American History Tellers

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1906 San Francisco Earthquake | The Sky Burned | 2 Nov 01, 2023

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Less than 24 hours after a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, fires were raging across the city. Firefighters watched helplessly as the flames devoured homes and businesses, unable to draw water from cracked cisterns and empty hydrants.

Mayor Eugene Schmitz formed an emergency committee to orchestrate relief efforts and soon issued a shoot-to-kill order to prevent widespread looting. Meanwhile, U.S. Army General Frederick Funston ordered troops to create firebreaks by dynamiting buildings in the path of the fires, desperate to prevent the reminder of the city burning to the ground.

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1906 San Francisco Earthquake | The Earth Shook | 1 Oct 25, 2023

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In the early morning hours of April 18th, 1906, residents of San Francisco were awakened by the violent shaking of a massive earthquake. People on the streets watched in horror as entire city blocks were reduced to rubble. Those who had survived the initial quake began rescue efforts, pulling people from destroyed buildings and rushing to aid the wounded and displaced.

The earthquake also sparked fires that quickly began to spread. But as firefighters rushed to put them out, they discovered that the city’s water mains had cracked, and hydrants had run dry.

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Salem Witch Trials | A Descendant Remembers | 5 Oct 18, 2023

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In the midst of the public hysteria surrounding the Salem Witch Trials, a respected Puritan woman named Rebecca Nurse was accused of using witchcraft to “afflict” girls in Salem. Despite her status as a pious church member, Nurse became one of the many innocent people to stand trial and be executed. Today, Lindsay is joined by one of Rebecca Nurse’s descendants, historian Margo Burns, to discuss the fate of her ancestor and other victims of the witch hunt.

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History Daily: The Unearthing of the Cardiff Giant Oct 16, 2023

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October 16, 1869. An American trickster masterminds the discovery of a mysterious petrified giant in upstate New York.

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History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.

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Salem Witch Trials | A Great Delusion | 4 Oct 11, 2023

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By September 1692, the witch panic in Salem, Massachusetts had sent 11 women and men to the gallows. Dozens more languished in jail awaiting trial.But that fall, growing public doubt began to cast a shadow over the proceedings. Several elite Puritans raised questions about the Court’s reliance on so-called “spectral evidence” – claims that witches had sent forth their spirits to torment their victims. With the death toll climbing and the stability of the colony at stake, pressure mounted on Governor William Phips to act.

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Salem Witch Trials | Specter of Injustice | 3 Oct 04, 2023

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In May 1692, William Phips, the new royal governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailed into Boston Harbor and was immediately faced with an unprecedented crisis. The colony was in the throes of a full-blown witchcraft panic. Dozens of accused witches had been jailed, new accusations continued to surface, and the colony was without a legal system to handle the cases.

Phips quickly established an emergency court, and in June, the Salem witch trials began. As the first suspects took the stand, controversial evidence about apparitions and visions soon played a key role in sending innocent men and women to their deaths.

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Salem Witch Trials | The Devil Against Us | 2 Sep 27, 2023

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By the first week of March 1692, three Salem women had been jailed for witchcraft, and accusations continued to spread. Authorities publicly questioned people suspected of witchcraft, turning legal proceedings into dramatic spectacles. Witnesses cried out in pain, stamped their feet, and claimed to be haunted by invisible specters.

The circle of suspicion quickly widened from servants and social outcasts to respected village elders, including the prosperous farmer John Proctor, and a former minister of Salem Village, George Burroughs. Soon no one was safe from the fear and paranoia sweeping Salem.

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Salem Witch Trials | An Evil Hand | 1 Sep 20, 2023

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In January 1692, two young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts began behaving strangely. They screamed, barked like dogs, and writhed on the floor. A doctor concluded that the girls had been bewitched.

Under pressure from their elders, including Reverend Samuel Parris, the girls accused three local women of witchcraft. Soon, the bizarre symptoms began spreading throughout the small Puritan village, marking the start of the most lethal witch hunt in American history.

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Encore: The WWII Home Front | United We Win | 2 Sep 13, 2023

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As the nation’s factories and shipyards ramped up production for the war, the demand for labor exploded. Millions of women and minorities entered the workforce for the first time, finding a path to prosperity and opportunity.

But as Americans joined in common purpose, strife and challenges hit the home front.

In 1943, half a million coal miners in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania went on strike, sparking nationwide uproar and threatening to derail the war effort. Cities erupted with tensions over housing and jobs as the largest migration in history transformed the nation. And deep questions over loyalty and belonging arose, as the federal government forced more than 100,000 Japanese Americans into detention camps.

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Encore: The WWII Home Front | Arsenal of Democracy | 1 Sep 06, 2023

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On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese warplanes rained death and destruction down on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor—shocking the nation and drawing it into World War II. The U.S. had been ravaged by the Great Depression. Mobilizing the country for war would require unprecedented government intervention in industry, the economy, and American lives. But the crisis would also spark new opportunities, challenges and questions about what it meant to be a patriot and an American during a time of crisis.

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