Join The History Guy from YouTube in conversation about his videos and various topics in history. Here you can find behind-the-scenes peeks of the set and The History Cats. Share ideas for future videos or ask questions of both the community and The History Guy himself. Early releases and the occasional extras are available for supporting members.
In 1893 a sensational trial in the District of Columbia pitted a young woman against a powerful US Congressman. The salacious allegations captivated the nation, and went to the very heart of the power structure of the Gilded age. The Breckinridge-Pollard affair is nearly forgotten today, but at the time it was, as a contemporary account of the trial explained, “The Most Noted Breach of Promise suit in the history of court records.”
In 1906, a famed explorer saw something on the horizon that would lead an expedition of men to search for a magnificent land they hoped would be full of new and undiscovered treasures for science.
One famous dolphin lived near the shores of New Zealand in the late 1800s, and swam alongside hundreds of ships, becoming a beloved figure to locals and foreigners alike, and described as ”the best known fish in the world.”
It was relatively common in the middle ages for Kings, royals, and various other titled men to die in combat, and they were at least usually expected to fight personally. Despite the dangers of medieval combat and the expectations of nobility, however, many at the highest levels of aristocracy died in less than noble mundane accidents, and even in embarrassing circumstances.
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.
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 sent on a long and perilous journey to war.
