Stuff You Missed in History Class

A 1792 law prevented African Americans from taking up arms in the Civil War. As attitudes against blacks serving changed, black regiments were formed. But [Read more]

Robert Browning’s early work wasn’t as well-received as Elizabeth Barrett’s poetry. Yet Barrett mentioned his work in one of her poems, and they started a [Read more]

The Lone Ranger has traditionally been portrayed by white actors, but many believe this character is based on an African-American named Bass Reeves. A former [Read more]

During Jack Johnson’s time, the heavyweight championship was unofficially a whites-only title. Despite discrimination, he fought title-holder Tommy Burns in 1908. Johnson became the first [Read more]

By the early 19th century, the Dutch controlled of most of the East Indies. Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles fought to oust the Dutch from [Read more]

The warrior queen Nzinga used wily tactics to maintain her kingdom’s independence during colonization. Born in the Ndongo Kingdom, Nzinga staged a coup, harbored runaway [Read more]

In the first part of this episode, Deblina and Sarah covered Herman W. Mudgett’s early life, including how he first became known as H.H. Holmes. [Read more]

As a student, Herman W. Mudgett used corpses to commit insurance fraud. In 1886, he moved to Chicago under the alias H.H. Holmes. In 1888, [Read more]

Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen was an expert skier, zoologist and artist: By combining these skills, he became one of Norway’s earliest heroes. Listen in as Deblina [Read more]

Fridtjof Nansen was an artist, skier, zoologist and one of Norway’s earliest heroes. The first part of this episode covers his early adventures, while part [Read more]