History Shorts

On June 23, 1985, the deadliest act of terrorism in Canadian history unfolded in the skies off the coast of Ireland, when Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747 en route from Toronto to Delhi via Montreal...

7 Touko 202512min

While Crassus was killed in the Battle of Carrhae, along with tens of thousands of his men, the fate of thousands of captured Roman soldiers remains one of history's greatest mysteries. Some historica...

6 Touko 202510min

On the evening of May 10, 1941, a solitary aircraft soared across the North Sea, its engine roaring as it made its way toward the British Isles. The pilot, dressed in a Luftwaffe uniform, was Rudolf H...

5 Touko 202512min

Henry "Box" Brown, an enslaved man in Richmond, Virginia, often prayed to God about escaping. Finally, according to his own narrative written much later, instructions came from up above to "go and get...

4 Touko 202510min

It was Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son, twenty-one-year-old William, who had helped with the famous kite experiment. The two were close, and the elder Franklin even used his influence to have Wil...

3 Touko 202510min

Today In Context: The relationship between American colleges and the federal government has often been fraught with tension. While contemporary clashes between universities and the Trump-aligned Repub...

2 Touko 202512min

Peter speaks with the Director of Teaching and Learning at the American Historical Association about the organization's newest and largest-ever survey of history education in American secondary school...

2 Touko 202518min

Sometime in 1901, a reporter asked Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, if he was planning to attend a particular presidential reception. He looked at the men and replied, "No, I'm not going an...

1 Touko 202511min