Hourly History

Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright in the late 19th century. His controversial plays were riddled with mockery of social status, cleverly covered by the use of comedy. Full of flash and flare, he wrote some of those colorful traits into his literature....

The Sumerians settled in the area known as Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, around 5,000 years ago. They produced many fundamental changes to the way in which human societies developed - these were the first city-builders and the first people to use wheeled vehicles....

Most pirates had a short life before they were captured and executed. Nonetheless, those tales of swashbuckling adventure continue to mesmerize. Listen to more about the reality of the golden age of piracy to find out whether or not Hollywood’s version can possibly compare with the truth....

James I of England and VI of Scotland was the first king to rule both countries. He was faced with division between his realms and caught between the religious wars of the Reformation....

The life of Martin Luther King Jr. was painfully short but joyously valuable. Using non-violent direct action and the principles of Christian love, King became the most influential pioneer of the civil rights movement in the United States of America....

The American Revolution, which had its roots in 1765 with a rejection of British authority to tax the colonies without fair representation and ended with the British defeat at Yorktown, was one of the most momentous events in the history of the North American continent....

With his delicate phraseology and deft massaging of truth and deception, Joseph Goebbels was the mouthpiece of a monstrous regime, dishing out propaganda for Nazi Germany throughout World War II....

The empires of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese were underpinned by slavery, where one person could be owned by another, and their obedience and labor were forced by the threat of violence or even death.

The Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union lasted for more than 40 years. In general, this was a war of spies and subterfuge, of covert action and espionage. There was always a danger, however, that an error of judgment could suddenly cause the Cold War to turn red-hot....

Werner Heisenberg was one of the greatest physicists of all time. He probed the depths of not just science but the nature of our very existence.

In the nineteenth century, historians began to classify the periods of human prehistory into three ages: Stone, Bronze, and Iron.

Bob Marley, the most prominent reggae musician of all time, was truly an icon. In later life, Marley became a champion for political freedom and even managed to get two vehemently opposed political leaders to shake hands on stage - all to the backdrop of a reggae groove....

Creativity is in our bones. It is found in our very DNA, something not known to Leonardo da Vinci or anyone else who lived in his day and time. All he did was to uncover the hidden genius which lay within himself....

A seemingly inconsequential fire ignited in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane. Unchecked and underestimated, it would grow to become one of the most devastating disasters London had ever faced....

In 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led a US Army expedition into the Black Hills of South Dakota, which was at that time under the control of the Lakota people. To the expedition members, this was unknown territory on the leading edge of the American frontier.

Vera Atkins is one of the many unsung heroes and heroines of World War II. She carried out her life with great care and due diligence, quietly becoming the perfect spy when no one was watching.

The Civil Rights Movement in America is a broad term for the movement in the mid-20th century among and for the African American community in pursuit of equal protection and rights under the law....

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....

George Orwell, the son of a British civil servant, spent his life promoting social justice and equality, while fighting against totalitarianism and elitism. His two best-known novels 1984 and Animal Farm depict the ultimate horror of a totalitarian government....

During 14 years, from 1955 to 1969, the Soviet Union and the United States of America were engaged in a dramatic race against each other to conquer space. This period encompassed dramatic victories, humbling defeats, and more than one tragedy....