American History Tellers

In 1620 the Pilgrims arrived in a land already shaped by centuries of Native history. For the people who lived there, the Wampanoag, it was Patuxet—a place with its own stories, its own politics, and, as the Pilgrims...

December 1, 1934. Leningrad mayor Sergei Kirov is assassinated by a lone gunman, giving Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin the justification to purge the Communist Party of his rivals. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or...

In May 1622, the Pilgrims were still reeling from Squanto’s betrayal when a ship appeared in Plymouth Harbor, carrying an advance party for a rival English colony. Governor William Bradford reluctantly agreed to host...

On May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys were brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. The tiny local police department launches an investigation but finds little physical evidence to lead them to a suspect...

November 24, 1859. Charles Darwin sparks a scientific revolution by introducing the theory of evolution in his book On the Origin of Species. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that...

"The winter of 1620-21 took a deadly toll on Plymouth Colony. The Pilgrims had only just begun to construct their homes when illness began spreading through the settlement. Their flimsy shelters offered little...

"In the fall of 1620, the Mayflower embarked on a 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Over the next nine weeks, its passengers and crew battled fierce storms and rampant illness. They had left England...

In the early 1600s, an orphaned teenager named William Bradford joined a clandestine congregation of passionate Puritan worshipers in the village of Scrooby, England. Every Sunday, he met in secret with the radical...

In the aftermath of the deadly shootout at the OK Corral, the residents of Tombstone are sharply divided over whether to indict the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. As the town teeters on the edge of all-out war, Wyatt...

Tensions boil over in Tombstone, Arizona as the Earp brothers confront the Clanton and McLaury outlaw gang, resulting in a 30-second shootout that leaves several dead. With the town divided over the Earps' actions, the...

After several months of anxiety, the tensions in Tombstone finally explode into violence as Ike Clanton and his friends provoke the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday into a deadly showdown. Be the first to know about...

In the 1880s the booming silver mining town of Tombstone, Arizona was home to one of the most famous gunfights in American history. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Wyatt's brothers try to bring law and order to a small...

In early 1864, a group of Union prisoners made a daring escape from Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia - the capital of the Confederacy. Known for its sadistic guards and horrific conditions, Union Officers at Libby...

During World War II, the United States housed hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers who had been captured as prisoners of war. Camp Papago Park, located in Phoenix, was built to hold captured German U-boat crew...

In 1909, a young convicted train robber named Frank Grigware began a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Leavenworth was the nation’s first federal penitentiary, touted as a...

Located amid the treacherous waters of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was designed to hold the most-wanted prisoners in America, and developed a reputation as an unbreakable fortress. But from the...

In February 1864, more than 100 Union Army officers broke out of Libby Prison, an infamous Confederate prisoner of war compound in Richmond, Virginia. It was the largest prison break of the Civil War. Libby held more...

In the early 1850s, as people continued to flood West, California’s booming cities experienced rapid growth, but also turmoil. Fires regularly swept through hastily erected towns, and battles broke out between lawless...

For white settlers, the Gold Rush offered a chance for fortune, but for California’s Native inhabitants, the sudden hunger for gold spelled disaster. As the numbers of miners grew, they forced Native people off their...

In the summer of 1807, Richmond, Virginia hosted the most sensational trial in the young nation’s history. At stake was the life of Aaron Burr, who stood accused of plotting an armed insurrection against the United...

In early 1849, thousands of gold-hungry Americans began pouring into California from the eastern United States. But most of the so-called 49ers were wildly unprepared for the perilous journey west. Once they reached...

In August 1806, Aaron Burr began the final preparations for his mysterious expedition to the western frontier. As he traveled, rumors that he was plotting a dangerous conspiracy followed in his wake. Newspapers reported...

After the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, hundreds of thousands of prospectors poured into California, hoping to strike it rich. In the early days, rather than coming from within the U.S., most miners...

In the summer of 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr was wanted for the murder of Alexander Hamilton. The fatal duel made him a political pariah and the target of widespread public outcry. But as Burr’s Vice Presidency came...

In July 1804, Aaron Burr faced political rival Alexander Hamilton on the cliffs of Weehawken, New Jersey, in a legendary duel that would change Burr’s life forever. As a young man, Burr had distinguished himself as a...