Episodes

The Cherokee don’t believe in signatures. Who can blame them? In 1763, the British signed a proclamation preventing white colonization west of the Appalachian divide. It happened anyway. In 1785, the United States government ...

On a warm summer day in 1900, the village idiot of Oak Ridge, Tennessee laid on his back in the middle of the woods and heard the voice of God. Returning home, he told his wife: In the woods, as …

On a warm summer day in 1900, the village idiot of Oak Ridge, Tennessee laid on his back in the middle of the woods and heard the voice of God. Returning home, he told his wife: In the woods, as …

17-year-old Lepa Radić was a Yugoslavian partisan, having joined the communist party at age 15. Two years later, while tending to the wounded at the battle of Neretva, Lepa was captured and tortured for more than a week for i...

In 1930, a local architect moved a 11,000 tons building in downtown Indianapolis, using hand-powered jacks and an ingenious engineering solution. Visit us online at: Itshometownhistory.com Support our podcast by becoming a pa...

She was known by many names - the Siren of the Shenandoah, the Rebel Joan of Arc, the Cleopatra of Secession – but when the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861, she was just seventeen-year-old Belle …

We’ve named this episode after The Hunt for the Red October because it’s kind of like that, but instead of a Soviet submarine, the search is on for a powerful sleeper agent, known to the US government only as Dorothy. …

The year is 1861 and America is in the grips of a bloody Civil War that will change it forever. In Richmond, the capital of the new Confederate States, Southern Belles and Ladies are sewing uniforms, throwing fundraising gala...

On July 17, 1904, 500 residents of Hammond, Indiana gathered together one unseasonably hot summer afternoon, wearing their Sunday best, to watch an innocent man get buried alive. Visit us online at itshometownhistory.com Supp...

In 1647, laborers toiling away at the Tower of London uncovered two small skeletons while clearing away rubble from a staircase. Had the discovery been made today, scientists would have used a whole host of forensic tools, in...

I just recently learned that NBA legend Bill Russell once came to my hometown of Marion, Indiana during the 1960's. The result of this brief stay was at once funny and inspiring, and one of the best stories ever told …

In 1922, thousands of teenagers in Manhattan went on a straw hat smashing spree that sent many of them to jail, and some of their victims to the hospital. The exact reasons for the riot are unclear, but a clue …

There are just times when you need a great speech. These times are rare, but they exist. This episode is about a time like this, when America need a speech and the President of the United States stood with his …

On a cold morning, October 21st, 1861, an officer in the Union army named Major Henry Livermore Abbott led the 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment through another hopeless assault against a superior enemy force, up an isolat...

Sometimes the bad guys win. Sometimes the people with the worst intentions get what they want in life and their victims lose everything, like when one unemployed German lathe operator attempted to murder the best tennis playe...

One of the most important hometowns in American history is Alexandria, Virginia. Along with being the wealthiest city in Virginia, Alexandria is home to the Institute for Defense. Analyses, the United States Patent and Tradem...

The first battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Fort Sumter, off the coast of South Carolina, in early April 1861. A week later, something like a battle erupted in the streets of Baltimore during the Pratt Street …

Sometimes known as the 1913 Massacre, the Italian Hall Disaster was a tragedy that occurred on December 24th, 1913 in Calumet, Michigan. 73 people were crushed to death in a stampede when someone falsely shouted "fire" at a c...

Sometime in 1678, the mighty Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I, known as the “soldier king” of Europe’s most warlike state, sat in his heavily padded throne surveying his army with an ambassador from France.With a row of part...

Part 2 - Madam C.J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is recorded as the first female self-made millio...

Part 1 - Madam C.J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is recorded as the first female self-made millio...

How have I never heard of Robert Smalls?I’m betting you haven’t either. Smalls was an antebellum slave and real-life action hero who fought without permission in the Civil War and pulled off one of the most daring heists in A...

Does Blonde hair make you dumb? No, seriously does it? Let’s track the history of this stereotype and find out if it’s true. Visit us online at itshometownhistory.com

This is the 2nd half of our Dear H.H. Holmes episode. Meet Almeda Huiet, of Wabash County, Indiana. Possibly the first Chicago victim of infamous serial killer H.H. Holmes. Visit us online at itshometownhistory.com Support ou...