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The Legend of Jesse James
To some, Jesse James was a gallant outlaw, a populist folk hero who struck back at greedy railroads and corrupt institutions, sharing his loot with p…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
Killing Sitting Bull
Before dawn on December 15, 1890, a gunshot rang out on the Standing Rock Reservation, and Sitting Bull, the legendary Lakota chief, was dead. His as…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
The Shame of Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold: the name alone still echoes with betrayal. But behind the infamous label of "traitor" lies a story that's far more complex, and far …
10 months, 2 weeks ago
War Crimes Trial of Andersonville's H. Wirtz (Civil War True Crime)
On a cold November morning in 1865, just months after the Civil War's end, a Confederate officer stood on the gallows in Washington, D.C. His name wa…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
Barbed Wire Tames the West
Barbed wire began as a humble solution to a humble problem: fencing the vast, treeless expanses of the American West. But this simple invention—two t…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
Conversations: Everything is Tuberculosis, w/ John Green
In this thought-provoking episode of History Shorts, bestselling author John Green joins us, not to talk about fiction, but about the real-world epid…
10 months, 3 weeks ago
Irish Americans Attack Canada
Between 1866 and 1871, a secretive Irish-American paramilitary group known as the Fenians launched a series of bizarre and audacious cross-border att…
10 months, 3 weeks ago
America's Stonehenge
Just off a quiet back road in Salem, New Hampshire, sits a baffling jumble of dolmen-like chambers, serpentine walls, and precisely aligned monoliths…
10 months, 3 weeks ago
Mad Gasser of Mattoon
In September 1944, while Allied troops battled overseas, the quiet Illinois town of Mattoon was seized by panic. Families awoke to a sickly-sweet odo…
10 months, 3 weeks ago
Killing Wild Bill Hickok
Deadwood, Dakota Territory, 1876. A town of gold, grit, and gamblers. Among its rogues and prospectors walked a legend: Wild Bill Hickok, the Civil W…
10 months, 3 weeks ago