Episodes

Georg Elser's failure is one of the most remarkable stories in European history. Georg Elser, Circa 1939 The contrast between Adolf Hitler and Georg Elser could not have been more dramatic. Hitler was a fanatically driven over achiever who had overcome his lower middle class background, lack of education and early personal failures to become one of the most charismatic and extroverted political figures of the twentieth century. Elser was a simple woodworker, with an intermittent work history, an...

Georg Elser's failure is one of the most remarkable stories in European history. Burgerbraukeller, After Explosion At precisely 9:20, the first of George Elser’s clocks activated perfectly the bomb detonated with a tremendous blast that pulverized the speaker’s platform, shattered the pillar behind it and brought the roof of the building down upon its inhabitants. Dust and debris filled the air, the room now shrouded in darkness with beams falling and screams for help. Seven people were killed i...

Michelangelo, the Eternal Genius Michelangelo Michelangelo Buonarroti-Simoni was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese, Italy in Tuscany , about sixty miles east of Florence. A month later his father moved the family back to the Tuscan capital. Ludovico Buonarroti’s family were bankers and money lenders and despite the failure of the family bank, Michelangelo’s father managed assets and property that allowed an upper middle class existence. He occasionally served as a bureaucrat and at the time of Mi...

Michelangelo, the Eternal Genius Pope Julius II, by Raphael The relationship between Julius II and Michelangelo has been dramatized as a nasty battle of wills between two egocentric men. In actuality, Michelangelo’s issue with the Pope stemmed from the reality that Julius’ main focus was to expand the territory of the Papal States and the ensuing warfare that would be required. Michelangelo’s artistic projects would always be secondary to this fundamental. Moses, St. Peter in Vincoli, Rome As so...

Harriet Tubman, righteous heroine Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross in the eastern shore region of Maryland in 1822. Her exact date of birth remains unknown. Both of her parents were slaves, Harriet (Rit) Green and Ben Ross. John Brown The summer of 1859 also brought a resumption of John Brown’s plan for rebellion. He was already gathering assets in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in anticipation of his planned attack on the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. His plan was...

Alexander Hamilton, the Zelig of American military and political history. Alexander Hamilton, First Secretary of the US Treasury The circumstances surrounding the birth of Alexander Hamilton are complicated and even when he was born is a matter of dispute. His mother, Rachel Faucette, was of British and French descent. His father, James Hamilton was a Scot. They met on the island of St. Kitts in the British West Indies where James Hamilton was unsuccessfully attempting to build a career trading ...

Francis Scott Key and the National Anthem Francis Scott Key Key was a prominent lawyer from Frederick, Maryland who, through a sequence of incidents that occurred during the War of 1812, observed one of the most critical episodes in American history. Map of the Battle of Baltimore In fact, Ross and Cockburn had decided on a coordinated air and sea attack. Ross would land his troops at North Point, Maryland at the tip of the Patapsco Neck and make the short fifteen-mile march to the city. After t...

Amelia Earhart, Lost Heroine Amelia Earhart as a child. Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. Although her mother came from a wealthy family, her father was an attorney but also an alcoholic with an erratic work history that lead to an unstable childhood for both Amelia and her sister, Muriel. Amelia would attend six high schools before graduating from Hyde Park High School in Chicago. The iconic photograph of Amelia Earhart and her Lockheed Electra 10E Although Amelia di...

Paul Gauguin, the Bitterness and the Beauty Paul Gauguin in Breton attire. From his very first days, Gauguin’s life was filled with a volatile instability that must have affected his development. He was born in Paris on June 7, 1848. His father, Clovis, was a journalist, his mother, Aline, the daughter of Flora Tristan, a seminal feminist writer of the early nineteenth century. Aline’s father had been imprisoned for the attempted murder of Flora, an indication of the chaos surrounding Gauguin’s ...

Jack Johnson, the Real Deal Jack Johnson, The Galveston Giant Jack Johnson was born on March 31, 1878 in Galveston. Very little can be verified about his early life. Most historical information about him comes from autobiographies that he published himself. Had he not gone on to achieve boxing notoriety, both he and his family would have been completely forgotten. Jack Johnson knocks out Jim Jeffries, July 4, 1910, Reno, Nevada. By the end of the fourteenth round Jeffries could barely see, his n...

King Ludwig II of Bavaria, a Beautiful Madness http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/the-125th-anniversary-of-the-death-of-king-ludwig-ii/100085/Ludwig II as a young man Ludwig II was born on August 25, 1845. His father, Maximillian, was then the...

Billie Holiday, Lady Day Billie Holiday, 1917 Sometimes the most remarkable artistic genius can emerge from the humblest of beginnings. Sarah Julia Harris was born on August 16, 1895 in Baltimore, MD. Disowned by her father, she was raised by her mother, who ultimately married another man and had two more children. Like her siblings, Sarah, nicknamed “Sadie”, began working at cleaning jobs at an early age, a lack of education rendered her virtually illiterate. She was employed on the railroad tr...

Edgar Allan Poe: Life Sucks and Then You Die Edgar Allan Poe, only days after his suicide attempt, 1848 Poe was born Edgar Poe on January 19, 1809, in the city of Boston. His parents, David and Eliza were actors that travelled a circuit along the Eastern seaboard. His mother performed a week before his birth and would return again to the Boston stage a month later, which is indicative of the economic stability of Poe’s family. David Poe had abandoned a career in law to try and achieve his wife’s...

Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Revolutionary Poster Boy Che Guevara, El Guerrillero Heroico, by Korda Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Rosario, Argentina on May 14, 1928. His upper class parents forged his birth certificate to read June 14 to conceal the fact that Ernesto was conceived out of wedlock. Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna y Llosa both came from socially well-connected families. Despite Ernesto Sr.’s attempts at several money-making ventures, the family lived on Celia’s inhe...

Friedrich Nietzsche: I am not a Man! I am Dynamite! Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Rocken, Germany on October 15, 1844. In July of 1849, Nietzsche’s father, a thirty-five year old minister, died of an indeterminate brain condition, forcing the family to move to the nearby town of Naumburg. Both of these locations are in the Saxony region, former German Democratic Republic, approximately thirty miles southwest of the city of Leipzig. Paul Ree, Lou Salome and Nietzsche Ree and...

Mildred Fish Harnack, the Only American Female Ever Executed For Espionage by Nazi Germany Mildred Harnack, courtesy, Eric D. Carlson Mildred Fish Harnack was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on September 16, 1902. Her parents, descended from a New England, protestant background, separated when Mildred was a teenager and she was primarily raised by her mother. After her father’s death in 1918, the family relocated to the Washington, DC area but Mildred returned in 1921 to attend the University of Wi...

Captain George Smith Anthony and The Voyage of the SS Catalpa http://www.bytesizedbiographies.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/captain-anthony.jpgIn 1874, rebel leader John Devoy received another letter from Fenian prisoner James Wilson that he chose to...

John Paul Jones, Admiral and Patriot John Paul Jones Considered a hero of the American Revolution, John Paul Jones was born in Scotland, carried out most of his naval exploits in the British Isles and died in Paris. His most famous encounter, a victory over the British warship, HMS Serapis, took place off of the coast of Yorkshire, England, thousands of miles from the American colonies. Artist's rendition of the Bon Homme Richard vs. HMS Serapis. It is now a matter of historical debate as to whe...