History

Music & Culture

Helen Keller's Glimpse Of Beethoven's 'Heavenly Vibration'

11:27am March 29, 2014

NPR's Scott Simon reads from a letter written by activist Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind. It was written in 1924, after she listened to a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

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The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sent a telegram to Mary Peabody's son, Massachusetts Gov. Endicott Peabody. King thanked the governor for the sacrifices of his mother, Mary, and for her willingness to be jailed for the St. Augustine sit-in.

National

Why A Proper Lady Found Herself Behind Bars

10:55pm March 28, 2014

by Karen Grigsby Bates

As racial tensions were rising in 1964, Mary Peabody, the mother of the Massachusetts governor, went to St. Augustine, Fla., to protest segregation.

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National

When A Record Quake Struck Alaska, One Small Church Survived

7:03pm March 27, 2014

by Dan Collison

Two residents of Old Harbor, Alaska, recall the 9.2 earthquake that devastated the town 50 years ago Thursday. It remains the largest recorded earthquake in North America and the second in the world.

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Books
Arts

What U.S. Learned From 'Heathen School' Wasn't Part Of The Lesson Plan

9:51am March 19, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

The 19th century Connecticut school sought to convert young men from Hawaii, China, India and the Native American nations and then send them home as Christian missionaries. It did not go as planned.

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Carl Hoffman is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler.

Books
Arts

Cannibals And Colonialism: Solving The Mystery Of Michael Rockefeller

5:14pm March 18, 2014

The son of one of America's wealthiest families disappeared off the island of New Guinea in 1961. Writer Carl Hoffman explains how he thinks Rockefeller died and why the truth was kept hidden.

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As one listener points out, we might not have carrot cake today if Germans weren't forced to bake with ersatz materials during World War I. This little girl might have had to settle for chocolate instead.

A Farewell To Carrot Cake (And Other Things Lost Without World War I)

3:18pm March 14, 2014

by NPR Staff

All Things Considered asked listeners to imagine how one aspect of the past 100 years would be different if the Great War had never happened. We received more than 1,500 fascinating stories.

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Without World War I, the woman's suffrage movement might have been slower to gain traction.

Without World War I, A Slower U.S. Rise, No 'God Bless America'

4:45pm March 13, 2014

by NPR Staff

If the Great War had never happened, America might look vastly different. Among other things, woman's suffrage and the civil rights movement might have suffered.

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Vladimir Lenin in 1900. In our counterfactual history, his career as the producer of the musical Pins and Needles is only a few years away.

A World Without World War I, Featuring Health-Nut Hitler

4:43pm March 13, 2014

by NPR Staff

One hundred years after the Great War, we're looking back at the history that wasn't. If Archduke Franz Ferdinand hadn't been killed in 1914, how would the world be different?

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Pepsi was the first American consumer product to be manufactured and sold in the former Soviet Union. In 1991, Russians could buy the soda for 20 kopeks, about 10 cents.

What Pepsi Can Teach Us About Soft (Drink) Power In Russia

9:09pm March 10, 2014

by Sonari Glinton

The soft drink giant is one of the few big U.S. firms with major investments in Russia. And the reasons why say a lot about why the U.S. has less leverage in Russia than it might like.

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Martin Luther King Jr., shown here with Stokely Carmichael during a voter registration march in Mississippi in 1966, regarded the younger Carmichael as one of the civil rights movement's most promising leaders.

Books
Arts

Stokely Carmichael, A Philosopher Behind The Black Power Movement

12:26pm March 10, 2014

by Karen Grigsby Bates

A new biography traces Carmichael's evolution from civil rights activist to an early proponent of the black power movement and international human rights advocate.

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