Sam Houston, the dashing young Governor of Tennessee, looked like a solid bet for the presidential election of 1840 as the protégé of President Andrew Jackson, but some mysterious mishap on his wedding night with his teenaged bride blew up his promising marriage and career. He ran away from politics and rejoined the Cherokee band that had long ago adopted him as a former son. On the way, he burned his gubernatorial clothing in a ritual bonfire, but he began drinking heavily and self-destructively, and in fact took the Indian name meaning "Big Drunk." A brief trip to Washington to try to re-establish his political contact led to a brutal confrontation with a member of Congress who accused Sam of corruption, but wouldn't accept a duel to the death to settle the matter. Instead, Houston beat the corpulent Congressman with a Hickory walking stick he had carved at Andrew Jackson's home, the Hermitage. The resulting trial, in an open session of the House, became a national sensation but afterwards Sam decided to follow Davey Crocket's example and run away to Texas --- where he became a militia commander who won one of the most significant and unlikely military victories in all American history.

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Texas might still be part of Mexico today if a rising Tennessee politician hadn't proven profoundly unlucky in love. Had Governor Sam Houston's infamous wedding night proceeded as planned, he would have become a credible candidate for president -- escaping dark years of depression and drunkenness, and avoiding the status of alcoholic exile that took him South of the border. As an adoptive member of the Cherokee tribe, he became the most unlikely and indispensable founder of the independent if short-lived Republic of Texas.

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The British captured the American capitol in Washington and burned its public buildings in the War of 1812, but when they invaded the Mississippi Valley and attempted to seize New Orleans, they faced an improvised, multi-lingual army that combined volunteers from frontier settlements, nearly 1,000 well-armed and prosperous pirates, "freemen of color", former slaves from Haiti, and a convent full of earnestly prayerful nuns. The resulting battle led to a bloody British disaster with the American "dirty shirts" illogically protected and suffering only a dozen reported casualties in a confrontation that struck participants on all sides as an open miracle.

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Politician and militia general Andrew Jackson barely survives a bloody brawl in a Nashville hotel that threatens his life and the amputation of his arm. A month later, and still far from fully recovered, he's called to the front to battle rebellious Creek Indians and their British allies in the climactic battle of the War of 1812, that prevents the dismemberment of the young Republic with an attempt to seize the city of New Orleans and the entire Mississippi Valley.

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Today, we’re excited to introduce Country Over Self: Defining Moments in American History. This new mini-series, hosted by Matt Blumberg, dives into moments when Presidents put Country Over Self and Country Over Party.

In each 30-45 minute episode, Matt speaks with renowned presidential historians, exploring pivotal instances in U.S. history. Highlights include conversations with Joseph Ellis on John Adams, H.W. Brands on FDR, Alexis Coe on George Washington, and a compelling two-part episode on Ford’s pardon of Nixon, featuring biographers Richard Norton Smith and Rick Perlstein.

Whether you’re a history buff or just curious about inspiring moments in American leadership, give Country Over Self a listen. Catch it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or YouTube or visit www.countryoverself.com

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In the first century of American independence, far-sighted patriots (including George Washington and John Adams) anticipated the way the development of the new nation would change the destiny of the dispersed and downtrodden Jewish people. But even these prophetic voices couldn’t foresee the other side of the bargain – the unexpected tidal wave of Jewish immigration (mostly from the troubled Russian Empire) that indelibly altered the rise of the Republic. This not only brought poetic meaning to the base of the Statue of Liberty (“I lift my lamp beside the golden door”) but also brought fame to a devout Christian thinker and activist who saw himself as “God’s Little Errand Boy” and won praise from his Jewish allies as the true “father of Zionism.”  

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The early British settlers in North American took their Bible seriously—including the verses in Genesis (12: 1-3) that promised a special blessing to those who blessed the children of Abraham. Amazingly, leading scholars and preachers emphasized this promise even before a significant number of Jews had found their way to the New World. Ironically, the original center of antisemitic sentiment was in New York (then New Amsterdam), which later developed the largest, most productive Jewish community on earth. John Adams and George Washington praised and welcomed Jewish settlers, and even befriended Mordecai Manuel Noah who developed a plan to build a “New Israel” on an island in the Niagara River in upstate New York. Later, Warder Cresson, a prominent Quaker (and briefly a convert to Mormonism), became America’s first consul to Jerusalem, where he debated Herman Melville on the Holy Land’s future and tried to deploy American aid in rebuilding a new Jewish commonwealth, based on scientific agriculture, in the then desolate site of ancient Judea.

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How did Theodore Roosevelt go from the worst day of his life—with the simultaneous death of his adored wife and beloved mother—to celebration as a national hero on his path to the presidency at the unprecedented age of 41? This astonishing progress displayed reckless, almost suicidal courage on the battlefield and a strange, almost supernatural sense of his own invincibility. Eyewitnesses and close friends who watched his mounted charge up San Juan Hill, leading his colorful, unconventional regiment into seemingly lethal enemy lines to win the decisive battle of the Spanish-American War, saw his success as an open miracle. Concerning his previous day of grief, TR said: "Black Care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough." Young Roosevelt illustrated that maxim in his dramatic rise to power.

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May 8th, 1886: American pharmacist John S. Pemberton sells the first glass of Coca-Cola at a pharmacy in downtown Atlanta, a drink he originally bills as a cure-all tonic.

History Daily podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-daily/id1591095413

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Donald Trump wasn't the only president to attempt a return trip to the White House four years after he'd left the presidency. Theodore Roosevelt attempted his own comeback in 1912 and, like Trump, he was hit by a would-be assassin's bullet in the midst of his campaign. For TR, the shooting was nearly fatal - with only his glasses case and the folded pages his planned speech stop stopping the bullet from reaching his heart. Bleeding profusely, he insisted on delivering his address in any event -- one of the more bizarre political rallies in our history. The remarkable story, revealing TR's haunting, lifelong connection to death, is told in THE REAPER AND THE BULLMOOSE, the latest episode in our American Miracle podcast series.

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