Showing results by author "Hourly History" in All Categories

Benedict Arnold: a name that has become synonymous with betrayal. However, this wasn't always the case. At one time he was General (and future first president) George Washington's trusted advisor in the struggle against the British. What caused this turncoat to turn his revolutionary ambitions inside out to match the crimson of the British? What brought on one of the most famous treacheries in history?

On May 25, 1961, less than two months after a Soviet cosmonaut had made the very first space flight, President John F. Kennedy told Congress, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

Often referred to as the quiet Beatle, George Harrison’s demure and slightly moody visage can be seen peeking out at us from countless Beatles and solo albums. It seemed that George was such a powerful presence, he really didn’t even need to speak. This was the man who bid us to listen while his guitar gently wept.

This is a short timeline of Brian Boru.

This is a short timeline of Thomas Paine, a well-known political activist and revolutionary. He was born in England and later migrated to Philadelphia. He is best known for his two influential pamphlets encouraging patriots to gain independence from the British. He was a major source of inspiration for the American Revolution.

This audiobook is a short timeline of Ada Lovelace, a mathematician and writer, born to the English poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Byron.

Douglas MacArthur was one of the greatest military generals in history and played a crucial role in securing an Allied victory in the Pacific during World War II. While he’s often remembered for his strategic genius and iron will, there’s much more to the man than his battlefield successes. MacArthur was deeply committed to his promises and driven by a strong sense of duty, qualities that came into sharp focus when he vowed to return to the Philippines after it fell to the Japanese. And true to his word, he did just that, making history along the way.

Jimmy Buffett is an icon. His songs play on repeat in our heads, and his laid-back, carefree attitude is undeniably infectious. When we think of Jimmy Buffett, it’s often an image of him on a beach, margarita in one hand and guitar in the other. Interestingly, Buffett admits that his initial motivation for picking up the guitar was simply to impress girls. Of course, what began as a playful endeavor quickly evolved into a remarkable musical career.

James K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States, played a pivotal role in shaping the nation. Many presidents might be given such a description, but for James Polk, it was more or less a case of manifest destiny. It was Polk who led the charge to expand the United States from sea to shining sea. Under his watch, both the northwestern border with Canada as well as the southwestern border with Mexico were put in place.

Active US involvement in what became known as the Vietnam War (in Vietnam, this conflict is remembered as the American War) began in 1961 and spanned a period of twelve years until the Paris Peace Talks finally brought the deployment of American combat troops to an end in early 1973. Unfortunately, the peace talks didn’t also lead to the end of the civil war between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).

Alan Rickman was one of Britain’s most beloved actors. His portrayal of the cunning Hans Gruber in the 1988 blockbuster Die Hard set a new standard for movie villains with his perfect blend of charm and menace. Rickman then became a household name playing Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series. His performance captured the layers of emotion and complexity that made Snape one of the most memorable and celebrated figures in the series.

Bob Hope was the kind of entertainer who only comes along once in a lifetime. Spanning the decades, he worked through just about every era of the 20th century. Hope grew up doing his best vaudeville routine and ended up performing far and wide with the USO during World War II and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, Iran, and Iraq. In later life, he slowed down a bit, but he still found time to perform both in movies and in person.

The Battle of Jutland, fought near Denmark’s Jutland peninsula in 1916, was unique in the first World War as the only major battle to be fought at sea. In this audiobook, you will hear about these battles, the personalities of the men involved, the planning, and the skirmishes that finally led to the confusion and devastating loss of life at the Battle of Jutland.

J. R. R. Tolkien, an orphan in love with words, spent most of his life as an unassuming Professor of Literature at Oxford studying and teaching old languages. During his time there, he created his very own languages and a mythological world, Middle-earth. Middle-earth was inhabited by Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, and other fascinating creatures. It was a world that became almost more real to Tolkien than the one he lived in. Tolkien’s two masterpieces, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, have set the standard in mythological literature.

Benito Mussolini was a figure that was both revered and dreaded. He climbed the ladder of power rapidly in Italian politics, and he was brought down just as fast. Mussolini wished to stir up a united front of nationalism within his people. But, in the end, the only thing he united was their hatred and contempt for him as a despotic leader. There were several twists and turns in the life of Benito Mussolini, and this book will take you through them all. Follow his astonishing rise and his dramatic fall.

Auschwitz is a monument to the barbaric inhumanity of the Nazi regime. It is the site where more than one million people were systematically tortured and killed in support of Adolf Hitler’s determination to eradicate entire populations that he viewed as racially impure.

It has been several decades now since Francisco Franco’s passing in 1975, and yet his legacy still seems very much in the air. Depending on who you talk to, Franco was a fascist and a peacemaker, a destroyer and a savior, an idiot and a genius. Even after all this time, opinions of just who Franco was and how he contributed to modern civilization are up for open debate.

The Battle of Stalingrad, perceived by historians as the most important battle of World War II and regarded by Russians as the most significant battle in their country’s history, cannot be viewed solely as a military engagement between two powerful, long-time foes. Stalingrad was a battle between the Allies and the Axis Powers; it was a struggle between the Soviet Union and Germany for victory; and it was also a test of wills between Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

The most notorious man in history, Adolf Hitler, is best known for having perpetrated crimes against humanity over the six-year course of World War II. His brutal extermination policies are responsible for the deaths of close to 30 million people he considered inferior, and added to that, the military casualties suffered by all parties, yields a grand total of approximately 60 million people dead by the end of the war. That number equates to 3% of the world's population at the time. But, who was this man? What made him into the monster he became? Can his childhood explain the formation of such a brutal dictator?

Thanks to a certain novel and movie franchise, the Jurassic Period has been indelibly cemented in the public imagination as the time of dinosaurs. That was certainly true: the Jurassic Period saw reptiles such as the long-necked Brachiosaurus, the armored Stegosaurus, and the fearsome Allosaurus become the dominant living creatures on planet Earth, a position they maintained for more than 150 million years. However, many of the movie dinosaurs that decorated millions of lunchboxes and backpacks were not from the Jurassic Period at all, but from the following Cretaceous Period.