History Shorts

Before World War I, German was everywhere in America. Millions of Americans spoke it. German-language newspapers flourished. Schools taught it. Churches worshipped in it. Entire communities conducted daily life in German.

Then America entered the war.

Suddenly, the language of millions of Americans became the language of the enemy. German books were removed from libraries. Schools dropped German classes. German-language newspapers disappeared. Some states restricted—or even prohibited—the teaching of foreign languages to children.

The campaign extended beyond language. Sauerkraut became "liberty cabbage." German music faced hostility. People changed their names and stopped speaking German in public, while German Americans faced suspicion, intimidation, and sometimes violence.

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In 1940, with Nazi Germany sweeping across Europe and invasion seemingly possible, Britain faced an extraordinary question: What happens to the country's wealth if Hitler reaches London?

The answer was Operation Fish.

In one of the largest movements of wealth in history, Britain secretly shipped enormous quantities of gold and securities across the submarine-infested Atlantic to Canada for safekeeping. Royal Navy warships and civilian vessels carried fortunes worth billions of dollars today—sometimes with crews having little idea what was hidden beneath their feet.

The stakes were enormous. A single German U-boat could have sent a significant portion of Britain's financial reserves to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Yet the operation succeeded. Britain's treasure reached Canada, where it was quietly stored and managed for the duration of the war.

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He launched Sputnik. He sent Yuri Gagarin into space. He helped turn the Soviet Union into the world's first space superpower.

And almost no one knew his name.

Sergei Korolev was the brilliant engineer behind the Soviet Union's greatest early triumphs in the Space Race. But before becoming the architect of its space program, Korolev had been arrested during Stalin's purges, tortured, sent to the Gulag, and nearly killed by the government he would later help make famous.

Even at the height of his success, Soviet secrecy kept his identity hidden. Newspapers simply called him the mysterious "Chief Designer." The United States knew what the Soviet space program was accomplishing—but not the man responsible for it.

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In 480 BC, Persian King Xerxes I was preparing one of the largest invasions of ancient Greece ever attempted. To move his enormous army into Europe, his engineers constructed floating bridges across the Hellespont, linking Asia and Europe.

Then a storm destroyed them.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes responded by declaring war on the water itself. He ordered the Hellespont whipped 300 times, had shackles thrown into the sea, and commanded his men to brand the water with hot irons as punishment for defying him.

The bridges were rebuilt. This time, the Persian army crossed.

But did Xerxes really try to punish the ocean—or was the story exaggerated by Greek writers eager to portray their enemy as an arrogant despot?

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In February 1915, with the First World War raging, hundreds of Indian soldiers serving the British Empire in Singapore suddenly mutinied.

Men of the 5th Light Infantry turned their weapons against their officers and seized control of parts of the colony. For nearly a week, British authority in one of its most important Asian strongholds teetered as fighting spread and colonial officials scrambled to respond.

Why they rebelled remains complicated. Rumors circulated that the Muslim soldiers would be sent to fight the Ottoman Empire. Wartime propaganda, resentment of British rule, poor leadership, and revolutionary movements all played a role.

The uprising was eventually crushed with help from British, French, Russian, and Japanese forces. The punishment was severe: dozens of mutineers were executed, many publicly.

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During the Vietnam War, the United States launched a secret operation with an extraordinary objective: use the weather as a weapon.

Beginning in the 1960s, American aircraft flew missions over Southeast Asia seeding clouds with chemicals in an attempt to extend the monsoon season. The goal of Operation Popeye was simple—produce more rain over key sections of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, turning roads into mud, triggering landslides, and making it harder for North Vietnam to move troops and supplies south.

The program remained secret for years before being exposed to the American public, prompting outrage and uncomfortable questions about how far governments should be allowed to manipulate the natural world during wartime.

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Benjamin Franklin was a printer, scientist, inventor, diplomat—and possibly one of the most effective intelligence operators of the American Revolution.

While living in London, Franklin cultivated political contacts, acquired private correspondence, and secretly sent sensitive information back to the colonies. During the Revolution, his diplomatic mission in Paris became a center of intrigue, filled with spies, double agents, intercepted letters, secret codes, and British attempts to penetrate the American delegation.

The remarkable part? One of Britain's most valuable spies was working inside Franklin's own household—and Franklin may never have discovered him.

So was Benjamin Franklin actually a spy? Or was espionage simply an unavoidable part of eighteenth-century diplomacy?

In this episode of History Shorts, we enter the shadowy intelligence war behind the American Revolution and explore Franklin's secret networks, covert operations, and the surprising ways America's most famous founding grandfather played the spy game.

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In August 1835, a New York newspaper announced an astonishing discovery: life had been found on the Moon.

According to The Sun, famed astronomer Sir John Herschel had used a revolutionary new telescope to observe lunar forests, strange animals, crystal formations—and even intelligent, winged humanoids. The reports were detailed, scientific-sounding, and completely fabricated.

Readers couldn't get enough. Circulation soared as the newspaper published installment after installment of what became known as the Great Moon Hoax. Even after doubts emerged, the story had demonstrated something remarkably modern: sensational claims, wrapped in the language of science and authority, could spread faster than the truth.

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In October 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a devastating stroke that left him partially paralyzed and severely impaired. But the full extent of his condition was kept from Congress, the Cabinet—and the American public.

For the remaining seventeen months of his presidency, access to Wilson was tightly controlled by his wife, Edith Wilson, and his physician. Government documents passed through Edith's hands. Officials struggled to see the president. Major decisions were delayed or filtered while the country was left uncertain about who was actually running the executive branch.

Edith later insisted she never assumed presidential power, describing her role as a "stewardship." Critics have called her America's first female president.

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Bestselling author Robert Harris joins History Shorts for a conversation about his newest novel, Agrippa.

Harris returns to ancient Rome to tell the story of Marcus Agrippa — the brilliant general, master engineer, and lifelong right-hand man to Augustus. In this wide-ranging interview, he discusses how he approached writing from Agrippa's perspective, the complicated friendship and power dynamic at the heart of the book, the challenges of limited historical sources, and the contemporary resonance of a republic giving way to one-man rule. He also reflects on writing cinematically and the many film adaptations of his work.

A thoughtful conversation with one of the leading historical novelists of our time.

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