History Shorts

Bestselling author A.J. Baime joins History Shorts for a full conversation about his upcoming book, Bird Men: The Rise of American Airpower and the Machine That Ended World War II.
In the late 1930s, the U.S. Army Air Corps was still a relatively modest force. By 1945, America had built the B-29 Superfortress—the most advanced bomber of the war, a machine so costly and so essential that its development rivaled the Manhattan Project. In this interview, Baime traces that transformation through General Hap Arnold, the B-29 program, American industrial ingenuity, and the airpower that helped end World War II and reshape the United States as a superpower.
 
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast
ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise 
LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
 
SPONSORED BY: www.thecollector.com

When Tsar Nicholas II and his family were killed in 1918, the Romanovs had been associated with staggering wealth accumulated over centuries of imperial rule.
The Bolsheviks seized the obvious treasures: palaces, artwork, imperial collections, and crown property.
But the Romanovs also possessed personal assets—and tracing what happened to money held outside Russia became far more complicated.
Funds had been deposited abroad. Jewelry and valuables had crossed borders. Competing claims emerged from the Soviet government and surviving members of the extended Romanov family. For decades, the persistent legend that Anastasia might have survived added another layer to questions surrounding inheritance—until DNA evidence established that the entire immediate family had died.
So what happened to the rest?
 
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast
ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise  
LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
SPONSORED BY: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/get-it-now

In 1889, 25-year-old journalist Nellie Bly boarded a steamship in New York carrying one small bag, one dress, and a remarkable assignment:
Travel around the world faster than Phileas Fogg.
Inspired by Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, Bly raced across oceans and continents by steamship and train. Along the way, she even stopped in France to meet Jules Verne himself.
America followed her progress by telegraph. More than a million people entered a newspaper contest predicting exactly when she would return.
On January 25, 1890, Bly arrived back in New York after 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds—smashing the fictional 80-day benchmark.
But the journey was only one chapter in an extraordinary career.
 
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast
ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise  
LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
SPONSORED BY: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/get-it-now

In 1637, some Dutch tulip bulbs really did sell for extraordinary prices.
But the famous story of Tulip Mania—families ruined, homes exchanged for flowers, and the Dutch economy devastated by history's first great speculative bubble—is far more complicated.
The most prized tulips displayed spectacular flame-like patterns created by what we now know was a mosaic virus. As prices climbed, traders began buying and selling contracts for bulbs that were still underground. Then, in February 1637, buyers suddenly stopped appearing and prices collapsed.
Yet when historian Anne Goldgar examined the surviving Dutch records, she found little evidence for the widespread financial devastation described in later accounts.
So where did the legend come from?
 
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast
ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise  
LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
SPONSORED BY: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/get-it-now

Genghis Khan built an empire that stretched across much of Eurasia.
Then, in 1227, he died—and his burial place vanished from history.
According to later traditions, extraordinary measures were taken to keep the location secret. Stories tell of witnesses being killed, horses trampling the burial ground, and every trace of the grave being deliberately erased. Separating fact from legend after eight centuries is difficult, but one thing remains certain:
Nobody knows where Genghis Khan is buried.
For generations, attention has centered on Mongolia's sacred Burkhan Khaldun region, where cultural traditions and modern protections have severely limited archaeological excavation. Even satellite imagery and other modern technology have failed to settle the mystery.
 
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast
ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise  
LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
SPONSORED BY: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/get-it-now