# Past Briefly

> History, briefly. Short-form historical documentary studio.

Past Briefly publishes concise, record-disciplined historical documentary
episodes. AI-assisted reconstruction from documented history — not fiction
genres, not a public consumer storytelling app.

Facts on this page come from published titles and blurbs only. Do not invent
quotations, private thoughts, or undocumented claims.

## Site

- Home: https://pastbriefly.com/
- About: https://pastbriefly.com/about/
- Terms: https://pastbriefly.com/terms/
- Privacy: https://pastbriefly.com/privacy/
- Sitemap: https://pastbriefly.com/sitemap.xml
- Contact: hq@pastbriefly.com

## Episodes

- [Charles Wilkes And The USS Vincennes](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/charles-wilkes-and-the-uss-vincennes/) — In 1838 in Antarctic Ocean, Charles Wilkes wanted to prove the existence of the Antarctic continent.
- [Baron Karl von Drais Velocipede](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/baron-karl-von-drais-velocipede/) — In 1817 in Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany, Baron Karl von Drais wanted to create a faster personal transportation device.
- [Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Experiment](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/benjamin-franklins-lightning-experiment/) — In 1752 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin wanted to prove that lightning was electrical in nature.
- [Hiroo Onoda's Jungle Stand](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/hiroo-onodas-jungle-stand/) — In 1974 in Luzon Island, Philippines, Hiroo Onoda wanted to follow his military orders to continue fighting.
- [Henry Gunther's Final Charge](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/henry-gunthers-final-charge/) — Henry Gunther, November 11, 1918: the last American soldier killed in World War I, charging a German machine gun at 10:59 a.
- [Von Braun's Bicycle Surrender](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/von-brauns-bicycle-surrender/) — Werner von Braun, 1945, Peenemünde.
- [Hugo Grotius Escapes Loevestein](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/hugo-grotius-escapes-loevestein/) — Loevestein's soldiers grew lax about checking Hugo Grotius's chest of books.
- [Hannibal's Escape at Ager Falernus](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/hannibals-escape-at-ager-falernus/) — Hannibal's men lit brushwood on the horns of captured oxen.
- [Crossing the Delaware · Part 4 of 4](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/crossing-the-delaware-part-4/) — topic: Crossing the Delaware — In December 1776 George Washington offered his men cash to stay.
- [The Patent Office Séance](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-patent-office-seance/) — The Ouija board patent, Baltimore and Washington, 1891.
- [The Mercy Brown Vampire Panic](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-mercy-brown-vampire-panic/) — Mercy Brown, Exeter, Rhode Island, 1892.
- [Barnum and the Mermaid Hoax](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/barnum-and-the-mermaid-hoax/) — Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid, New York, 1842.
- [The Witch of Pungo](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-witch-of-pungo/) — Protagonist: Grace Sherwood, a farmer, herb healer and midwife in Pungo.
- [The Curse That Wasn't](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-curse-that-wasnt/) — The Curse of Tutankhamun, Egypt, 1922 and 1923.
- [Crossing the Delaware · Part 3 of 4](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/crossing-the-delaware-part-3/) — topic: Crossing the Delaware — The morning after Christmas 1776 George Washington's army marched through a storm.
- [The Rapping Sisters](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-rapping-sisters/) — The Fox sisters, Hydesville and New York, 1848 to 1888.
- [The Widow Who Hunted Nosferatu](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-widow-who-hunted-nosferatu/) — Bram Stoker writes Dracula, London, 1897.
- [The Cottingley Fairy Hoax](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-cottingley-fairy-hoax/) — The Cottingley Fairies, Cottingley, Yorkshire, England, 1917.
- [The Ghost Who Spoke](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-ghost-who-spoke/) — The Greenbrier Ghost, West Virginia, 1897.
- [Crossing the Delaware · Part 2 of 4](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/crossing-the-delaware-part-2/) — topic: Crossing the Delaware — On Christmas night 1776 George Washington's army had to cross an icy river.
- [The War of the Worlds Panic](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-war-of-the-worlds-panic/) — For Halloween, the true story of the night a radio play made America think Martians had landed.
- [The Headless Horseman](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-headless-horseman/) — For Halloween, the true story behind Washington Irving's 1820 Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, New York.
- [Frankenstein Began as a Challenge](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/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….
- [Crossing the Delaware · Part 1 of 4](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/crossing-the-delaware/) — topic: Crossing the Delaware — In December 1776 George Washington's army was running out of men.
- [Houdini's Promise to Bess · Part 2 of 2](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/houdinis-promise-to-bess-part-2/) — topic: Houdini's Promise to Bess — Escape artist Harry Houdini swore to his wife he'd try to speak from the grave.
- [Houdini's Promise to Bess · Part 1 of 2](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/houdinis-promise-to-bess/) — topic: Houdini's Promise to Bess — Harry Houdini and his wife Bess agreed that whoever died first would try to send the other a coded message opening with Rosabelle.
- [Berlin’s Dangerous Rescuers](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/berlins-dangerous-rescuers/) — In 1919, Germany's new democracy turned right-wing militias on its own capital.
- [Collapse of FTX · Part 4 of 4](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/collapse-of-ftx-part-4/) — topic: Collapse of FTX — Up to $8 billion in customer funds was missing from FTX.
- [Collapse of FTX · Part 3 of 4](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/collapse-of-ftx-part-3/) — topic: Collapse of FTX — Binance looked inside FTX's books, then backed out of buying it.
- [Collapse of FTX · Part 2 of 4](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/collapse-of-ftx-part-2/) — topic: Collapse of FTX — Sam Bankman-Fried's co-founder found an $8 billion hole in FTX's accounts.
- [Collapse of FTX · Part 1 of 4](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/collapse-of-ftx/) — topic: Collapse of FTX — One report started a run on an exchange once worth $32 billion.
- [The Roswell Flying Disc](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-roswell-flying-disc/) — At Roswell in 1947 the Army itself announced a recovered flying disc.
- [The Louisiana Bargain](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-louisiana-bargain/) — Desperate for money and facing a collapsing Caribbean empire, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States, helping transform a young rep….
- [The Taking of Crimea](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-taking-of-crimea/) — The 2014 invasion of the Crimean Peninsula.
- [Jumbo Crosses Brooklyn Bridge](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/jumbo-crosses-brooklyn-bridge/) — Barnum sent 21 elephants onto the stampede-struck Brooklyn Bridge.
- [Raising The Empire State](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/raising-the-empire-state/) — The building of the Empire State Building.
- [Bud’s Cross-Country Dash](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/buds-cross-country-dash/) — In 1903 the first car across America carried a dog in goggles.
- [The Windowless Atlantic Flight](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-windowless-atlantic-flight/) — Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in a plane with no front window.
- [The Empty Rembrandt Frame](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-empty-rembrandt-frame/) — In 1990 fake police cut a Rembrandt from its frame.
- [Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Bullet](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/teddy-roosevelts-bull-moose-bullet/) — Shot in the chest, Theodore Roosevelt still had a speech to give.
- [Otis and the Elevator That Refused to Fall](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/otis-and-the-elevator-that-refused-to-fall/) — An elevator's rope was cut on purpose, with Elisha Otis riding it.
- [The 47-Day Open Boat](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-47-day-open-boat/) — The Bounty mutineers kept the charts and cast nineteen men adrift in a 23-foot boat.
- [The Water Trick](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-water-trick/) — One standalone episode on the codebreakers' water trick before the Battle of Midway, May 1942.
- [Henry VIII Crowned](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/henry-viii-crowned/) — Only Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn ever shared Henry VIII’s crown.
- [The Ghost Army’s Last Con](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-ghost-armys-last-con/) — One standalone episode on the Ghost Army's rubber tanks near the Rhine, March 1945.
- [The Great Molasses Flood](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-great-molasses-flood/) — A steel tank bursts, unleashing a flood of molasses into Boston.
- [The Light Bulb Revolution](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-light-bulb-revolution/) — In 1806, a charcoal arc lamp stunned Londoners but faded fast.
- [One Small Step](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/one-small-step/) — Armstrong takes manual control as Eagle’s computer signals overload, seconds before landing.
- [The First American Football Game](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-first-american-football-game/) — Fifty young men charge a round ball before a tense crowd.
- [Columbus Crosses The Atlantic](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/columbus-crosses-the-atlantic/) — Before sunrise, three ships slip from Palos, bound for the unknown.
- [The First Exchange](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/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.
- [Salem After Dark](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/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 int….
- [Empty Deck](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-ship-that-sailed-on-without-them/) — topic: The Ship That Sailed On Without Them — In December 1872, the Mary Celeste was found drifting with sails set, cargo intact, and lifeboat gone.
- [The First Oath](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/washington-takes-command/) — topic: 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.
- [Black Wall](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/when-the-sky-went-black/) — topic: When The Sky Went Black — On the Southern Plains in spring 1935, drought and plow had killed the soil.
- [The Empty Settlement](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-croatoan-mystery/) — topic: The Croatoan Mystery — In August 1590, Governor John White returned to Roanoke Island and found the settlers gone.
- [The Final Morning](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-ides-before-dawn/) — topic: The Ides Before Dawn — 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 P….
- [The White House At War · Part 2 of 2](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-white-house-at-war-part-2/) — topic: The White House At War — Lincoln faces a decision: reinforce Fort Sumter or risk war as Confederate batteries bombard the fort.
- [Under Fire](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-white-house-at-war/) — topic: The White House At War — On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter.
- [The Béchamel Dispute](https://pastbriefly.com/watch/the-bechamel-dispute/) — In 1651, a French cookbook names a white sauce béchamel, linking it to Louis de Béchameil.

## People

- [Abraham Lincoln](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/abraham-lincoln/) — Abraham Lincoln
- [Captain Benjamin Briggs](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/captain-benjamin-briggs/) — Captain Benjamin Briggs
- [Gaius Cassius Longinus](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/gaius-cassius-longinus/) — Gaius Cassius Longinus
- [George Washington](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/george-washington/) — George Washington
- [Jefferson Davis](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/jefferson-davis/) — Jefferson Davis
- [John White](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/john-white/) — John White
- [Julius Caesar](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/julius-caesar/) — Julius Caesar
- [Manteo](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/manteo/) — Manteo
- [Marcus Junius Brutus](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/marcus-junius-brutus/) — Marcus Junius Brutus
- [Reverend Samuel Parris](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/reverend-samuel-parris/) — Reverend Samuel Parris
- [Sarah Good](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/sarah-good/) — Sarah Good
- [Sarah Osborne](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/sarah-osborne/) — Sarah Osborne
- [Tituba](https://pastbriefly.com/characters/tituba/) — Tituba

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