May 5, 1862. The French have landed in Mexico. Napoleon III wants to conquer the country and assert France’s imperial dominance in the Americas. In his way? The Mexican army, held up in the city of Puebla.

The Battle of Puebla will come to define this struggle: a European monarch against a fledgling democracy, led by Benito Juárez. Mexico’s victory will be especially celebrated by Latinos in the United States, who are watching this struggle play out while their new country is embroiled in a Civil War. This first holiday, in 1862, would mark the beginning of a new tradition, unique to this new American community.

How is Cinco de Mayo connected to a broad struggle for freedom across the continent in the 1860s? And what does this holiday really mean?

Special thanks to David Hayes-Bautista,  distinguished professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and author of El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition.

April 27, 1951. The United States has been putting pressure on Denmark for a long time. Because the small European kingdom has something the Americans really, really want: Greenland. 

Today, they sign a treaty that will basically let the U.S. military build whatever it wants on this frozen island. They end up constructing an air base, but then turn to a much more ambitious project, underground.

How does this hidden Arctic outpost connect to a massive nuclear secret? And why do the Americans abandon this city beneath the ice?

Special thanks to Paul Bierman, professor at the University of Vermont’s School of the Environment and Natural Resources and author of When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future; Kristian Nielsen, associate professor in science history at Aarhus University in Denmark and co-author of Camp Century: The Untold Story of America's Secret Arctic Military Base Under the Greenland Ice; and Robert Weiss, former US Army doctor and ​​Donald Guthrie Professor of Urology at Yale University’s School of Medicine.

HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes this Monday! We're kicking things off with a look at America's longtime fascination with Greenland, and how the U.S. military used the island to expand its Cold War nuclear ambitions.

April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. But in just five years time, the emperor will be dead and Cixi will be planning a coup to take power for herself. How will she ever succeed? 

Special thanks to our guests: Jung Chang, author of Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, and Professor Ying-chen Peng, author of Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making in Art.

**This episode originally aired April 24, 2023.

Imagine if you could ask someone anything you wanted about their finances. On What We Spend, people from across the country and across the financial spectrum are opening their wallets—and their lives—to tell you everything: what they make, what they want, and—for one week—what they spend.

April 14, 1970. Apollo 13 is a quarter million miles from Earth, speeding towards the Moon, when a sudden explosion rocks the ship. Against all odds, the astronauts pull off one of the most remarkable survival missions in NASA history. 55 years after this harrowing flight, Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell explains exactly what it took to save his spaceship.

Special thanks to Captain Jim Lovell, John Uri, Steven Barber and Vanilla Fire Productions.

**This episode originally aired April 13, 2020.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

April 10, 1912. As the RMS Titanic pulls away from a crowded port on the south coast of England, it almost crashes. Just in time, it’s able to turn off its engines and prevent a collision with a smaller ship. Four days later, though, a serious disaster will not be avoided, and the Titanic’s first voyage will be her last. But during her brief life, the vessel is a microcosm of the Gilded world around her. How did this opulent luxury liner come to exist? And how did it foretell the dangers of wealth, technology, and arrogance that shaped the world around it, and the world we live in now?

Special thanks to our guests, Susie Milar and Gareth Russell, author of The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era.

**This episode originally aired April 4, 2022.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

April 3, 1974. Across America, many people wake up this morning thinking it will be a normal day. But in the next 24 hours, almost 150 tornadoes will hit the United States. It will be the largest tornado outbreak in the nation's history. Why did so many deadly tornadoes hit on this one day? And how did it spur life-saving changes that are still with us decades later?

Thank you to our guests: Greg Forbes, former severe weather expert with the Weather Channel; and atmospheric sciences professor Jeff Trapp from the University of Illinois.

**This episode originally aired March 29, 2021.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

March 29, 1951. The world is waiting for the jury’s verdict. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have been accused of spying for the Soviet Union, conspiring to send atomic secrets to America’s enemy in the Cold War. Ethel and Julius are tried in court together, and after the jury finds both Rosenbergs guilty, they receive the same punishment – the death penalty. But while they were treated the same, these two individuals have very different stories. Today, who was Ethel Rosenberg, the only woman executed for espionage in U.S. history? And why is her guilt still a topic of debate today?

Special thanks to Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy; Michael and Robert Meeropol, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; and Steven Usdin, journalist and author of Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley.

** This episode originally aired March 28, 2022.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

March 20, 1703. Today, almost fifty men, scattered around the city of Edo, Japan, are waiting to die. They’re all former samurai who had served the same lord – and they all carried out a deadly revenge attack in his name. Their story will go down in history as the legend of the 47 Ronin. Why did these men decide that to be loyal samurai, they had to die? And how did this moment live on for centuries and become part of the national story of Japan?

Thank you to our guest, Professor John Tucker, author of The Forty-Seven Ronin: The Vendetta in History and translator of Kumazawa Banzan: Governing the Realm and Bringing Peace to All Below Heaven.

** This episode originally aired March 15, 2021.

To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com