Sir Francis Drake ( c. 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer and privateer best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580. This was the first English circumnavigation, and second circumnavigation overall. He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, Sir John Hawkins , and John Lovell . Having started as a simple seaman, in 1588 he was part of the fight against the Spanish Armada as a vice-admiral ....
Aug 07, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Conch Republic ( /ˈkɒŋk/ ) is a micronation declared as a sarcastic secession of the city of Key West, Florida , from the United States on April 23, 1982. It has been maintained as a tourism booster for the city. Since then, the term "Conch Republic" has been expanded to refer to "all of the Florida Keys , or, that geographic apportionment of land that falls within the legally defined boundaries of Monroe County, Florida , northward to 'Skeeter's Last Chance Saloon' in Florida City , Dade Co...
Jul 31, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Anthony Comstock (March 7, 1844 – September 21, 1915) was an American anti-vice activist, United States Postal Inspector , and secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV), who was dedicated to upholding Christian morality . He opposed obscene literature, abortion , contraception , masturbation , gambling , prostitution , and patent medicine . The terms comstockery and comstockism refer to his extensive censorship campaign of materials that he considered obscene, includi...
Jul 24, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made numerous unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro . There were also attempts by Cuban exiles , sometimes in cooperation with the CIA. The 1975 Church Committee claimed eight proven CIA assassination attempts between 1960 and 1965. In 1976, President Gerald Ford issued an Executive Order banning political assassinations. In 2006, Fabián Escalante, former chief of Cuba's intelligence, stated that there had been 634 ass...
Jul 17, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar . He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak ....
Jul 10, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Late Bronze Age collapse was a time of widespread societal collapse during the 12th century BC associated with environmental change , mass migration , and the destruction of cities . The collapse affected a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean ( North Africa and Southeast Europe ) and the Near East , in particular Egypt , eastern Libya , the Balkans , the Aegean , Anatolia , and, to a lesser degree, the Caucasus . It was sudden, violent, and culturally disruptive for many Bronze Age civil...
Jul 03, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_canceled_launch_vehicle_designs Even before the launch of Sputnik 1 , there were various types of launch vehicle designs . The launch vehicle designs described below are either canceled or never left the drawing board.
Jun 26, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Counterfeiting of the currency of the United States is widely attempted. According to the United States Department of Treasury , an estimated $70 million in counterfeit bills are in circulation, or approximately 1 note in counterfeits for every 10,000 in genuine currency, with an upper bound of $200 million counterfeit, or 1 counterfeit per 4,000 genuine notes. [1] [2] However, these numbers are based on annual seizure rates on counterfeiting, and the actual stock of counterfeit money is uncerta...
Jun 19, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast This list of unusual deaths includes unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout history, noted as being unusual by multiple sources.
Jun 12, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ark Encounter is a Christian theme park that opened in Williamstown, Kentucky , United States, in 2016. [2] [3] The centerpiece of the park is a large representation of Noah's Ark , based on the Genesis flood narrative contained in the Bible . It is 510 feet (155.4 m) long, 85 feet (25.9 m) wide, and 51 feet (15.5 m) high....
Jun 05, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mount Everest [3] is Earth's highest mountain above sea level , located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas . The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point . [4] Its elevation (snow height) of 8,848.86 m (29,031 ft 8+1⁄2 in) was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities. [5] [6]...
May 29, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amelia Mary Earhart ( / ˈ ɛər h ɑːr t / AIR-hart ; born July 24, 1897; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer . On July 2, 1937, Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her life, she embraced celebrity culture and women's rights, and since her disappearance has become a cultural icon . [2] Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and she set many oth...
May 22, 2024•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Chicxulub crater ( IPA : [t͡ʃikʃuˈluɓ] ⓘ cheek-shoo-LOOB ) is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore, but the crater is named after the onshore community of Chicxulub Pueblo . [3] It was formed slightly over 66 million years ago when a large meteorite , about ten kilometers (six miles) in diameter, struck Earth. The crater is estimated to be 200 kilometers (120 miles) in diameter and 20 kilometers (12 miles) in depth. It is the second large...
May 15, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Troy James Hurtubise (November 23, 1963 – June 17, 2018) was a Canadian inventor and conservationist , noted for self-testing his often bizarre creations. These inventions included various ray generators, firepaste (an ablative heatproofing material), the Ursus personal armour suit and the Trojan Ballistics Suit of Armor . Our sponsor: boxofawesome.com code: citation...
May 08, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Obsolete_occupations
May 01, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Operation Eagle Claw was a failed operation by the United States Armed Forces ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt the rescue of 52 embassy staff held captive at the Embassy of the United States, Tehran on 24 April 1980. The operation, one of Delta Force 's first, [1] encountered many obstacles and failures and was subsequently aborted. Eight helicopters were sent to the first staging area called Desert One , but only five arrived in operational condition. [2] One had encountered hy...
Apr 24, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Battle of Red Cliffs , also known as the Battle of Chibi , was a decisive naval battle in the winter of AD 208–209 at the end of the Han dynasty , about twelve years prior to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history . [4] The battle was fought between the allied forces of the southern warlords Sun Quan , Liu Bei , and Liu Qi against the numerically superior forces of the northern warlord Cao Cao . Liu Bei and Sun Quan frustrated Cao Cao's effort to conquer the land south...
Apr 17, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gamergate or GamerGate ( GG ) [1] was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism , diversity, and progressivism in video game culture . [2] [3] [4] It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015. [1] [5] [6] [7] Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry , most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu . [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]...
Apr 10, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast In legal history , an animal trial was the criminal trial of a non-human animal . Such trials are recorded as having taken place in Europe from the thirteenth century until the eighteenth. In modern times, it is considered in most criminal justice systems that non-human animals lack moral agency and so cannot be held culpable for an act....
Apr 03, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast At a minimum, a screw drive is a set of shaped cavities and protrusions on the screw head that allows torque to be applied to it. [1] [2] Usually, it also involves a mating tool , such as a screwdriver , that is used to turn it. Some of the less-common drives are classified as being "tamper-resistant"....
Apr 01, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast American Gladiators [3] is an American competition television program that aired weekly in syndication from September 1989 to May 1996. The series matched a cast of amateur athletes against each other, as well as against the show's own "gladiators", in contests of strength and agility. Following the success of American Gladiators , other countries began to produce their own versions of the show....
Mar 27, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld [1] (17 February 1821 – 17 January 1861), better known by the stage name Lola Montez ( / m oʊ n ˈ t ɛ z / ), was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan , and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria , who made her Gräfin von Landsfeld ( Countess of Landsfeld ). At the start of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states , she was forced to flee. She proceeded to the United States via Austria, Switzerland, France and ...
Mar 20, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast The United East India Company ( Dutch : Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie [vərˈeːnɪɣdə oːstˈɪndisə kɔmpɑˈɲi] , abbreviated as VOC , Dutch: [veː.oːˈseː] ) and commonly known as the Dutch East India Company , was a chartered trading company and the first joint-stock company in the world. [2] [3] Established on 20 March 1602 [4] by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies , it was granted a 21-year monopoly to carry out trade activities in Asia . [5] Shares in the compan...
Mar 13, 2024•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and editor of the New-York Tribune . Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York and was the unsuccessful candidate of the new Liberal Republican Party in the 1872 presidential election against incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant , who won by a landslide....
Mar 06, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast SeaWorld is an American theme park chain with headquarters in Orlando, Florida . It is a proprietor of marine mammal parks , oceanariums , animal theme parks , and rehabilitation centers owned by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (one park will be owned and operated by Miral under a license). The parks feature orcas , sea lion , and dolphin shows and zoological displays featuring various other marine animals....
Feb 28, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast From 1948 to 1975, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted classified human subject research at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland . The purpose was to evaluate the impact of low-dose chemical warfare agents on military personnel and to test protective clothing , pharmaceuticals , and vaccines . A small portion of these studies were directed at psychochemical warfare and grouped under the prosaic title of the "Medical Research Volunteer Program" (1956–1975). The MRVP was also driven by int...
Feb 21, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alphonse Gabriel Capone ( / k ə ˈ p oʊ n / ; [1] January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nicknames " Scarface " and " Snorky ", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33....
Feb 14, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet , becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk . During a transit , Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black dot moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually several hours (the transit of 2012 lasted 6 hours and 40 minutes). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon . Although the diameter of Ve...
Feb 07, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Isabella of France ( c. 1295 – 22 August 1358), sometimes described as the She-Wolf of France ( French : Louve de France ), was Queen of England as the wife of King Edward II , and de facto regent of England from 1327 until 1330. She was the youngest surviving child and only surviving daughter of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre . Isabella was notable in her lifetime for her diplomatic skills, intelligence, and beauty. She overthrew her husband, becoming a " femme fatale " figure in pla...
Jan 31, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Celestial Seasonings founders Mo Siegel, Peggy Clute, Wyck Hay, and Lucinda Ziesing started gathering herbs and flowers in the mountains around Boulder and selling them to local health food stores in 1969. [2] [3]...
Jan 24, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
