Our American Stories

On this episode of Our American Stories, during the height of the Cold War, the United States worked tirelessly to stay ahead of the Soviet Union in the global arms race. Safeguards were put in place to prevent the accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons, including special systems known as Permissive Action Links, or PAL codes.

But for almost two decades, the launch code for America’s nuclear arsenal was just...

On this episode of Our American Stories, John Humphrey had been told his heart could stop without warning. Doctors had discovered a dangerous arrhythmia, and surgery was coming. But before the procedure, John wanted one more chance to take the mound with his teammates. His parents watched from the bleachers. An AED sat nearby in case his heart failed. Then John went out and pitched the game of his life, striking out 14 batters and ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Ed Sullivan couldn't sing, dance, act, or tell a joke. He wasn't even particularly comfortable in front of a camera. Yet for more than two decades, millions of Americans tuned in every Sunday night to watch him introduce the biggest names in entertainment. It was an unlikely destination for a poor kid from Harlem who spent years chasing success as a sportswriter, gossip columnist, and radio ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, by 1864, the Confederacy was losing the Civil War on the battlefield. But hundreds of miles behind Union lines, Confederate agents were fighting a very different kind of war. Working out of secret bases in places like Montreal, they gathered intelligence, plotted acts of sabotage, worked with Northern antiwar activists, and searched for ways to disrupt the presidential election and ignite an...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1942, Elizabeth and Robert Dexter took charge of the Unitarian Service Committee's relief office in Lisbon, Portugal, as Jews and other desperate refugees fled Nazi-occupied Europe. Many arrived without valid papers, having crossed borders illegally and hidden in freight trains, vegetable carts, and anywhere else they could find safety. With Portuguese authorities watching their operation...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1847, Samuel Colt's firearms business was all but dead. Then Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker came to him with an idea for a massive new revolver built for mounted combat. Walker had carried Colt's earlier guns in battle and knew exactly what he wanted improved. Together, the two developed a six-shot revolver unlike anything American soldiers had carried before. The Colt Walker...

On this episode of Our American Stories, from the American Revolution to the Civil Rights Movement, the biblical prophet Daniel has served as an enduring American symbol of courage in the face of unjust authority. His refusal to abandon his faith, even when threatened with the lions' den, offered Americans a powerful example of standing firm when human laws conflicted with a higher moral law.

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern, co-aut...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Dave Cobb grew up in Savannah, Georgia, listening to everything from church hymns to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. He didn't discover country music until moving to California and working with Shooter Jennings, which introduced him to the music of Waylon Jennings and eventually led him to Nashville. There, Cobb became one of the most acclaimed producers in country music.

In this conv...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1940, 26-year-old Roswell and Marjorie McClelland put aside the academic and professional lives they had planned and sailed for Europe with the Quakers' American Friends Service Committee. War had already engulfed the continent, and the young American couple soon found themselves helping Jewish and political refugees fleeing the Nazis.

For our ongoing series The Six Percent, D...

On this episode of Our American Stories, on May 12, 1864, a large oak tree stood in the middle of some of the fiercest fighting of the Civil War. For nearly 20 hours, Union and Confederate soldiers battled at close range at the Bloody Angle during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Thousands of bullets ripped through the air, and so many struck the oak that they eventually cut through its trunk and brought the tree crashing do...

On this episode of Our American Stories, before PEZ dispensers came topped with Mickey Mouse, Santa Claus, and superheroes, PEZ was a benign Austrian peppermint marketed to adults as an alternative to smoking. Then PEZ came to America and flopped. Instead of giving up, the company decided to change course, and a candy once meant for adults found an entirely new audience in American children.

Shawn Peterson, author of PE...

On this episode of Our American Stories, at 11 years old, Victoria Arlen's body began shutting down. Eventually, she lost the ability to move or communicate and spent nearly four years in a vegetative state while doctors told her family she would never recover. What they didn't know was that Victoria was still there. She could hear them, understand them, and remember everything. Then one day, she blinked twice for her mother and pr...

On this episode of Our American Stories, a century ago, Tampa, Florida, was "Cigar City." Some 150 factories filled the city, where workers rolled more than 500 million cigars by hand each year. One by one, those factories disappeared as the industry changed and production moved overseas. Today, only one remains. The J.C. Newman Cigar Company still makes cigars in Tampa using many of the same methods that helped make the city famou...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in February 2021, a historic winter storm brought much of Texas to a standstill. Tim Hennessey and his wife, Debbie, braved the icy roads to pick up groceries for themselves and some friends. Then, while they were shopping at their local H-E-B, the power went out. The checkout lines quickly filled, but instead of asking customers to wait, employees began waving them toward the doors. Take yo...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1852, Constantino Brumidi arrived in New York as a refugee from Rome. He was already an accomplished artist, but in America, he found the work that would consume the rest of his life. For the next twenty-five years, Brumidi climbed scaffolds, painted ceilings, and covered the halls of the U.S. Capitol with scenes drawn from American history and the ideals of his adopted country.

Hi...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Horst Schulze, co-founder of Ritz-Carlton and author of Excellence Wins, built his career around a simple idea: every employee has the power to define an entire organization in the eyes of a customer. Years ago, before speaking to hundreds of managers at a Chicago bank, Schulze decided to experience the bank's heavily advertised customer service for himself. One encounter with a teller ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1890, Nellie Bly completed a journey that seemed almost impossible, circling the globe in just 72 days. Inspired by Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, Bly traveled by ship, train, horse, rickshaw, and more, even stopping in France to meet Verne himself. But her famous race around the world was only one chapter in the remarkable life of one of America's most fearless journ...

On this episode of Our American Stories, Elizabeth Jennings was on her way to church when a New York City streetcar conductor ordered her off. She refused. The conductor and driver forcibly dragged her from the car, leaving her bloodied and bruised. Jennings got back up and climbed aboard again. The year was 1854, nearly 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

What f...

On this episode of Our American Stories, after winning its independence from Mexico in 1836, Texas faced a new challenge: surviving as its own country. The young republic struggled with debt, threats from Mexico, conflicts on the frontier, and political divisions over whether its future lay as an independent nation or as part of the United States. Meanwhile, the question of annexing Texas became tangled in the national debate over ...