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Same Day, Different Century
By Zach IpsenHistory
Same Day, Different Century episodes
- September 11, 2001
On September 11, 2001, nineteen al-Qaeda hijackers took control of four commercial airliners and used them to attack the United States. This episode traces the plot from its origins with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's 1996 proposal to Osama bin Laden, through the missed intelligence warnings that might have stopped it, to the events of that Tuesday morning. It follows the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the passenger revolt aboard United Flight 93, and the firefighters, office workers, and officials who lived through the deadliest terrorist attack in world history.
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12 min - Jeopardy! Returns: The Alex Trebek Premiere of 1984
On September 10, 1984, the syndicated version of Jeopardy! premiered, with Alex Trebek stepping behind the podium for the first time. The show's format traced back two decades to an airplane conversation, when Julann Griffin suggested flipping the quiz show on its head after the 1950s scandals had scared networks away from big money games. Merv Griffin built it into a hit, watched it get cancelled twice, and finally handed it to Trebek for a syndicated relaunch that would outlast them both.
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9 min - The Attica Prison Uprising
On September 9, 1971, prisoners at Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York seized control of the prison. What followed was a five day standoff in which more than a thousand men held hostages in D Yard and listed their demands: better food, real medical care, and an end to censored mail. Corrections Commissioner Russell Oswald and Governor Nelson Rockefeller faced a crisis with no easy answers, and the state's ultimate response would leave a lasting mark on American prison history.
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10 min - Michelangelo's David Is Unveiled in Florence
On September 8, 1504, the screens came down in Florence's main square and Michelangelo's David stood uncovered for the first time. The marble had lain in a cathedral work yard for twenty-five years, roughly blocked out and given up on by two earlier sculptors, before a twenty-six-year-old Michelangelo signed a two year contract to finish it.
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10 min - The First ESPN Broadcast
On September 7, 1979, ESPN went on the air from a single acre in Bristol, Connecticut, opening with the first edition of SportsCenter. Bill Rasmussen, out of work a year earlier, had leased a satellite transponder full time because it cost less than renting a few hours, then had to figure out what to put on it. Seven investors had already said no. About thirty thousand people were watching. What followed reshaped college schedules, cable bills, and how Americans watch sports.
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12 min - Google Is Incorporated
On September 4, 1998, two Stanford graduate students filed the paperwork that turned a research project into Google Inc. Weeks earlier, a Sun Microsystems co-founder had cut short a porch demonstration and written them a check for one hundred thousand dollars, made out to a company that did not yet exist. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had already tried to sell their search technology and been turned down by everyone they asked.
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10 min - eBay Is Founded
On September 3, 1995, a twenty-eight-year-old programmer named Pierre Omidyar posted a small auction site called AuctionWeb to his personal website. There was no business plan, no funding, and no fees. The first thing he sold was a broken laser pointer. Within three years the site was called eBay, and millions of strangers were mailing checks to people they had never met.
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10 min - The Great Fire of London
On September 2, 1666, a fire broke out in a baker's shop on Pudding Lane and began four days of burning that destroyed most of medieval London. Thomas Farriner baked ship's biscuit for the Royal Navy. His neighbours fought the flames with buckets and hooks while the Lord Mayor, Thomas Bloodworth, refused to order the demolitions that might have stopped it. Samuel Pepys carried the news to Charles II. By the end, thousands of structures were gone, and seventy thousand people had lost their homes.
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11 min - The Passenger Pigeon Goes Extinct
On September 1, 1914, the last known passenger pigeon died on the floor of her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her name was Martha. A century earlier, her species crossed Kentucky in flocks that took days to pass overhead, numbering in the billions and ranking as the most abundant bird in North America.
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11 min - Princess Diana Dies in Paris
On August 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died after a car crash in a Paris underpass. Just after midnight, a Mercedes pulled away from a service door behind the Hotel Ritz carrying Diana and Dodi Fayed, driven by the hotel's deputy head of security. Three minutes later it was wrecked against a pillar beneath the Pont de l'Alma.
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11 min
About Same Day, Different Century
From the publisher's feed
History didn't happen in textbooks, it happened on days just like today. Same Day, Different Century uncovers one remarkable true story from this exact date in history, every weekday.