I Can't Believe That Happened History Podcast for Kids

🎙️ Hey there, history buffs! Did you know Teddy Roosevelt and his six kiddos were practically running a zoo in the White House? 🐻🐍 With over 40 pets, including a badger and even a bear 🦡, their adventures are bound to blow your mind! Tune in to our kids history podcast #WildWhiteHouse 🏰🐾 #PodcastFunIf you enjoyed please pass along to friends and your online community.If you found the mistake I hid in the episode please head over to www.owlandtwine.com and email me the correct answer so I can share your name on our next episode.Sources:https://www.nps.gov/thrb/learn/historyculture/roosevelt-assorted.htmhttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/presidential-pets-the-roosevelts-menagerie/https://www.presidentialpetmuseum.com/theodore-roosevelts-bears/https://www.presidentialpetmuseum.com/presidents/26tr/https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/presidential-petshttps://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/what-are-some-unusual-animals-that-have-lived-in-and-around-the-white-househttps://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/02/politics/white-house-pets/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2023/02/20/in-1904-theodore-roosevelt-won-a-presidential-electionand-a-pair-of-ostriches/

Mathew Henson ExplorerI think I am going to do a series of PLEASE SOMEONE IN HOLLYWOOD MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THIS PERSONTell me at the end if you would not sit and binge an entire series about Mathew Henson one of the first people to go to the NorthPole in our Black History month for I Can’t Believe That Happened.Born August 8 1866 on a farm in MarylandHe was the middle child with an older and a younger sisterHis parents were free sharecroppers who escaped to Georgetown after the KKK made southern Maryland too violent to stay.Mathew was orphaned at a young age and raised by his uncle in Washington DC.He earned money by washing dishes in a restaurant.During the speeches of 1863 Mathew was deeply inspired by Fredrick Douglas.At the age of 12 he became a cabin boy on the Katie Hines traveling to ports in China, Japan, Africa, and the Russian Arctic. During his time on the Hines he was educated by the ship’s captainWhen he returned to land he worked in a clothing store where he met Commander Robert E Peary. Once Robert learned of Mathew’s sea experience eh recruited him for a surveying tour of Nicaragua. Mathew impresses Peary on the voyage and became first man on all upcoming trips.For twenty years the expeditions centered around the arctic where they traded heavily with the Inuit. Mathew learned their language and was said to be the only non Inuit who became skilled in driving the sled dogs and training the dogs in the Inuit way.He was a skilled craftsman who learned to build igloos from snow and other mobile housing.In 1909 Peary mounted an expedition to reach the North Pole. He and Mathew boarded the Roosevelt leaving Greenland along with four Inuit assistants, Four Inuit guides named Egingwah, Ooqueah, Ootah, and Seeglo, and were the first people to set foot on the North Pole.Mathew was one of six chosen to make the final leg of the journey. Reports have it that Henson was no longer able to continue by foot and used the dog sled to scout ahead of the group.Henson was the one to plant the American flag.There was much controversy about the story but their accounts are backed up by the National Geographic association as well as the Naval Affairs Subcommitee of the U.S. House of Representatives.In 1912 he wrote a book about his experiences traveling widely to give speeches about his experiences. Though Henson was a very important part of the expedition it was Peary who received most of the fame and focus. Henson spent years working as a clerk.Long overdue in 1937 Henson was given membership to the New York Explorers Club.Congress awarded him the Peary Polar Expedition Medal in 1944He was honored by President Truman and President Eisenhower before he died in 1955Bibliographyhttps://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/explore/notable-graves/explorers/matthew-hensonhttps://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/may/24/matthew-henson-arctic-explorer-first-man-to-north-pole

Welcome to I Can’t Believe That Happened and our first episode on the History of Cursed Jewels.A quick reminder I always throw in one wrong fact. If you find it send me and email and let me know what the right fact is and what your source is.Let’s start with the Ring of Dwarf Hill that inspired The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien What if I told you that some of his epic fantasy came from actual history?Let’s talk about:The One ring to rule them all. The ring that had all of middle earth in a massive power struggle. 

What is it about minerals and gemstones that we find so amazing even beyond their beauty? We give them a supernatural power from healing crystals, to purifications, to remembering our dead with memento mori, to of course curses of long-dead powerful rulers wishing to keep their riches in to the eternity of the afterlife.  We have told stories about cursed gems. There have been books and movies. You will certainly have heard of a few of the stories before or you might find out your favorite tale comes from one of these histories. When studying history we find often that the most frightening part of the tale is not the supernatural but in the way that people can set aside kindness and treat others in a way that they themselves would not wish to be treated in obtaining a symbol of power and beauty. As you might imagine the history of jewels is full of these tales. While this is meant to be a fun romp through history I want to leave you with this, never forget those in the margins of your history books and whenever you can choose kindness. Now lets go far back into a world where stones are so much more than a decoration.............

A duck, a Rooster, and a sheep wander into a wicker basket. This is not a joke it is the start of our podcast and the beginning of the ability for humans to fly. 19 September 1783 at 1 PM a cannon blasts and our Heroes of the air walk and waddle their way into history in the courtyard of Versailles in front of 130,000 people including the Queen, Marie Antoinette and King Louis.Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier had spent the years earlier experimenting with hot air and in the beginning, laundry to develop their hot air balloon.Take a listen and find out how we began flying.

Beatrix Potter is beloved by so many of us for her darling illustrated children's books but did you know she was a scientist who changed the English landscape? It's time to learn all about this amazing woman, her love for animals, her brilliant scientific mind, and her love of nature.

Our first black history month at 10-minute history podcast for kids!This week we are going to be taking a look at Elizabeth Jennings Grahm the woman who started the desegregation of the New York transportation system in the 1800’s.

The Chess Playing Turk AutomatonThe magic trick that astounded the world was not made by a magician. It was not even intended to be a magic trick. It was a challenge and from the challenge one of the most interesting stories about magic and robots came to be.Maria Theresa of Austria had a performance planned for her court in 1769 to watch a demonstration of magnetic tricks.Her counselor, a Hungarian scientist Wolfgang Von Kempelen was unimpressed and said he could do better He returned in 1770 to perform, the creation took him six months.Created a life-size automaton. The Turkish chess player. He showed the court all of the mechanics. All the court saw was the gears and rods that would make the automaton move. The automaton was wound up ready to play, and a member of the court was chosen to play chess against the automaton.The court reported to hearing whirrs and clicks as the automation moved its' pieces.The automaton nodded twice to signal the check and three times for checkmate off its' opponent.The chess-playing Turk Automaton gathered many famous challengers playing and defeating Benjamin Franklin and Napolean Bonaparte. Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay about the automaton.Wolfgang was not a magician he was a naturalist, a scientist, an architect, and a hydraulic engineer.The automaton had a long “life” touring Europe and the Americas for 84 years.The device was later purchased in 1804 and exhibited by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel. Maazel installed a voice box in the automaton that would say check whenever it cornered its’ opponent's king. Maazel set up the game with Napolean. It was said that the emperor, who ultimately lost, attempted to cheat multiple times with the automaton shaking its’ head and placing the chess piece back where it had been.How did a machine play chess? How did it account for variables and strategy? You are going to have to think outside the box to solve this puzzle. If you did not guess don’t feel badly. This automaton confounded most of the world. The gears were a front. A hidden cabinet exited where a very small chess master could fit inside the secret compartment and play using puppeteering levers and dangling metal discs that were attracted to the magnets at the base of the chess pieces. The chess masters who secretly operated it included Johann Allgaier, Boncourt, Aaron Alexandre, William Lewis, Jacques Mouret, and William Schlumberger, but the operators within the mechanism during Kempelen's original tour remain a mystery.The illusion was completely shattered when Maelzel died unexpectedly in 1838 and the automaton was taken by one of his creditors.The original automaton was destroyed in a fire but there are reproductions. John Gaughan spent a reported 120,000 to build his own version in 1984. It uses the original chess board which had not been destroyed in the fire. It ran not with a human chess master but with a computer running a chess program.Bibliography:Magic 1400’s-1950’s Daniel, Noel Caveney, Mike Jay, Ricky and Steinmeyer Jim TaschenWikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk