In November 1938, Albert Hofmann November 1938, first created a derivative of ergot that would later be dubbed lysergic acid diethalyamide: LSD.

Written by Dr. Benjamin Breen. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/april-2013-albert-hofmann-discovers-lsd.

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.

On September 2, 1998, the first conviction for the crime of genocide was entered by an international tribunal. The date is an essential milestone in the development of criminal responsibility imposed by the international community for the commission of mass atrocities.

Mid-July, 64 CE, in the heart of Rome, tragedy struck as fire erupted into a massive inferno. Did Emperor Nero, regent at the time, purposely set the city ablaze or merely preside over the disaster?

Written by Matthew Reich. Narration by Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle. Video production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/great-fire-rome.

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please

visit origins.osu.edu.

Learn more:

Roman History Introduction:

Potter, David S. Ancient Rome: A New History. Third Edition. New York, New York: Thames & Hudson, 2018.

On the Great Fire:

Walsh, Joseph J. The Great Fire of Rome: Life and Death in the Ancient City. Witness to Ancient History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.

Dando-Collins, Stephen. The Great Fire of Rome: The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City. 1. ed. Cambridge, Mass: Da Capo Press, 2010.

Ancient Authors:

Tacitus, Annals, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/tacitus/annals/15b*.html

Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html

On June 30, 1908, a massive mysterious explosion of a cosmic body shook the skies of Tunguska (in Siberia), on a date that would come to be known as International Asteroid Day. But was it an asteroid? Andy Bruno discusses the history surrounding the event.

Written by Andy Bruno. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/june-2018-1908-tunguska-event-and-threats-tomorrow.

Who doesn’t love penguins? Join Ellen Arnold to learn about the many different roles that penguins took on as Europeans first began to encounter them in the mid-1500s, from quirky oddity to salvation for the starving. Over the course of the following centuries, Europeans had many different interactions with penguins, and these shaped how they understood what the birds were. Sailors and scientists alike brought back accounts of the strange birds, which were only slowly understood to be unique to the South.

Featuring Ellen Arnold, an environmental historian and Senior Lecturer in the Ohio State University Department of History.

Moderated by Nicholas Breyfogle, Professor of History and Director of the Harvey Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching.

Narrator Nicholas Breyfogle gives voice to author Stephen M. Norris' top ten World War II films.

Video production by Laura Seeger and Nicholas Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/connecting-history/top-ten-origins-world-war-ii-films.

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.

Haile Selassie’s triumphant return to Ethiopia on May 5, 1941, signaled the re‐establishment of the Solomonic Dynasty and a sovereign Ethiopia.

Written by Andrew Carlson. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video and written versions of this podcase are available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/may-2016-emperor-haile-selassie-i-returns-triumphant-ethiopia.

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.

According to the traditional narrative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith was visited on September 21, 1823 by an angel who told him of an ancient record buried nearby his farm in western New York.

Written by Benjamin E. Park. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/joseph-smith-discovers-gold-plates. Production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle.

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.

The Berlin Airlift began on June 26, 1948, only two days after the Soviet Union's blockade of West Berlin.

Written by Ian Gammon. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version is available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/berlin-airlift. Production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle.

Additional resources:

To Save a City: The Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949 (https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781603440905/to-save-a-city/)

Berlin on the Brink: The Blockade, the Airlift, and the Early Cold War

(https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813136134/berlin-on-the-brink/)

"The Incomplete Blockade: Soviet Zone Supply of West Berlin, 1948–49" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/24913337)

"The Role of Britain in the Berlin Airlift" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/24428813)

"The Berlin Blockade Revisited" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40105349)

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.

On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong (1893-1976) stood on the rostrum of Tian’anmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) and announced the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in his strong Hunanese accent. This momentous announcement marked the end of China’s chaotic era of foreign domination since the mid-18th century and of frequent governmental upheavals after 1911.

Written by Cruz Guan. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/establishment-peoples-republic-china.

Learn More:

Chen, Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001

Dikötter, Frank. Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. New York: Walker and Company, 2010.

Gao, Hua. Translated by Stacy Mosher and Guo Jian. How the Red Sun Rose: The Origins and Development of the Yan’an Rectification Movement, 1930–1945. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2018.

Li, Zhisui, The Private Life of Chairman Mao. New York: Random House, 1994.

Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1991

Vogel, Ezra F. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.

Wang, Zheng. Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations. Columbia University Press, 2012.

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.