On April 24, 1943 a fire started in the engine room of the Panamanian freighter SS El Estero. Fire can always represent a danger to a ship, but this fire offered particular concern. The El Estro was carrying more than thirteen hundred tons of high explosives, and was in New York Harbor.
Three classic episodes of The History Guy about how the Christmas season survives even tragedy.
The “Great Sedition Trial” uncovered shocking connections at the time with the German reich that we were fighting, and challenged the idea that the nation was of a single mind during the war. It also challenged exactly how far the national commitment to freedom of speech and opinion reached, especially in extraordinary times.