History Shorts

On the evening of May 10, 1941, a solitary aircraft soared across the North Sea, its engine roaring as it made its way toward the British Isles. The pilot, dressed in a Luftwaffe uniform, was Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's long-time confidant and the Deputy Führer of Nazi Germany. His destination: Scotland. His mission: a secret peace negotiation with Britain—or so he claimed.

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Henry "Box" Brown, an enslaved man in Richmond, Virginia, often prayed to God about escaping. Finally, according to his own narrative written much later, instructions came from up above to "go and get a box and put yourself in it." And Brown did just that.

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It was Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son, twenty-one-year-old William, who had helped with the famous kite experiment. The two were close, and the elder Franklin even used his influence to have William appointed Governor of New Jersey. But then came the Revolutionary War, and to Franklin's dismay, his son sided with the enemy.

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Today In Context: The relationship between American colleges and the federal government has often been fraught with tension. While contemporary clashes between universities and the Trump-aligned Republican Party center on issues like free speech, DEI policies, student protests, and political polarization, earlier episodes of conflict reveal a complex history of power struggles, cultural shifts, and policy disputes. Don't Forget to Subscribe and Leave a Review!

Peter speaks with the Director of Teaching and Learning at the American Historical Association about the organization's newest and largest-ever survey of history education in American secondary schools.

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Sometime in 1901, a reporter asked Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, if he was planning to attend a particular presidential reception. He looked at the men and replied, "No, I'm not going and they'd better not invite me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present."

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The Partition of India in 1947 was one of the most defining and devastating moments in modern history. It was a story of a nation torn apart at birth, a story of hope shattered by hatred, and a story of unimaginable suffering for millions of ordinary people. To understand the Partition, one must understand the centuries of history that preceded it and the decisions made in the final, chaotic moments of British rule that sealed the fate of the Indian subcontinent.

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At the dawn of the 20th century, as the United States emerged from its own internal struggles and territorial expansions, it began to cast a long shadow over Latin America — a region that became both a playground for American business interests and a stage for a new kind of imperialism. What unfolded over the next century was a complex story of economic exploitation, military intervention, and the creation of fragile, dependent regimes — the infamous Banana Republics.

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President Warren G. Harding, the 29th POTUS, had many corruption scandals that tainted his presidency back in the 1920s. Yet, apart from the textbook-bound-forever Teapod Dome Scandal, there was one that hit closer to home for Mr. Harding. Namely, the case of one of his reported 7 mistresses, a nineteen-year-old who gave birth to his illegitimate daughter.

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The Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, arose from a convergence of scientific curiosity, educational reform, and darker impulses of the 20th century. Its history is equal parts ambition, innovation, and controversy—an evolving tale of how society has tried to quantify the unquantifiable.

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