On June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious landing in world history took place on the shore of Normandy, France. The allied forces called it D-Day. The landing marked the commencement of Operation Overlord, a strategic move that heralded the long-awaited opening of the second front in the European war. D-Day was the start of the most meticulously planned events in history and one of the greatest logistical operations of all time. It was also the day that saw some of the war's most horrific and hero...
Jun 06, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1431
When President John F. Kennedy set the objective of landing on the moon before the end of the 1960s, no one really knew what it entailed. The Apollo program involved many incredible feats of engineering, but perhaps the most impressive was the development of the Apollo Lunar Module. The Lunar Module was unlike any spacecraft before or since. It was the first spacecraft designed to fly only in the vacuum of space and the first to land on another celestial body. Learn more about the Apollo Lunar M...
Jun 05, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1430
Located between Mexico and Columbia, in a strategic area connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific, is the region we call Central America. The countries that makeup Central America were mostly former Spanish colonies, but unlike other Spanish colonies to the north and south, Central America wound up as a series of small countries rather than one big one. But why? Learn more about the history of Central America and how the current borders came to be on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. S...
Jun 04, 2024•16 min•Ep. 1429
Money is a very strange thing. All of us use it. We spend it, earn it, and save it. We know it when we see it. Yet, even some of the world’s best economists have a very hard time defining it. It has been around for thousands of years, yet innovation is still being made with it today. Learn more about the history of money, how it came about, and how it developed over time on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bon...
Jun 03, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1428
A common occurrence at many universities is that they have contentious relationships with their local community. This is not a recent development. It is something that has existed ever since universities were developed. The relationship between colleges and local towns was probably at its worst in 1355 when an outbreak of violence occurred at Oxford University. Learn more about The St. Scholastica Day Riot and its 500-year legacy with the local community on this episode of Everything Everywhere ...
Jun 02, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1427
The month of June was originally called Iunius by the Romans. It originally had 29 days and was the fourth month of the year. Today, it has 30 days, and it is the sixth month of the year. It used to be a bad omen to be married in June, and now it is the most popular month to be married in. However, despite all the changes in June, there is one thing that has remained constant: questions and answers. Stay tuned for the 19th installment of Questions and Answers on this episode of Everything Everyw...
Jun 01, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1426
In August of 1964, an event occurred off the waters of North Vietnam that would have repercussions that would echo in US foreign policy for decades. Two alleged confrontations between US Navy vessels and North Vietnamese ships set off a chain of events that resulted in a dramatic escalation in the United States' involvement in Vietnam and a subsequent backlash that would change military policy to the present day. Learn more about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and the event that began the large-sca...
May 31, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1324
One of the most iconic images of America is the cowboy. Cowboys have defined entire genres of literature and movies and are the basis for entire styles of fashion. But how did cowboys come about, what exactly did they do, and who exactly became cowboys? Perhaps most importantly, how realistic is our image of cowboys? Spoiler: It's not very realistic at all. Learn more about Cowboys, how they came to be, and how realistic their portrayal in media is, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily...
May 30, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1424
In the year 79, Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located east of the modern-day city of Naples, erupted. Vesuvius had erupted before, but this eruption was different. It ejected an enormous amount of ash, which completely buried several towns and cities below the mountain. Almost 2,000 years later, the largest of those cities, Pompeii, was rediscovered, and what archeologists found revolutionized our understanding of the ancient world. Learn more about the destruction and rediscovery of Pompeii on this...
May 29, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1423
There are millions of different insect species in the world. All of them fill some niche in the ecosystem in which they live. However, some species are more important than others. In particular, insect species that are members of the family Apidae, or what you probably know as bees. Bees are some of the most important pollinators in the world. They are responsible for a large amount of plant reproduction worldwide. Learn more about bees, what they are and their importance on this episode of Ever...
May 28, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1422
The world as we know it is made up of 193 countries, Antarctica, and a host of territories. However, between all of those places are the high seas or international waters, which are not controlled by anyone. But where do international waters begin? What can you do in international waters? And how close can you actually sail to another country? Learn more about the Law of the Sea, how it was created, and what it stipulates on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationa...
May 27, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1421
On December 8, 1941, as the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, they were simultaneously attacking other Allied positions around Asia. One of the biggest attacks was on Manila in the Philippines and the Filipino and American forces that were entrenched on the Bataan Peninsula. Filipino and American forces ended up surrendering, which began one of the most brutal and horrifying episodes of the entire war. Learn more about the Bataan Death March and how and why it happened on this episode of Every...
May 26, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1420
When Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, there was a rush of people who moved west to claim the free land that was offered. However, there was a problem. Creating physical divisions for plots of land on the prairie was difficult when there was no stone or wood. Eventually, there was a solution to the problem, which offered a cheap way to divide land…and created a whole host of new problems as well. Learn more about barbed wire and how it shaped the American West, warfare, and much ...
May 25, 2024•12 min•Ep. 1419
In 1428, a young girl from the village of Domrémy, France, audaciously set out to meet the heir apparent to the French throne, the Dauphin, and told him what he had to do to defeat the English occupying her country. She claimed that she was told what to do by God. Against all odds, the Dauphin took her advice, and it worked. After a series of military victories, the Dauphin was crowned king, and the young girl went on to become one of the greatest heroes in French history. Learn more about Joan ...
May 24, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1418
On May 11, 1960, an auto worker who went by Ricardo Klement stepped off the bus after his shift at a Mercedes-Benz automotive plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As he was walking home, he was abducted by several men and thrown into a vehicle. This was no ordinary kidnapping, however. There was no demand for ransom. That was because this was no ordinary autoworker. This was actually Adolf Eichmann, one of the masterminds behind the holocaust. Eichmann wasn’t the only member of the German Nazi Part...
May 23, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1417
From 1929 to 1992, several governments ruled over the Balkans, all of whom used the name “Yugoslavia.” Yugoslavia was a country that began with a dream but was born out of war and ultimately ended in war. While the nation of Yugoslavia no longer exists, Its legacy can still be felt in the countries that formerly compromised it. Learn more about Yugoslavia, its rise, and its fall on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottle...
May 22, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1416
Most of our major divisions of time are based on some sort of natural event. A year is one orbit of the Earth around the sun. A month is one orbit of the Moon around the Earth. A day is one rotation of the Earth about its axis. However, one of the most commonly used units of time has no natural analog whatsoever. Learn more about why there are seven days in a week and where the names for the day of the week come from on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, ...
May 21, 2024•13 min•Ep. 1415
Inside you right now are most probably millions of, possibly even trillions of viruses. Some viruses are extremely deadly, but the vast majority are completely benign. They can be found in almost every type of life, including plants, animals, and bacteria. Yet viruses are completely different from any other type of life form. In fact, it is debatable whether they are even life forms at all. Learn more about viruses, what they are and how they work on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. ...
May 20, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1414
On August 9, 378, one of the most important battles in history took place. While largely forgotten today, it was a critical battle that contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire. It wasn’t just a loss for the Roman army; it also resulted in the death of an emperor, and it also contributed to the rise of a group known as the Visigoths, who would go on to spread throughout much of Europe over the next several centuries. Learn more about the Battle of Adrianople and how it changed the course ...
May 19, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1413
There was no product more important to the economy of the ancient world than silk. Silk was transported thousands of miles to be purchased by people so far away from its source that they had no clue where it came from. The source of silk, however, was China, and for centuries, they had a monopoly, which brought them tremendous wealth. That was until they didn’t. Learn more about how the secret to silk was smuggled out of China, and the silk monopoly was broken on this episode of Everything Every...
May 18, 2024•13 min•Ep. 1412
When the United States entered the Civil War, the Union needed a plan for conducting the war. Its senior military commander, General Windfield Scott, devised a strategy that would play to the Union's strengths and exploit the Confederacy's weaknesses. He hoped that it would bring about a swift end to the war and minimize the loss of human life. The plan didn’t bring about a swift end to the war, but it did play an instrumental role in the conflict. Learn more about the Anaconda Plan and the Unio...
May 17, 2024•13 min•Ep. 1411
Psychologists have identified hundreds of different psychological disorders and conditions. Some of them are rather common conditions that affect large segments of the population at one time or another. Others are quite rare and only come up in certain circumstances or even in certain places. Within that, there is a rare subset of psychological conditions that only tend to appear in certain cities, or were named after cities where first appeared. Learn more about psychological syndromes that are...
May 16, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1410
Sometime around 3,200 years ago, a new civilization became ascendent on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This group wasn’t like the Empires that surrounded them. They weren’t focused so much on land acquisition and conquest so much as they were focused on commerce and trade. For centuries they ruled over trade and commerce in the Mediterranean until they finally succumbed to their more powerful neighbors. Learn more about the Phoenician Civilization and what set them apart from other ...
May 15, 2024•13 min•Ep. 1409
During the Second World War, the United States established the highly secret Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb based on nuclear fission. While the Manhattan Project was ultimately successful, some in the program were thinking bigger. They felt that the explosion from an uncontrolled fission reaction could be used to create an even larger explosion using nuclear fusion. One man, in particular, felt that such a device was necessary and spearheaded the efforts after the war to develop a f...
May 14, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1407
In 1788, the son of the leader of the Confederation of Futa Jallon in West Africa was commanding his 2,000 troops against a neighboring military force and was captured. He was sold into slavery and spent the next 40 years of his life living as a slave in Mississippi. That was until a chance meeting revealed his true identity, which eventually led to his freedom and the involvement of the President of the United States. Learn more about Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, the prince who became a slave ...
May 13, 2024•12 min•Ep. 1407
If you are listening to me speak these words and can understand what I’m saying, then you are a human being. If you are a human being, you are also a mammal, and if you are a mammal, you have hair….or at least the biological capability to produce hair. But why exactly do we have hair? What function does it serve? Why do we have less than other animals? And why do people have different types of hair? Learn more about hair, what it does and how it works on this episode of Everything Everywhere Dai...
May 12, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1406
In the last year of the Second World War, things were not going well for the Imperial Japanese military. They had lost several major naval battles against the United States, they were losing territory, and they had no capability to rebuild the ships that they were losing. They were desperate to find something to turn the tide of the war. What they settled on was one of the most terrifying tactics of the entire conflict for participants on both sides. Learn more about the kamikaze pilots and why ...
May 11, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1405
In 1956, one of the most important geopolitical events of the post-war period took place in Egypt. Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, one of the most important waterways in the world. In response, a coalition of several countries tried to take it back. However, it didn’t go as planned, and it signaled a major reshuffling of the geopolitical order. Learn more about the Suez Crisis and how it shaped the second half of the 20th century on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Availa...
May 10, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1404
We are all familiar with camping, and many of us go camping or camp regularly. Enjoying the great outdoors with friends and family can be an enjoyable experience. However, camping has a history that is unlike most things in humanity. The path from the ancient world to luxury glamping was not straight. Despite having very ancient roots, what we know today as camping is a relatively modern phenomenon. Learn more about the history of camping and how we went from the rugged outdoors to luxury experi...
May 09, 2024•14 min•Ep. 1403
At the 1862 London International Exhibition, an inventor by the name of Andrew Parkes introduced a new product based on cellulose that he called Parkesine. Little did he know that this material which could be made elastic when heated and molded into almost any shape imaginable would be the basis for an enormous percentage of the materials in common use in the 21st century. Learn more about plastics, how they were invented and how they are used in the modern world, on this episode of Everything E...
May 08, 2024•15 min•Ep. 1402
