Stuff You Missed in History Class

The famed Battle of the Alamo was toward the end of the Texas Revolution - a sort of pivot just before the last battle. But at the revolution's beginning, the siege of Béxar played out in almost the opposite way. Here's a link to our show notes, including a correction to our pronunciation of "Bexar."

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The eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt was a firebrand who never shied away from the public eye. She was nicknamed "the Second Washington Monument" because of her social power, which she parlayed into political influence.

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Louisa was not the only notable Alcott. Her father, Bronson Alcott, made a name for himself as a philosopher and a teacher. And her youngest sister, May Alcott, was an artist, who was really growing in prominence before she died at an early age.

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Once you examine Louisa May Alcott's life story, the inspirations for her writing become clear. But while she had some things in common with her most famous heroine, a lot sets her apart from Jo March. Read the show notes here.

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In the late 1800s, seven sisters with musical talent and incredibly long hair made waves in the circus and on the stage. They made millions as performers and haircare product moguls, but their personal lives were plagued with eccentricity.

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It was half performance for the British troops, and half actual sham, and it led to an attack on Dover by the Pennacook tribe in 1689.

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Andrée hoped to succeed in reaching the North Pole where others had failed by doing it by air. With a seemingly endless positivity, he and two other men hoped to earn bragging rights for Sweden by reaching the pole.

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Saponification is the process of turning to soap, and in certain conditions, cadavers do it. The Soap Lady is one of the most famous cases of an adipocere-covered corpse, but there are many like her.

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The second half of our interview with Dr. Annie Polland from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum focuses on specific figures in the building's history and ongoing research and expansion projects.

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The U.S. is, at its heart, a nation of immigrants. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum works to preserve the history of many families who left their home countries to start lives in New York. Read the show notes here.

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As the New York Sun's series of astonishing moon discoveries concluded, most people recognized that it was a hoax. But what made people buy into the tall tale in the first place? Read the show notes here.

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In August 1835, the New York Sun ran a series about some utterly mind-blowing discoveries made by Sir John Herschel about the lunar surface. The serial had everything: moon poppies, goat-like unicorns, lunar beavers and even bat people.

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Until 1975, children with disabilities in the U.S. weren't guaranteed the right to a public education. The ruling in Brown v. Board sparked a series of cases related to children who had been segregated or restricted from schools based on disabilities.

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Carousels are part of childhood, but they were originally billed as an entertainment for adults and children alike. And even further back than that, it's believed that they were used to train horsemen.

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Dr. Peters helped revolutionize the treatment of both breast cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma. But, at the time, her work was largely dismissed. Read the show notes here.

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The pyramids at Giza are iconic Egyptian landmarks, but they weren't the first to appear. Djoser and his vizier Imhotep are credited with starting the pyramid trend.

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In 1944, one of the most disastrous fires in U.S. history broke out during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performance. Dozens of lives were lost and hundreds of people were injured as the largest big top in the country was consumed by flames.

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The Night Witches were an all-female bombing regiment in the Soviet Air Force. Flying biplanes meant for dusting crops and training new recruits, they dropped 23,000 tons of bombs on German forces in WWII. Read the show notes here.

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She's often called the greatest female painter of the Baroque period, though there were only a few to compare her to. Her work is extraordinary, and reflects the influences of her father Orazio Gentileschi and Caravaggio.

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This massive medieval manuscript, nicknamed "The Devil's Bible," contains multiple lengthy entries, a few shorter pieces, and several illustrations. Written by a single scribe, the Codex Gigas is often sensationalized in stories about its creation.

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Though the Brown v. Board ruling overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, it didn't suddenly solve the segregation problem and end racism in the United States.

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It would be next to impossible to have ever had a class on American history or the American Civil Rights Movement and not heard about Brown v. Board. But the case is much more complicated than just one child in one segregated school system.

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Dr. Leo Baekeland, the inventor of the first synthetic plastic, was a wealthy man at a young age thanks to his innovation in photograph developing. But it was his work with phenol and formaldehyde that would help usher in the age of plastics.

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The ruling in this infamous U.S. Supreme Court case stated that segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities were equal. But most people are more familiar with the name of the case than with the actual events that transpired around it.

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Once several cases of narcolepsy were documented in the late 1880s, study of the condition became more common. But it was well into the 20th century before sleep scientists really began to unlock some of the secrets of narcolepsy.

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People were experiencing sleep disorders long before they were studied to the degree they are now. The first European account of narcolepsy appeared in the 1600s, but it would be well into the 19th century before the condition was researched.

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A handful of our most-requested podcast topics that don't have enough solid research for a whole show: Stagecoach Mary, Edward Mordrake, Robert the Haunted Doll, the London Beer Flood, the Lost Army of Cambyses and La Maupin all get time in the spotlight. Read the show notes here.

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An international jailbreak! In the 1860s, a crew from the United States mounted a mission to Western Australia to rescue imprisoned members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood who had been imprisoned by Great Britain.

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During WWII, the U.S. Army formed a top-secret military unit with one goal: Use artistic and theatrical skills to confuse the enemy. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops turned their creativity into incredible strategic trickery. Read the show notes here.

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From an early age, Katie Sandwina wowed crowds, first as a wrestling act and then exclusively as professional strongwoman. During a time when women's suffrage was a hot button issue, she cultivated an image of a perfectly feminine powerhouse.

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Once Gaudi's work was displayed at the 1878 Paris World's Fair, his career took off. Through his connections to industrialist Eusebi Güell and architect Joan Martorell, Gaudi was given opportunities to work on impressive projects that are now his legacy.

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You probably know Gaudi's work, even if you don't recognize his name. His distinctive architecture is featured throughout Barcelona. But his life started humbly, as the son of a Reus coppersmith.

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Despite all the fun cartoons on the packaging featuring tiny humanoid sea creatures having wacky fun and wearing clothes, Sea Monkeys are just brine shrimp. But the story of Sea Monkeys and their inventor is actually pretty surprising -- and quite dark.

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In 1816, a volcano eruption in Sumbawa, Indonesia, along with several other factors, created an unusual -- and catastrophic -- series of weather events. Read the show notes here.

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More of the 2014 history news roundup! This time out: We've got several assorted things that didn't really fit any other category, followed by medical unearthings, food and drinks, literature and letters, and everyone's favorite category, EXHUMATIONS.

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It's time to look at some of the stuff that was literally or figuratively dug up in 2014. This episode includes: connections to past episodes, some extreme serendipity, shipwrecks, a couple of Holocaust-related unearthings, and lots of Oldest Things Ever.

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When news about new findings at the Stonehenge site broke late in 2014, it seemed like time to update the original Stonehenge episode. But then it turned out, there wasn't an existing episode about this famous ruin. Read the show notes here.

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On September 1, 2014, a team of searchers discovered artifacts from the Franklin Expedition. Over the course of seven dives, additional artifacts from the Erebus were recovered. Read the show notes here.

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In 1826, liquor was forbidden at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. Cadets smuggled alcohol into the barracks anyway, and a defiant Christmas party turned into a riot when two officers attempted to break up the festivities. Read the show notes here.

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It's a Christmas episode, a shipwreck and a ghost story rolled into one! It's the story of the the Rouse Simmons, which sank in Lake Michigan while hauling a load of Christmas trees to Chicago.

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In 1925, a diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska put a community in grave danger -- without the proper supplies to fight the disease. A daring sled-dog relay was mounted to deliver needed medicine to small community and their only doctor. Read the show notes here.

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For most of India's recorded history, salt has been both abundant and subject to taxation. This continued to be the case after the British East India Company's arrival in India, and eventually led to the cultivation of a hedge to prevent salt smuggling.

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The story of the Ninth Legion is a favorite among history fans who love a good mystery. But is there really any mystery here, or is the story of their fate more mundane? Read the show notes here.

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In 1903, Chicago's newly-opened Iroquois Theater burned, killing at least 600 people. The horrible, incredibly tragic incident was the result of multiple code violations and wrongdoings.

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This episode picks up in the middle of Hudson's third voyage, as the Half Moon is making its way down North America's east coast. As Hudson doggedly pursues the idea of a northern sea route from Europe to Asia, he makes a number of poor decisions.

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Henry Hudson's voyages have all the makings of a juicy story: maritime exploration, horrible treatment of indigenous peoples, treacherous waters, treacherous shipmen, a mercenary switch in loyalties to countries, mutiny -- even a mermaid sighting.

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1920, the S-5 left the Boston Navy Yard on its first mission, with a crew of 36 officers and enlisted men. While performing a crash dive as part of a performance evaluation, the crew found themselves on a sinking vessel. Read the show notes here.

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Jules Verreaux and his two brothers collected an impressive array of flora and fauna specimens from around the world for placement with museums and collectors. They also did some really unsavory things that had long-term ramifications.

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Aimee Semple McPherson was an extraordinary figure in the early 20th-century religious landscape. As an evangelist, she rose to incredible popularity in the 1920s ... and then vanished. Read the show notes here.

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Poverty Point is a collection of earthwork mounds and ridges situated next to Bayou Maçon in Louisiana. It has features that make it unique among Native American sites, and there are still many questions surrounding its purpose and construction.

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