymen and then proceeded to execute 82 of them in the town square of Stockholm for heresy. This is the story of the Stockholm Bloodbath.

Sources

https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2021/11/the-stockholm-bloodbath-of-november-1520/

https://www.britannica.com/event/Stockholm-Bloodbath

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Bloodbath

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stockholm_Bloodbath.jpg

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In 1781, Rachel Wall and her husband desperate for a better life - turned to piracy. Over a two-year period, their small band of marauders captured a dozen ships - and murdered 24 men. This is the story of Rachel Wall - America’s first female pirate.

Sources

https://pastispresent.org/2025/good-sources/in-her-own-words-the-life-and-death-of-rachel-wall-massachusetts-female-pirate/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Wall

https://www.annebonnypirate.com/famous-female-pirates/rachel-wall/

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Diabetes is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world, affecting over 500 million people. Today it is very manageable, and thanks to modern medicine most people can live a long, normal life. But that was not always the case. Before the 1920s diabetes was often a death sentence. At least until Frederick Banting and Charles Best found a way to isolate insulin from dog pancreases. This is the story of the discovery of insulin.

Sources

https://diabetes.org/blog/history-wonderful-thing-we-call-insulin

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6205949/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666970621000494

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:C._H._Best_and_F._G._Banting_ca._1924_Insulin_P10103_0001.jpg

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