Episodes

August 24, 79 AD. Mount Vesuvius erupts in southern Italy, burying the thriving Roman city of Pompeii in volcanic ash.

August 23, 1305. Scottish rebel leader William Wallace is executed in London.

August 22, 1964, Activist Fannie Lou Hamer delivers one of the most important speeches in civil rights history at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

On today’s Saturday Matinee, we look into the space between black and white with Grey History. Link to Grey History: https://greyhistory.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

August 19, 1991. A group of Communist Party hardliners attempt to save the collapsing Soviet Union by staging a coup against party leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.

August 18, 1920. The United States Congress ratifies the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.

August 17, 1846. Commodore Robert F. Stockton of the US Navy annexes California during the Mexican-American War.

August 16, 1501. The famed Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti is awarded a contract to create the statue of David at Florence Cathedral.

August 15, 1969. Over 400,000 people attend one of the most pivotal events in popular music history: the first day of Woodstock. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

August 12, 1898. The signing of a peace pact in Washington brings an end to the fighting in the Spanish-American War.

August 11, 1950. The alleged traitor Ethel Rosenberg is arrested on allegations of spying for the Soviet Union.

August 10, 1993. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court’s 107th justice, becoming only the second woman in history to serve on the country’s highest court.

August 9, 1945. Three days after the first atomic bomb falls on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the U.S. drops a second bomb on Nagasaki.

August 8, 1963. A gang of 15 criminals steal nearly 50 million dollars from a Royal Mail train in Buckinghamshire, England, carrying out the largest train robbery in British history.

On today’s Saturday Matinee, there is no Saturday Matinee. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

August 5,1969. Police in Atlanta, Georgia raid a screening of Andy Warhol’s underground film, Lonesome Cowboys, triggering a wave of protests that sparks the gay rights movement in the Deep South.

August 4, 1944. Jewish teen Anne Frank and her family are discovered by the Gestapo after two years of hiding in a secret annex behind her father’s business in Amsterdam.

August 3, 1492. Christopher Columbus sets out on his first voyage to what will come to be known as the New World.

August 2, 1876. At a poker table in the town of Deadwood, a buffalo hunter turned prospector named Jack McCall murders the legendary gunslinger, frontiersman, and folk hero, Wild Bill Hickock.

August 1, 1774. English chemist Joseph Priestley changes the world forever when he isolates a mysterious new gas: oxygen.

On today’s Saturday Matinee, we raise the Jolly Roger, unfurl the sails, prime our cannon and hit the seas searching for plunder with The Pirate History Podcast. Link to The Pirate History Podcast: https://piratehistorypodcast.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

July 29, 1954. After years of struggle, JRR Tolkien publishes the first installment of The Lord of the Rings.

July 28, 1821, The Legendary Military Commander, José de San Martín, liberates Peru and proclaims its independence from Spain.

July 27, 1890. Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh shoots himself in the chest, a tragic end to a complicated life that will make him one of the most important painters in Western art.