History Dispatches
History Dispatches is a daily history show hosted by father and son duo Matt and McKinley Breen. The show covers people, places, events and even objects from throughout history. While any topic is fair game, Matt and McKinley hold a soft spot for the offbeat and wacky stories that most people don’t know about.
Episodes
August 19, 2026 • 20 mins
On a blustery, wet day in May of 1954, British runner Roger Bannister - an Oxford medical student - accomplished a long distance running feat that many had said would never be achieved. It would make Bannister the sportsperson of the year - and his achievement is hailed as one of the greatest sports moments of 20th century. This is the story of Roger Bannister and the 4-minute mile.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb5...
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August 17, 2026 • 19 mins
Sliced bread is a simple yet ingenious invention with a surprisingly short history. Almost as soon as it came onto the market, it took over American bakeries and became a staple in every household. Except, for a brief few months in 1943 when the United States government banned this incredible product. This is the story of sliced bread and the time it was banned.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliced_bread
https://www...
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August 14, 2026 • 32 mins
From 2008-10, the Lower Merion School District - in suburban Philadelphia - issued laptops to more than 2,300 high school students for school and home use. What they didn’t tell the kids or their parents was that the district loaded the laptops with secret software that gave officials the ability to remotely take photos from those laptops. What followed was WebcamGate - one of the biggest invasion of privacy incidents in the ...
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August 12, 2026 • 18 mins
Defenestrate is a highly specific word. It means to throw someone out of a window. And it comes from the city of Prague where several people were tossed out of a window and helped ignite a brutal religious war. And then it happened again 200 years later. This is the story of the Defenestrations of Prague.
Sources
https://english.radio.cz/blood-bohemia-second-defenestration-prague-and-window-changed-europe-8889193
https://en...
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August 10, 2026 • 14 mins
By the 1940s, government officials were looking to re-introduce the beaver to a region of Idaho to help improve the health of the area’s wetlands. But hauling live beavers through forests and over mountains was not easy - or cheap. And thus someone came up with the idea of parachuting beavers into these remote areas. This is the story of Idaho’s Parachuting Beavers - or parabeavers.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.o...
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August 7, 2026 • 20 mins
On Dec. 29, 1975, a bomb tore through LaGuardia Airport in New York City. The blast killed 11 people and wounded 74. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing. And the bombers were never found. This is the story of the 1975 LaGuardia Airport Bombing.
Sources
https://observer.com/2016/01/why-hasnt-washington-explained-the-1975-laguardia-airport-bombing/
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/07/laguardia-airport-bombin...
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August 5, 2026 • 60 mins
One of the most beloved comic strips in history is Calvin and Hobbes. It is the adventures of a mischievous six-year old boy and his equally naughty stuffed tiger - who only comes alive for Calvin. To look at the history of Calvin and Hobbes, we brought on some experts - Ryan and Indy from the Magic of Calvin and Hobbes podcast.
Sources
Ryan and Indy from the Magic of Calvin and Hobbes Podcast
Website: https://ryanbaker712.p...
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August 3, 2026 • 20 mins
Henrietta Lacks was an ordinary women who lived and ordinary life. However upon her death scientists discovered that she had a real life superpower. Her cells were basically immortal, and their study has forever changed the face of modern medicine, and generated endless controversy.
Sources
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henrietta_Lacks_(cropped).jpg
...
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July 31, 2026 • 24 mins
According to legend, in the 12th century a Welsh prince, Madoc, sailed to the west - looking for a place to settle his people. They would find the Americas. And for hundreds of years rumors would persist about the descendants of these settlers. This is the story of Madoc and the Welsh Indians.
Sources
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/The-discovery-of-America-by-Welsh-Prince/
https://clements.umich.edu/pub...
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July 29, 2026 • 20 mins
While being the county seat is important, it is probably not worth fighting a war over. However, for the people of Stevens County, Kansas, the decision for county seat turned violent, and culminated in the Hay Meadow Massacre, where four men were killed in cold blood. This is the story of the Hay Meadow Massacre.
Sources
https://www.ksgenweb.org/KSStevens/haymeadow.html
https://digging-history.com/2014/07/24/feudin-and-fight...
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July 27, 2026 • 23 mins
At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Adolph Hitler hoped to demonstrate to the world the power, majesty and superiority of the resurgent German nation. That, however, would be foiled by a 22-year old African American track and field athlete - who would put on one of the greatest displays in Olympic history. This is the story of Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympic Games.
Sources
https://jesseowens.com
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/america...
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July 24, 2026 • 17 mins
Wars can drag on for years. Others might last only a few months, a couple of weeks, or even a handful of days. And then there was the Anglo-Zanzibar war - a conflict that lasted a record setting 38 minutes.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zanzibar_War
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Shortest-War-in-History/
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marines_in_zanzibar.jpg
Spon...
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July 22, 2026 • 21 mins
Do you ever sit at your computer and look at the keyboard and wonder - how did we get here? Why are the letters laid out in such a jumbled mess? Why is the J easier to type than the E? That’s just one of many questions we tackle as we look at the history of what today we call the QWERTY keyboard.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFkC3F0lmjA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/his...
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July 20, 2026 • 22 mins
Today, the most famous statue that overlooks a harbor is probably the Statue of Liberty. However, over 2,000 years ago a statue almost as large was built in the Greek city of Rhodes. The Colossus of Rhodes so impressive it became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Colossus-of-Rhodes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Rhodes
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki...
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July 17, 2026 • 24 mins
In 2014, the financially troubled city of Flint, Michigan, began drawing their water from the Flint River - instead of Lake Huron. The move would be a disaster. Over the next decade the city would grapple with water contamination, lead poisoning, Legionnaires disease, and deaths - costing Flint and the State of Michigan more than a billion dollars.
Sources
https://www.cdc.gov/casper/php/publications-links/flint-water-crisis.h...
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July 15, 2026 • 21 mins
With the upcoming "Odyssey" movie, by Christopher Nolan, we wanted to ask, is it true? Well of course not. But the background of the story, the Trojan War and the city of Troy, might just have some basis in reality. Because not only have archeologists discovered what they believe to be the real life Troy, but there is also some evidence of a Trojan War.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy
https://www.worldhistory.org...
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July 13, 2026 • 24 mins
On May 27, 1905, the Russian and Japanese fleets faced off in the Tsushima Strait during the Russo-Japanese War. It is the first modern naval battle - and described as the greatest and the most important naval event since Trafalgar - a century earlier. It also ushered in Japan as a world power - and helped sow the seeds of the end of Czarist Russia. This is the story of the battle of Tsushima.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org...
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July 10, 2026 • 19 mins
For untold years the tropical paradise of Lord Howe Island was home to the enormous insect called the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, or Land Lobster - an 8-inch long bug endemic to the island. But they went extinct shortly around 1918 - at least until 2001, when just a few dozen were found on a virtually uninhabitable rock a dozen miles away.
Sources
"Rediscovery of the ‘extinct’ Lord Howe Island stick-insect (Dry...
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July 8, 2026 • 17 mins
In World War II the United States took a unique turn in their quest for delivering fast, secret communications in combat situations. This was by using Native American language speakers and translators to deliver simple, yet unbreakable coded messages on the front lines. This is the story of the Navajo Code Talkers.
Sources
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/n/code-talke...
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July 6, 2026 • 20 mins
When Paraguay invaded its much larger neighbors in 1864, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay responded in force. For the next five years these nations waged the deadliest war ever seen on the continent. It was a war that saw 20 percent of Paraguay's entire population die. This is the story of the Paraguayan War.
Sources
https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/3585/1/B28_-_The_Paraguayan_War_%281864-1870%29.pdf
https://read.uolpress.co.uk/re...
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