250 Most Impactful Moments in American History

Épisodes

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  110-106: What Hath God Wrought 22.07.2026 36min

  110: President Johnson signs The Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law abolishing racial segregation   109: Samuel Morse demonstrates electric telegraphy for the first time. Six years later in 1844 - "What hath God wrought" Samuel Morse sends his first telegraph message from Washington to Baltimore ft. Curator of Electricity Collections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Hal Wallace.    108: Rev. Martin Luther King Jr pens his Letter from Birmingham Jail ft. Chair of the Center for the American Dream at the America First Policy Institute, Dr. Alveda King.    107: Vietnam War: Two US destroyers come under fire in the Gulf of Tonkin. President Johnson expands the war effort based upon this incident.   106: The New York Stock Exchange nosedives nearly taking out the American economy. It is given a reprieve by a group of investors led by J.P. Morgan who pool $25M to invest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  115-111: Operation Desert Storm 15.07.2026 41min

  115: Andrew Carnegie consolidates all of his business under one umbrella with the Carnegie Steel Company   114: President Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans   113: President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland ft. Executive Vice President & Provost at UT Austin and Author of The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink, Dr. William Inboden.     112: U.S. Military Academy at West Point opens   111: Operation Desert Storm: United States forces repel Iraq from Kuwaiti territory ft. Former White House Press Secretary (serving under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush) Marlin Fitzwater.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  120-116: The Right To Vote 08.07.2026 39min

  120: Homegrown terrorists Timothy McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols set of a bomb at the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK killing 168 people including 19 children  119: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill setting off the California Gold Rush ft. Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Anthea Hartig.   118: Construction on the Hoover Dam is completed  117: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Women's Suffrage Association in New York. Three years later in 1872, Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time in defiance of law. She is arrested and fine $100 dollars - which she never pays ft. Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University & author of the prize-winning book, The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women's Suffrage Movement, Dr. Lisa Tretault.   116: The Teapot Dome land scandal cripples the Harding Administration Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  125-121: Lady Liberty 01.07.2026 38min

  125: Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer is killed by Native American forces led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Battle of Little Bighorn ft. Author of Vengeance: The Last Stands of Custer, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull, Tom Clavin.     124: President Lincoln signs the National Banking Act into law establishing plan for a national currency backed by securities   123: The United States military and a coalition of allies invades Iraq to disarm the country of weapons of mass destruction they believed Iraq to possess.   122: President Nixon is the first US president to visit the People's Republic of China   121: The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in New York Harbor ft. Professor of History and Director of the NYU Institute of French Studies, Edward Berenson.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  130-126: Cops And Robbers 24.06.2026 43min

  130: The 18th Amendment authorizing Prohibition is passed. Prohibition would be repealed in 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment  129: Gangland: A shootout between policemen led by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer and Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow end in the deaths of the bank robbers. Gangster and Public Enemy No. 1 John Dillinger is killed by FBI agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. Bank robber Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd is shot and killed by FBI agents in East Liverpool, Ohio. A shootout between FBI agents and George "Baby Face" Nelson ends with the death of Nelson and FBI Special Agent Samuel P. Cowley ft. Author of Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde, John Boessenecker.  128: Tulsa Race Massacre: A mob attacks Black owned businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma killing between 100-300, destroying 1,250 homes and imprisoning 6,000 African Americans  127: The US begins a final drawdown of forces in Afghanistan. In the chaotic withdrawal 13 American service members are killed in a terror attack carried out by ISIS-K $7B in military equipment is captured by the Taliban ft. FOX News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst.   126: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  135-131: Socially Distant 17.06.2026 44min

  135: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery   134: Four Black students in Greensboro, NC begin a sit in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter   133: America's fourth largest bank Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11, kicking off a month of possible worldwide economic collapse ft Former US Attorney, Senior Partner at Jenner & Block, & Court-Appointed Bankruptcy Examiner in the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy, Anton Valukas.    132: The first case of COVID-19 is confirmed in the United States. President Trump declares a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak freeing up $50B in emergency funding as schools and businesses begin closing across the country ft Clinical Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center & FOX News Senior Medical Analyst, Dr. Marc Siegel.    131: President Johnson announces his Great Society during his State of the Union Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  140-136: The Wild West 10.06.2026 38min

  140: Jesse James and his gang commit the first train robbery in the American West in Adair, Iowa. In 1876 Lawman Wyatt Earp begins work as a peace officer in Dodge City, KS. The same year outlaw Wild Bill Hickok is shot dead during a poker game in Deadwood, Dakota. In 1881 Tombstone, AZ is sight of the gunfight at the OK Corral. And in 1882 the legendary Jesse James is killed by fellow outlaw Robert Ford in his home in St. Joseph, MO. ft. Author of Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West, Tom Clavin.   139: The first major wagon trail heads west on the Oregon Trail with over a thousand pioneers from Missouri  138: African American teenager Emmett Till is lynched in Money, Mississippi  138: African American teenager Emmett Till is lynched in Money, Mississippi 137: President Reagan announces SDI a missile defense program intended to intercept enemy missiles ft. Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute & author of Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Paul Lettow.   136: The Spanish Flu Pandemic hits the US Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  145-141: Peace With Honor 03.06.2026 39min

  145: Vietnam War: The U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war ends  144: President Eisenhower sends federal troops to Arkansas to escort Black students into a newly integrated Little Rock Central High School. Three years later in 1960 Ruby Bridges becomes the first Black child to attend an all white elementary school. ft. Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and author of Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Legacies of the Central High Crisis, John A. Kirk  143: The Brooklyn Bridge is open to traffic in New York City 142: The Senate rejects joining the League of Nations and refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles 141: President Johnson announces he will not seek re-election ft. Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas and author of LBJ: Architect of American Ambition, Randall B. Woods  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  150-146: The Golden Spike 27.05.2026 40min

  150: Whiskey Rebellion - President Washington mobilizes a federal army to put down an insurrection in western Pennsylvania ft. Historian, Lecturer at Robert Morris University, Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Revolution, and author of The Whiskey Rebellion: A Distilled History of an American Crisis, Brady J. Crytzer   149: Truck bombs kill 241 American servicemen in Beirut, Lebanon - Terrorist organization Islamic Jihad would claim responsibility  148: The first transcontinental railroad is completed in Promontory, Utah with a golden spike  147: In Selma, Alabama Civil Rights protestors make two attempts to the Edmund Pettis bridge on a march to Montgomery but are met with violent resistance by police forces injuring scores and killing one. A third attempt is successful.  146: Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is approved for mass distribution by the FDA ft. Son of polio vaccine developer Dr. Jonas Salk & Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Dr. Peter Salk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  155-151: Miracle On The Hudson 20.05.2026 38min

  155: US Airways Flight 1549 loses both of its engines after striking a flock of birds. Pilot Chesley Sullenberger successfully lands the plane in the Hudson River saving all 155 passengers. ft. Resilience Partners Group’s Chief Strategy Officer, Best-selling author, & Last Passenger off US Airways Flight 1549, Dave Sanderson.    154: U.S. Supreme Court finds Standard Oil to be a monopoly and orders it to be dissolved. ft Vice Chairman of S&P Global, Daniel Yergin.   153: Frederick Douglass delivers his "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech   152: Oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft. Astronauts abort the mission but return to Earth safely   151: The legend says the game of baseball is "invented" in Cooperstown, New York by Abner Doubleday Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  160-156: The Gold Standard 13.05.2026 40min

  160: Black Monday - DJIA falls 508 points - 22.6%, its largest single day percentage drop in history   159: The Land Act of 1820 lowers prices in the Missouri and Northwest territories with the goal of encouraging western movement ft. Director of The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Professor Emeritus of History, & Author of The Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics, Dr. Daniel Feller.    158: Members of a cult following Charles Manson murder actress Sharon Tate and four others in Los Angeles, CA. The next day they would kill businessman Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary. ft. Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Licensed Private Investigator, and True Crime Author, Dr. Joni Johnston.    157: A bomb explodes in the World Trade Center killing seven. The attack was planned by a small terror cell including Sheik Abdel Rahman and Ramzi Yousef. Yousef would later be captured in Pakistan and found guilty in a NY court.   156: The Gold Standard Act is ratified, putting American currency on the gold standard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  165-161: Trial of the Century 06.05.2026 42min

  165: The first televised presidential debate takes place between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon ft. Author of Presidential Debates: Risky Business on the Campaign Trail, Alan Schroeder    164: Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman murdered in Los Angeles. The prime suspect former running back O.J. Simpson evades capture by leading police on a low-speed chase before his eventual arrest ft. attorney and host of the Crime & Justice podcast,  Donna Rotunno.    163: American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo   162: Sacco and Vanzetti a pair of Italian-American anarchists and convicted murderers are killed via electric chair   161: Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  170-166: The Perfect Crime 29.04.2026 40min

  170: Al Qaeda suicide bombers crash a small craft into the USS Cole killing 17 sailors ft. Former USS Cole Commander Kirk Lippold 169: The last draft lottery for the US military is held 168: Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization - a process to strengthen rubber   167: In a crime that outraged the nation, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murder 14 year old Bobby Franks  ft Professor of History & Political Science at John Jay College & author of For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicago, Simon Baatz   166: The Supreme Court rules that Africans aboard the ship Amistad were taken into slavery illegally Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  175-171: The Rough Riders 22.04.2026 38min

  175: Bleeding Kansas escalates as anti and pro slavery forces take up arms in the Wakarusa War  174: Amelia Earhart disappears after taking off from New Guinea  173: The FBI raids a compound in Waco, Texas led by cult leader David Koresh. A fire breaks out during the raid killing 76 Branch Davidian members including at least 20 children ft Retired FBI Special Agent and former HRT Operator, Charlie Rasner  172: The US fails in its Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba resulting in the expansion of power of the Castro regime ft. Author of The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs, Jim Rasenberger  171: Spanish-American War: Theodore Roosevelt leads his Rough Riders in a cavalry charge up San Juan Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  180-176: Ike’s Farewell Warning 15.04.2026 40min

  180: President Eisenhower in his farewell address warns against the power of a "military industrial complex" ft. Founding Director of the Eisenhower Institute and Author of How Ike Led, Susan Eisenhower 179: The Donner Party becomes snowbound   178: Riots break out in Los Angeles following the not guilty verdict in the Rodney King case. 63 people were killed 12k people arrested and $1B worth of damage.  ft. Former Attorney General and Founding Partner at Torridon Law PLLC, Bill Barr 177: President Truman implements the Truman Doctrine, pledging US support to democracies against authoritarianism.   176: Sandra Day O'Connor is confirmed as the first female justice of the Supreme Court Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  185-181: Bush v. Gore 08.04.2026 39min

  185: Samuel Colt receives a patent for his revolver   184: The Missouri Compromise becomes law: admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state   183: 2000 Presidential Election ends in controversy with numerous lawsuits in the state of Florida and ending with a 5-4 Supreme Court decision. George Bush defeats Al Gore for the Presidency ft. FOX News Contributor and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove   182: President Grant signs the Ku Klux Klan Act empowering forces to combat the group   181: Thomas Edison announces the invention of the phonograph which he later demonstrates ft. Research Professor;  Director and General Editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers, Paul Israel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  190-186: The iPhone Empire 01.04.2026 38min

  190: Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the first iPhone ft. former Senior Vice President of Apple Computer, & author of best-selling books The Steve Jobs Way, & Leading Apple with Steve Jobs, Jay Elliot   189: Simultaneous bombings at US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania kill 224 and injure 4,500. The bombings are attributed to the al Qaeda terror network led by Osama bin Laden 188: Pharmacist Dr. John Stith Pemberton invents and begins advertising a beverage that will be known as Coca-Cola 187: The Freedom Riders begin bus rides into the South to test the 1960 Boynton decision, a bus is later firebombed and another has all riders arrested for disturbing the peace ft. Author and Photographer of Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, Eric Etheridge 186: A fire breaks out in the Apollo 1 spacecraft during a launch pad test killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  195-191: Empire State of Mind 25.03.2026 39min

  195: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger   194: George Eastman founds the Eastman Kodak Company   193:The Empire State Building is completed displacing the Chrysler Building as the world's tallest ft. Architectural Historian & Author, Anthony W. Robins    192: Radical abolitionist John Brown leads a raid on the Harper's Ferry Armory. The raid is ended by troops led by General Robert E. Lee. ft. Distinguished Professor of American Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, David S. Reynolds    191: The U.S. enters the United Nations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  200-196: I’m Lovin’ It  18.03.2026 40min

  Featured Moments: 200: Entrepreneur Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, ft. biographer and author of Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave it all Away, Lisa Napoli  199: An American U2 spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union. Pilot Gary Powers successfully ejects and is captured.  198: Hurricane Katrina slams into the Gulf Coast states, killing more than 1,500 and causing $108B in damage ft. distinguished scholar, Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, John M. Barry  197: Edison's kinetoscope premiered at his New Jersey lab. 196: Two high school students open fire on their teachers and classmates at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO in a pre-planned attack, murdering 13. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  205-201: The Four Faces 11.03.2026 37min

  Featured moments:   205: Somali rebels shoot down two US Black Hawk helicopters. The ensuing firefight sees 18 US soldiers dead   204:Twenty children aged 6 and 7 and six teachers are killed in a school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT ft. Molly Line, Fox News Correspondent and onsite reporter during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting    203: NASA announces its Mercury Seven, the first US astronauts   202: A shooter opens fire on a music festival from a hotel room in the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV killing 59 and injuring 869. It is the deadliest mass shooting in American history 201: Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated in South Dakota ft. Interior Secretary &  former two-term Governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices