Accessibility links
History History

History

How Venus got caught up in an 18th century space race
Credits: NASA/Goddard/SDO

Short Wave

How Venus got caught up in an 18th century space race

In the 18th century the world was focused on Venus. Expeditions were launched in pursuit of exact measurements of Venus as it passed between Earth and the Sun. By viewing its journey and location on the Sun's surface, scientists hoped to make a massive leap in scientific knowledge. With a little help from math, Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber recounts how humanity came closer to understanding our cosmic address — and relative distances to other planets — in the solar system.

How Venus got caught up in an 18th century space race

Listen · 9:41
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198908560/1211846028" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Author Interviews

'Half American' explores how Black WWII servicemen were treated better abroad

Fresh Air

Though more than one million Black Americans contributed to the war effort, historian Matthew Delmont says a military uniform offered no protection from racism. Originally broadcast Nov. 8, 2022.

'Half American' explores how Black WWII servicemen were treated better abroad

Listen · 17:57
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1211793420/1212311603" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Grenada: Nobody's Backyard (2021)

Grenadians watch a landing convoy during the Grenada Invasion of 1983. On October 25, 1983 the United States invaded the island of Grenada after the Grenadian Army, controlled by former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, seized power of Grenada in a bloody coup. Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images

Throughline

Grenada: Nobody's Backyard (2021)

A Marxist revolution, a Cold War proxy battle, and a dream of a Black utopia. In 1983, Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. military to invade the island of Grenada. Forty years later, many Americans don't remember why — or that it even happened. This week, Martine Powers, from Post Reports, brings us a story of revolution, invasion, and the aftermath of unresolved history.

Grenada: Nobody's Backyard (2021)

Listen · 57:51
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198908205/1211689413" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Lice DNA is a revealing textbook of human history

Lice have irked humans for many centuries. In this 1497 woodcut printed in Strasburg, Germany, a man is de-loused. Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images

Goats and Soda

Lice DNA is a revealing textbook of human history

A new study shows how the annoying little louse has hitchhiked around the world with humans and has much to teach us about history.

Lice DNA is a revealing textbook of human history

Listen · 3:39
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1211528184/1211633375" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Inside the weird and delightful origins of the jungle gym, which just turned 100

A jungle gym in the 1970s — a staple of playgrounds all across the U.S. H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images

Inside the weird and delightful origins of the jungle gym, which just turned 100

The history of the jungle gym, and its sibling the monkey bars, is full of weird and delightful twists and sub-plots that take us from Japan to suburban Chicago and delve into theoretical math.

Inside the weird and delightful origins of the jungle gym, which just turned 100

Listen · 8:14
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1209932614/1210404168" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
This trial struck down California's same-sex marriage ban. Now you can see the tapes

Kris Perry (left) and Sandy Stier, two plaintiffs in the landmark 2010 lawsuit that overturned California's ban on same-sex marriage, share photographs from their wedding ceremony during an interview at the KQED offices in San Francisco on March 3. Stier and Perry came to the studio to watch clips of their testimony in federal court, which KQED had fought to get unsealed, for the first time. Kori Suzuki/Kori Suzuki / KQED News hide caption

toggle caption
Kori Suzuki/Kori Suzuki / KQED News

National

This trial struck down California's same-sex marriage ban. Now you can see the tapes

KQED

More than a decade after the trial to overturn Prop. 8 ended, trial videotapes remained sealed, until NPR member station KQED won a long legal battle that got the U.S. Supreme Court to unseal them.

Lessons from brain science — and history's peacemakers — for resolving conflicts

Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to U.S. Congress was running for president in 1972 when she had a remarkable interaction with the pro-segregation George Wallace, then governor of Alabama. Her efforts to build bridges with him ultimately changed his point of view. She's pictured here giving a speech at Laney Community College during her presidential campaign. Howard Erker/Oakland Tribune-MediaNews Group via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Howard Erker/Oakland Tribune-MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Analysis

Shots - Health News

Lessons from brain science — and history's peacemakers — for resolving conflicts

Humans instinctually forge loyalties to groups to survive. Being aware of these impulses can help us deescalate arguments and find common ground. Some notable leaders in history show us how it's done.

Lessons from brain science — and history's peacemakers — for resolving conflicts

Listen · 3:53
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1209395551/1209529139" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Malcolm X arrives — finally — at New York's Metropolitan Opera

Baritone Will Liverman stars in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Zenith Richards/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera hide caption

toggle caption
Zenith Richards/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera

Culture

Malcolm X arrives — finally — at New York's Metropolitan Opera

An opera about civil rights leader Malcolm X opens Friday — nearly 40 years after X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X premiered. The creative team says its message feels more relevant than ever.

Malcolm X arrives — finally — at New York's Metropolitan Opera

Listen · 6:59
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1210208373/1210390454" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Throughline

The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket

Roe. Brown. Obergefell. Dobbs. These Supreme Court decisions are the ones that make headlines, and eventually history books. But today, the vast majority of the Court's work actually happens out of the public eye, on what's become known as the shadow docket. The story of that transformation spans more than a century, and doesn't fall neatly along partisan lines. Today on the show: how the so-called court of last resort has gained more and more power over American policy, and why the debates we don't see are often more important than the ones we do.

The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket

Listen · 49:42
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198908186/1210032948" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Bun in the oven' is an ancient pregnancy metaphor. This historian says it has to go

The "bun in the oven" idea goes all the way back 2,000+ years to Ancient Greece, along with some other ideas that discuss pregnancy as a fundamentally passive state, says the author of a new book. Andrew Bret Wallis/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Andrew Bret Wallis/Getty Images

Shots - Health News

'Bun in the oven' is an ancient pregnancy metaphor. This historian says it has to go

In a new book, Policing Pregnant Bodies, author Kathleen Crowther grapples with how very old ideas – some of them misogynistic – shape how we think about pregnancy and abortion today.

'The Unmarked Graveyard' digs into the mysteries surrounding author Dawn Powell

Dawn Powell moved to New York from Ohio in 1918 to become a writer. Settling in Greenwich Village, Powell published nine novels in her lifetime, exploring fame, relationships and money.

'The Unmarked Graveyard' digs into the mysteries surrounding author Dawn Powell

Listen · 11:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1209273923/1209520899" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Three Faces of Ataturk
ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images

Throughline

The Three Faces of Ataturk

"Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the nation." A military commander named Mustafa Kemal uttered these words in 1923, on the eve of the founding of the Republic of Turkey. He would later rename himself Ataturk, "Father of the Turks." And he was outlining a vision for the future: a future where old empires were buried and new nations reigned supreme. That vision would resonate beyond the borders of the new Turkey, becoming a shining example for leaders around the world of how to build a single unified national identity — no matter the cost.

The Three Faces of Ataturk

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198908163/1209588373" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Northern Soul is thriving across the U.K. thanks to Gen Z looking to dance

Will Foot (left) and Lewis Henderson, of Deptford Northern Soul Club. Deptford Northern Soul Club hide caption

toggle caption
Deptford Northern Soul Club

Culture

Northern Soul is thriving across the U.K. thanks to Gen Z looking to dance

"Northern Soul is inherently up-tempo, Black American music that never really made it in America," says Lewis Henderson, one-half of the Deptford Northern Soul Club in the U.K.

Northern Soul is thriving across the U.K. thanks to Gen Z looking to dance

Listen · 5:10
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1207427173/1208066877" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Lots of U.S. presidents have pushed for Middle East peace. Progress has been elusive

President Joe Biden speaks as he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in an expanded bilateral meeting with Israeli and U.S. government officials, Wednesday in Tel Aviv. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Evan Vucci/AP

Middle East crisis — explained

Lots of U.S. presidents have pushed for Middle East peace. Progress has been elusive

President Biden is the latest in a long line of presidents to place himself in the middle of a Middle East conflict. U.S. efforts have seen failed starts, wrong turns and dead ends, but some progress.

This is how the Republican Party became so strongly pro-Israel

A crowd of mostly Evangelical Christians waves U.S. and Israeli flags during the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) "Night to Honor Israel" event during the CUFI Summit 2023 on July 17, 2023, in Arlington, Va. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Analysis

Middle East crisis — explained

This is how the Republican Party became so strongly pro-Israel

The GOP hasn't always been so focused on Israel, but evangelicals, partisan sorting and neoconservatism all helped change that. Those ties take center stage now as the Israel-Hamas war rages on.

This is how the Republican Party became so strongly pro-Israel

Listen · 4:48
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1206481356/1207028452" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Dance of the Dead (2021)

Illustration by Hokyoung Kim. Illustration by Hokyoung Kim hide caption

toggle caption
Illustration by Hokyoung Kim

Throughline

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

Long before it was a sugary moviefest, the Halloween we know was called Samhain. The Celts of ancient Ireland believed Samhain was a night when the barrier between worlds was thin, the dead could cross over, and if you didn't disguise yourself, evil fairies might spirit you away. Over time the holiday shape-shifted too, thanks to the Catholic Church, pagan groups, and even the brewing company Coors. From the Great Famine of Ireland to Elvira and the Simpsons, we present the many faces of Halloween.

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

Listen · 50:20
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198908127/1206267227" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
What is a kibbutz? The roots of Israel's communal villages where violence raged

Children play at a kindergarten surrounded by decorated concrete blast walls designed to protect from rocket and mortar fire in 2015 in the southern Israeli Kibbutz of Nahal Oz near the border with the Gaza Strip. Menahem Kahana/AFP file photo via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Menahem Kahana/AFP file photo via Getty Images

Middle East crisis — explained

What is a kibbutz? The roots of Israel's communal villages where violence raged

The small, quiet enclaves have long thrived on leftist ideas about collective living. Those located near Gaza suffered some of the worst of the Hamas attacks, with hundreds reported dead.

Browse archive or search npr.org