The Cold War, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life - the words you speak, the ideas you share - can be traced to our history, but how well do you really know the stories that made America? We'll take you to the events, the times and the people that shaped our nation. And we'll show you how our history affected them, their families and affects you today. Hosted by Lindsay Graham (not the Senator). From Wondery, the network behind American Scandal, Tides of History,…
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As a young girl in Ohio, Annie Oakley learned to hunt game to keep her impoverished family fed. By the time she was a teenager she’d grown skilled enough to easily beat a traveling sharpshooter named Frank Butler in a public shooting match – and win his heart in the process. The two soon married, and in 1885 Oakley joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, becoming an international sensation and an…
In 1894, a young Utah ranch hand named Robert LeRoy Parker – already going by the alias "Butch Cassidy" – was convicted of horse theft and sent to a Wyoming penitentiary. It was a minor crime that set the course for a much larger criminal career. After his release, he went on to earn a fearsome reputation as the mastermind of a gang of outlaws known as the Wild Bunch, before he and his partner,…
In 1875, Bass Reeves became one of the first Black men to serve as a deputy U.S. marshal in the West. Reeves had been born into slavery, but after a violent confrontation with his owner, he fled to Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma. There, for three decades he used his knowledge of Indian languages and his expert marksmanship to hunt down murderers, horse thieves, and bootleggers across…
In 1865, James Butler Hickok, an Army scout and itinerant gambler better known as “Wild Bill,” shot a man dead in the town square of Springfield, Missouri. The gunfight became known as the first recorded quick draw duel, and Hickok became famous overnight. He parlayed his newfound fame into a job as a deputy U.S. marshal, and before long he was one of the most recognizable lawmen on the frontier.…
In 1821, a little-known backwoods hunter named David Crockett won a seat in the Tennessee legislature, despite having little formal education and virtually no political experience beyond his gift for spinning a good story. It marked an unlikely turning point for a man who would become a symbol of the American frontier, which was then rapidly expanding as settlers pushed into land long inhabited by…
Today George Washington is remembered as the quintessential “Founding Father,” but his path to becoming an American hero was far from certain. Throughout the Revolution, Washington and countless others—including women, free and enslaved Black people, and Indigenous nations—had to make difficult choices about where their loyalties lay and what kind of future they hoped to secure. To help us uncover…
After six long years of war, the Continental Army was exhausted, and Congress had run out of money. George Washington feared that without a decisive victory, the cause of independence would be lost. But there was fresh cause for hope in the summer of 1781, as a massive French fleet sailed for the Chesapeake Bay. French and American commanders devised a plan to trap the British Army on a peninsula…
In the aftermath of America’s victory at Saratoga, France entered the Revolutionary War, transforming the colonial rebellion into a global conflict. British officials decided that the path to victory lay in the South. As the fighting shifted to the Carolinas, a brutal civil war erupted, pitting families and neighbors against one another in cycles of violence and retribution. By 1779, the Patriot…
In 1777, as Americans sought the support of France, Benjamin Franklin struggled to convince officials in Paris to form a military alliance with the new United States. Meanwhile, British General John Burgoyne planned a grand strategy to crush the rebellion by conquering the Hudson River Valley. That summer, his troops fought the Continental Army in a battle that would turn the tide of the American…
In July 1776, the British Royal Navy began landing a massive armada in New York Harbor, setting up the biggest battle of the Revolutionary War. In response, General George Washington faced the daunting challenge of preparing his motley army to defend New York and keep the colonists’ hopes alive. In the months that followed, faith in the cause of independence began to waver, and the Continental…