Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen were African American pilots, crew, and personnel associated with the Army flight training school in Tuskegee, Alabama, during World War II. The best known of these units were the 99th Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, and 477th Bombardment (Composite) Group. Background Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen, no African Americans had been …Read More

Double V Campaign

The Double V Campaign was an African American initiative, led by the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, that aimed to achieve a double victory (“Double V”) during World War II. The two objectives were victory in the war abroad and victory against discrimination on the home front. How did it start? The inspiration for the campaign came …Read More

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. 1822– March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John …Read More

Battle of Leyte Gulf

From October 23–26, 1944, the Japanese navy unsuccessfully went up against the U.S. navy off the coast of the Philippines in one of the largest naval battles in history. The Japanese loss at Leyte Gulf would give the Americans unchallenged dominance in the Pacific for the rest of World War II. Background & Objectives The …Read More

Episode 7: Looking for Loved Ones and The Del Boy Of The History World

Brad’s tasked himself with the challenge of trying to answer someone’s plea to help them find living family members (from Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 9th Sep, 1900) and Michala’s story this week focuses on the surprising tale of Sir Gregory Lewin, a barrister gone bad: ‘”The Del Boy of History”! (Sparked by a news report in …Read More

Episode 6: The Dudley Femme Fatale and Cattle Pilfering

This week, Michala introduces us to Fanny Oliver, a Victorian femme fatale who murdered her husband by arsenic poisoning (as reported in Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 24 July 1869) and Brad digs into a family rift triggered by the stealing of cattle (covered by the Yorkshire Herald, 24 October 1881). And listen to ‘News In Brief’ …Read More

New York

New York is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the northeastern United States. In addition to sharing a border with five other states, New York also borders Canada, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and the Atlantic Ocean. One of the original 13 colonies, New York has become one of the most populous U.S. states, …Read More

Episode 5: The Flowerpot Trailblazer and you know *something*, John Snow

If anyone can link a man being attacked on the street to a woman shopping for flower pots (covered in The Illustrated Police News, 6 September, 1879), Brad can! Stick with it, it’s a good’un! And Michala seamlessly takes us from ‘Snow’ to water, uncovering one of her history heroes (reported in the Yorkshire Herald, …Read More

Episode 4: A Flying Pony and The Victorian Bigamist

This week, Brad takes us up, up and away with a dramatic, theatrical and ultimately tragic tale of aeronaut Lieutenant George Gale and his flying pony (covered by the London Examiner on 14 September 1850), and Michala’s story of a Victorian bigamist (reported in the Newcastle Weekly Courant, 20 August, 1858) rivals the plot of …Read More