Wagons West: The Bartleson Bidwell Party

From The History Guy. Kevin Costner’s The West new episodes Monday 9/8c. Watch the next day on the History app. Part of History Honors 250, only on The History Channel. #sponsored #history_partner Some 250,000 people came to California via the overland California Trail between 1841 and 1869. But someone, of course, had to be first.…

The H Bomb Patent

From The History Guy. Patent S-5292X, “Improvements in method and means for utilizing nuclear energy” by John Von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs and is a story of two brilliant scientists, of one of the greatest scientific programs ever undertaken, and of Cold War espionage and intrigue. Check out our new shop for fun The History…

Best of: Indy 500

From The History Guy. I have enjoyed collaborating with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum over the years. As you prepare for the 109th running of the Indy 500 tomorrow, enjoy three classic The History Guy episodes about some of the personalities behind the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. 00:00 Carl G Fisher, Promotional Genius 13:45 The…

Sinking of AHS Centaur

From The History Guy. While America said “Remember Pearl Harbor,” in Australia they said “Avenge the Nurses.” Crew casualty list: https://www.radschool.org.au/magazines/Vol47/pdf/Centaur%20lost%20crew.pdf Check out our new shop for fun The History Guy merchandise: https://thehistoryguy-shop.fourthwall.com/products/thg-history This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration.…

Burning of the Ben Sherrod

From The History Guy. In the early morning hours of May 9, 1837 the steamboat Ben Sherrod, traveling from New Orleans to Louisville, caught fire. The public was shocked as details of the tragedy emerged,. The tragedy of the burning, sinking, and explosion of the Ben Sherrod should never have happened. Check out our new…

1798 Invasion of the Ils Saint Marcouf

From The History Guy. On the seventh of May, 1798, In a little remembered battle, a vastly outnumbered force of British sailors and marines faced down a substantial French invasion fleet in what might be described as a dress rehearsal for an invasion of the British isles. The Battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf represents one…

The Transfermium Wars

From The History Guy. The Cold War was not just a time of heightened tensions and global competition, but a period of rapid technological growth and scientific advancement. In laboratories all over the world, scientists were working on other breakthroughs, including in a new and largely untouched section of science: discovering new elements. Thankfully the…

The War on Confederate Salt

From The History Guy. A lesser known subplot of the War Between the States was the Union effort to deprive the confederacy of salt. It is difficult to overstate how much the shortage of salt in the Confederacy contributed to the ultimate Union victory. Check out our new shop for fun The History Guy merchandise:…

Britannia: A Royal Yacht

From The History Guy. The Royal Yacht Britannia, a floating palace turned tourist attraction, launched on April 16, 1953, represents a long tradition. Take a trip to Scotland with The History Guy June 21 -27, 2026: https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/scotland/united-kingdom-with-lance-geiger-jun-2026 One spot Still Available to travel to Ireland with the History Guy June 15 – 20, 2025: https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/ireland/ireland-with-lance-geiger-jun-2025…

Left Behind at Dunkirk

From The History Guy. In the end, tens of thousands of soldiers, including 40,000 British, were left in France, captured fighting the battles that had allowed that "Miracle at Dunkirk" to happen. They could not have known, at the time, the extent of their sacrifice. Check out our new shop for fun The History Guy…

Violet Gibson’s Bad Aim.

From The History Guy. At 10:58 am on Wednesday, April 7, 1926, the 50 year old daughter of the former Lord Chancellor of Ireland stepped out of a crowd, drew a revolver, and shot Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini in the face. Had she done so a decade later, she might have been hailed as…

Mussolini Shot in the face

From The History Guy. At 10:58 am on Wednesday, April 7, 1926, the 50 year old daughter of the former Lord Chancellor of Ireland stepped out of a crowd, drew a revolver, and shot Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini in the face. Had she done so a decade later, she might have been hailed as…

Sinking of the Tanker T. C. McCobb

From The History Guy. On March 31, 1942, the crew of the Standard Oil company’s tanker T.C. McCobb would experience a first for the Second World War, and what came next would represent the risks faced by the merchant seamen caught in the middle of the vast Battle of the Atlantic. Check out our new…

War Horses of East Alton, Il.

From The History Guy. Not too far from my house, in the town of East Alton, Illinois, there is a historic marker to an almost forgotten part of local history. It commemorates a stockyard that only stood for a few years. The East Alton stockyards were an important way and gathering station for horses, being…

Best of: Canadians at War

From The History Guy. Three classic The History Guy episodes: 00:00: The Royal Canadian Regiment and The Battle of Paardeberg 10:51: Canada, the Great War, and Flanders Fields 24:12: D Day: The First Canadian Parachute Battalion and the Battle for the Village of Varaville Check out our new shop for fun The History Guy merchandise:…

Casualties of the West Point Class of 42 -vol 3

From The History Guy. One classmate wrote in the alumni newsletter: "Ask any member of ‘42 and you will find it unanimous in feeling that many of our finest gave their all in World War Two." Volume 3: John Ott Sanders Damron, Kenneth Earl Dyson ,Thaddeus Francis Dziuban ,William Hampton Edwards , Joseph Richard Elliott,…

Ford’s Navy: The Eagle Patrol Boats

From The History Guy. The Ford Rouge River plant has been used to produce 28 vehicle models, and continues to be used -today manufacturing aluminum Ford F-150 bodies. But, little remembered today, the factory was not originally built to make automobiles, but to manufacture ships for the US Navy. Check out our new shop for…

Best of: Airships

From The History Guy. Airships were the future, before they weren’t. Three classic The History Guy episodes about the magnificent, and accident prone, behemoths of the sky. 00:00 The Largest Airship of its Time: The Morrell Airship 15:24 The 1926 Race to the Pole, a story of polar exploration 25:51 The first American-built rigid airship,…

Vampire Panics

From The History Guy. The belief in Vampires or Vampire-like beings well predates the modern era, and superstitions about them ran deep. Those beliefs extended even to the modern era, when “vampire panics” led people to exhume corpses they thought were somehow affecting the living. Check out our new shop for fun The History Guy…