Past Briefly — History, briefly

1492Palos de la Frontera, Spain

Columbus Crosses The Atlantic

Before sunrise, three ships slip from Palos, bound for the unknown. In August 1492, Christopher Columbus leads the fleet from Spain.

1509Westminster Abbey

Henry VIII Crowned

Only Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn ever shared Henry VIII’s crown. In 1509, Henry VIII and his new queen process into Westminster Abbey.

1590Roanoke Island

The Empty Settlement

The Croatoan Mystery

In August 1590, Governor John White returned to Roanoke Island and found the settlers gone. Only the word CROATOAN was carved on a post, with no cross to signal danger.

John White

Manteo

1651Paris

The Béchamel Dispute

In 1651, a French cookbook names a white sauce béchamel, linking it to Louis de Béchameil. Yet, similar sauces appear in earlier Italian texts.

1692Salem Village

Salem After Dark

In Salem Village in early 1692, magistrates questioned Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba after girls in the minister’s house fell into fits.

Reverend Samuel Parris

1706

The Witch of Pungo

Protagonist: Grace Sherwood, a farmer, herb healer and midwife in Pungo. Neighbors accused her of witchcraft; she sued them for slander, and her suits mostly failed.

1776Trenton, New Jersey, USA

Crossing the Delaware · Part 1 of 4

In December 1776 George Washington's army was running out of men. Fighting Britain in America's Revolution, his army had lost battles in New York and fled into Pennsylvania.

1776Trenton, New Jersey, USA

Crossing the Delaware · Part 2 of 4

On Christmas night 1776 George Washington's army had to cross an icy river. Fighting Britain in America's Revolution, about 2,400 men planned a dawn surprise attack on Trenton, New Jersey.

1776Trenton, New Jersey, USA

Crossing the Delaware · Part 3 of 4

The morning after Christmas 1776 George Washington's army marched through a storm. Fighting Britain in America's Revolution, they reached Trenton, New Jersey, at about eight in the morning.

1776Trenton, New Jersey, USA

Crossing the Delaware · Part 4 of 4

In December 1776 George Washington offered his men cash to stay. Fighting Britain in America's Revolution, his army had just won a surprise battle at Trenton, New Jersey.

1789Federal Hall, New York City

The First Oath

Washington Takes Command

On April 30, 1789, in New York City, George Washington took the presidential oath on a balcony as the first presidency began.

1789Tofua, Tonga

The 47-Day Open Boat

The Bounty mutineers kept the charts and cast nineteen men adrift in a 23-foot boat. At Tofua, islanders killed quartermaster John Norton.

1792Buttonwood, Wall Street

The First Exchange

In May 1792, after a financial panic shattered trust in America’s bonds, twenty-four brokers pledged to fix their fees and favor each other.

1803French Ministry

The Louisiana Bargain

Desperate for money and facing a collapsing Caribbean empire, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States, helping transform a young republic into a continental power.

1806London

The Light Bulb Revolution

In 1806, a charcoal arc lamp stunned Londoners but faded fast. Sir Humphry Davy, a British chemist, reveals the world’s first electric light.

1816Villa Diodati

Frankenstein Began as a Challenge

In June 1816, endless storms trapped Lord Byron, eighteen-year-old Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Byron's young doctor John Polidori inside the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva.

1820Sleepy Hollow, New York

The Headless Horseman

For Halloween, the true story behind Washington Irving's 1820 Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, New York.

1842American Museum, New York

Barnum and the Mermaid Hoax

Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid, New York, 1842.

1848Academy of Music, New York

The Rapping Sisters

The Fox sisters, Hydesville and New York, 1848 to 1888.

1854New York Crystal Palace (Bryant Park)

Otis and the Elevator That Refused to Fall

An elevator's rope was cut on purpose, with Elisha Otis riding it. Few trusted hoists to carry people, because a broken rope meant a fall.

1861Fort Sumter

Under Fire

The White House At War

On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter. The bombardment marks the start of the Civil War.

1861Fort Sumter

The White House At War · Part 2 of 2

Lincoln faces a decision: reinforce Fort Sumter or risk war as Confederate batteries bombard the fort.

1869College Field, New Brunswick

The First American Football Game

Fifty young men charge a round ball before a tense crowd. In 1869, two college teams meet in New Brunswick for a contest called 'football.

1872North Atlantic (Mary Celeste find)

Empty Deck

The Ship That Sailed On Without Them

In December 1872, the Mary Celeste was found drifting with sails set, cargo intact, and lifeboat gone. All ten people aboard were missing, including Captain Benjamin Briggs and his family.

Captain Benjamin Briggs

1884Brooklyn Bridge, New York

Jumbo Crosses Brooklyn Bridge

Barnum sent 21 elephants onto the stampede-struck Brooklyn Bridge. In 1884 Barnum's circus was bound for Brooklyn, almost a year after a collapse scare fed that stampede.

1891Washington, D.C.

The Patent Office Séance

The Ouija board patent, Baltimore and Washington, 1891. Protagonist: Elijah Bond, a Baltimore attorney.

1892Exeter, Rhode Island

The Mercy Brown Vampire Panic

Mercy Brown, Exeter, Rhode Island, 1892. Protagonist: George Brown, a farmer.

1897

The Ghost Who Spoke

The Greenbrier Ghost, West Virginia, 1897. Protagonist: Mary Jane Heaster.

1903San Francisco

Bud’s Cross-Country Dash

In 1903 the first car across America carried a dog in goggles. In San Francisco in 1903, Vermont doctor Horatio Nelson Jackson bet that a car could cross America.

1912Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Bullet

Shot in the chest, Theodore Roosevelt still had a speech to give. In Milwaukee in 1912, he coughed and saw no blood, so he judged his lung was not hit.

1917

The Cottingley Fairy Hoax

The Cottingley Fairies, Cottingley, Yorkshire, England, 1917. Protagonist: Elsie Wright, a 16-year-old girl.

1918Berlin

Berlin’s Dangerous Rescuers

In 1919, Germany's new democracy turned right-wing militias on its own capital. The war was lost, the Kaiser gone.

1919Boston's North End neighborhood

The Great Molasses Flood

A steel tank bursts, unleashing a flood of molasses into Boston. In 1919, at 12:30 pm, a storage tank ruptures in Boston’s North End.

1923The Last Dig

The Curse That Wasn't

The Curse of Tutankhamun, Egypt, 1922 and 1923. Protagonist: George Carnarvon, the wealthy Englishman paying for the dig.

1925Lyceum Theatre, London

The Widow Who Hunted Nosferatu

Bram Stoker writes Dracula, London, 1897. Protagonist: Bram Stoker, business manager of the Lyceum Theatre for the famous actor Henry Irving.

1926Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Houdini's Promise to Bess · Part 1 of 2

Harry Houdini and his wife Bess agreed that whoever died first would try to send the other a coded message opening with Rosabelle.

1936Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Houdini's Promise to Bess · Part 2 of 2

Escape artist Harry Houdini swore to his wife he'd try to speak from the grave. He exposed fake psychics who claimed to talk to the dead, then died on Halloween 1926.

1927Roosevelt Field, Long Island

The Windowless Atlantic Flight

Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in a plane with no front window. Airmail pilot Charles Lindbergh left New York alone for Paris in 1927, chasing a twenty-five thousand dollar prize.

1930Manhattan

Raising The Empire State

The building of the Empire State Building. Don’t show the building until it’s actually built.

1935Southern Plains (Black Sunday)

Black Wall

When The Sky Went Black

On the Southern Plains in spring 1935, drought and plow had killed the soil. Wind raised that dirt into a black blizzard that turned noon dark.

1938Cbs Studio, New York City

The War of the Worlds Panic

For Halloween, the true story of the night a radio play made America think Martians had landed.

1942Midway Atoll

The Water Trick

One standalone episode on the codebreakers' water trick before the Battle of Midway, May 1942. Japan's messages called the target "AF".

1945Viersen, Germany

The Ghost Army’s Last Con

One standalone episode on the Ghost Army's rubber tanks near the Rhine, March 1945.

1947Lincoln County, New Mexico

The Roswell Flying Disc

At Roswell in 1947 the Army itself announced a recovered flying disc. But within a day the military called it a weather balloon.

1969Sea of Tranquility, the Moon (launched from Kennedy Space Center LC-39A)

One Small Step

Armstrong takes manual control as Eagle’s computer signals overload, seconds before landing.

1990Gardner Museum, Boston

The Empty Rembrandt Frame

In 1990 fake police cut a Rembrandt from its frame. Two men told a guard at Boston's Gardner Museum in 1990 they were police investigating a disturbance.

2014Parliament Square

The Taking of Crimea

The 2014 invasion of the Crimean Peninsula.

2022Bahamas

Collapse of FTX · Part 1 of 4

One report started a run on an exchange once worth $32 billion. The exchange was FTX, founded in May 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and his co-founder.

2022Bahamas

Collapse of FTX · Part 2 of 4

Sam Bankman-Fried's co-founder found an $8 billion hole in FTX's accounts. That discovery came on the evening of November 6, 2022.

2022Bahamas

Collapse of FTX · Part 3 of 4

Binance looked inside FTX's books, then backed out of buying it. By November 9, Binance had found mismanaged customer funds at the crypto exchange.

2022Luxury Residence

Collapse of FTX · Part 4 of 4

Up to $8 billion in customer funds was missing from FTX. Then, on December 12, 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas, pending extradition to the United States.

1 of 52

Across time & place

Scrub years above — places follow

One continuum: scrub a year, tap a token, or pick the stage — they stay locked together

All episodes

52 · tap to play

44 BCE The Final Morning The season opens on the morning of 15 March 44 BCE, as Julius Caesar prepares to leave his house for a Senate meeting at the Theatre of Pompey.

Julius Caesar

Marcus Junius Brutus

Gaius Cassius Longinus

1492 Columbus Crosses The Atlantic Before sunrise, three ships slip from Palos, bound for the unknown. In August 1492, Christopher Columbus leads the fleet from Spain.

1509 Henry VIII Crowned Only Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn ever shared Henry VIII’s crown. In 1509, Henry VIII and his new queen process into Westminster Abbey.

1590 The Empty Settlement In August 1590, Governor John White returned to Roanoke Island and found the settlers gone. Only the word CROATOAN was carved on a post, with no cross to signal danger.

John White

Manteo

1651 The Béchamel Dispute In 1651, a French cookbook names a white sauce béchamel, linking it to Louis de Béchameil. Yet, similar sauces appear in earlier Italian texts.

1692 Salem After Dark In Salem Village in early 1692, magistrates questioned Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba after girls in the minister’s house fell into fits.

Reverend Samuel Parris

Tituba

Sarah Good

Sarah Osborne

1706 The Witch of Pungo Protagonist: Grace Sherwood, a farmer, herb healer and midwife in Pungo. Neighbors accused her of witchcraft; she sued them for slander, and her suits mostly failed.

1776 Crossing the Delaware · Part 1 of 4 In December 1776 George Washington's army was running out of men. Fighting Britain in America's Revolution, his army had lost battles in New York and fled into Pennsylvania.

1776 Crossing the Delaware · Part 2 of 4 On Christmas night 1776 George Washington's army had to cross an icy river. Fighting Britain in America's Revolution, about 2,400 men planned a dawn surprise attack on Trenton, New Jersey.

1776 Crossing the Delaware · Part 3 of 4 The morning after Christmas 1776 George Washington's army marched through a storm. Fighting Britain in America's Revolution, they reached Trenton, New Jersey, at about eight in the morning.

1776 Crossing the Delaware · Part 4 of 4 In December 1776 George Washington offered his men cash to stay. Fighting Britain in America's Revolution, his army had just won a surprise battle at Trenton, New Jersey.

1789 The First Oath On April 30, 1789, in New York City, George Washington took the presidential oath on a balcony as the first presidency began.

1789 The 47-Day Open Boat The Bounty mutineers kept the charts and cast nineteen men adrift in a 23-foot boat. At Tofua, islanders killed quartermaster John Norton.

1792 The First Exchange In May 1792, after a financial panic shattered trust in America’s bonds, twenty-four brokers pledged to fix their fees and favor each other.

1803 The Louisiana Bargain Desperate for money and facing a collapsing Caribbean empire, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States, helping transform a young republic into a continental power.

1806 The Light Bulb Revolution In 1806, a charcoal arc lamp stunned Londoners but faded fast. Sir Humphry Davy, a British chemist, reveals the world’s first electric light.

1816 Frankenstein Began as a Challenge In June 1816, endless storms trapped Lord Byron, eighteen-year-old Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Byron's young doctor John Polidori inside the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva.

1820 The Headless Horseman For Halloween, the true story behind Washington Irving's 1820 Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, New York.

1842 Barnum and the Mermaid Hoax Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid, New York, 1842.

1848 The Rapping Sisters The Fox sisters, Hydesville and New York, 1848 to 1888.

1854 Otis and the Elevator That Refused to Fall An elevator's rope was cut on purpose, with Elisha Otis riding it. Few trusted hoists to carry people, because a broken rope meant a fall.

1861 Under Fire On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter. The bombardment marks the start of the Civil War.

1861 The White House At War · Part 2 of 2 Lincoln faces a decision: reinforce Fort Sumter or risk war as Confederate batteries bombard the fort.