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.
Latest Episodes
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/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
https://www.history.navy.mil/get-involved/essay-contest/2020-winners/hageman-cno-essay.html
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Tsushima,_1905_by_Tōjō_Shōtarō.jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 (Dryococelus australis (Montrouzier)) (Phasmatodea) and recommendations for its conservation" by David Priddel et al.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-15/lord-howe-island-stick-insect-discovery-balls-pyramid/106381564
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lord_Howe_Island_stick_insect_Dryococelus_australis_10June2011_PalmNursery.jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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-talkers.html
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers
https://www.intelligence.gov/publics-daily-brief/publics-daily-brief-articles/navajo-nation-inventors-of-the-unbreakable-code
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker
File:Navajo_Indian_communication_men_with_the_Marines_on_Saipan_landed_with_the_first_assault_waves_to_his_the_beach._-_NARA_-_532526.tif?page=1
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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/read/brazil/section/0c2155f3-0885-42c3-afda-319d122d8b63
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Batalha_de_Campo_Grande_-_1871.jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1882 a 50-year old tortoise from the Seychelles was brought to the tiny island of St. Helena as a gift to the governor. That tortoise, who was later dubbed Jonathan, is still alive and well today, making him over 190 years old, and the world's oldest living land animal.
Sources
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/at-190-jonathan-the-tortoise-is-the-worlds-oldest-living-land-animal-180979514/
https://sainthelenaisland.info/jonathan.htm
Image by Luke McKernan - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jonathan_(27242406408).jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1822, a young man, Alexis St. Martin, was accidentally shot in the stomach. Miraculously, he survived, and even more amazing was the hole between his chest and stomach became permanent. This allowed a US Army surgeon - William Beaumont - to spend a decade studying St. Martin’s digestive system, making Beaumont the "Father of Gastric Physiology". This is the very weird story of the gunshot that changed medicine.
Sources
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/grisly-story-human-guinea-pig-alexis-st-martin-180963520/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_St._Martin
https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/probing-the-mysteries-of-human-digestion/
Images:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Beaumont_painting.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Alexis_St._Martin,_aged_81_Wellcome_L0011057.jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
They say absolute power corrupts absolutely. And while that is often true, sometimes you can get someone in power who genuinely wants to help their people. Such was the case with the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was a man who was thrust onto the imperial throne, and forced to spend his time fighting - when all he wanted to do was study philosophy and govern his people. This is the story of Marcus Aurelius: the philosopher emperor.
Sources
"Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine" by Barry Strauss
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus_Augustus#/media/File:Kunsthistorisches_Museum_Vienna_June_2006_048.jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In World War II, the allies struggled to fend off U-boat attacks on shipping in the North Atlantic. A major issue was a lack of air support. Planes didn’t have the range to provide protection to the merchant fleets in the icy north. And then, someone had an idea. What if you converted an iceberg into an airbase? And even better - what if you could build an entire aircraft carrier out of ice. This is the story of Project Habakkuk.
Sources
https://albertaaviationmuseum.com/operation-habbakuk-the-iceberg-aircraft-carrier/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk
https://www.thealbertan.com/hot-summer-guide/the-iceberg-aircraft-carrier-that-almost-was-albertas-forgotten-wartime-wonder-10781370
https://www.albertaunderwatercouncil.com/single-post/2016/10/10/diving-jaspers-habbakuk-wreck
Images:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antarctic_Sound-2016-Iceberg_02.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lancaster_Mk_I_gun_positions.jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Here is a free idea for you. If your sports team is having a bad season and no one is coming to games, throw a cheap beer night! It is a tried and true promotion method and one that the Cleveland Indians implemented in 1974. Specifically a 10 cent beer night. And it worked, drawing a crowd of thousands. The only problem was Cleveland got a little more than they bargained for when the game devolved into a full blown riot.
Sources
https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/10-cent-beer-night-an-oral-history-of-cleveland-baseballs-most-infamous-night/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Cent_Beer_Night
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Texas_Rangers_run_during_Ten_Cent_Beer_Night.jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Turin, Italy, there is a cloth that is one of the most recognized holy relics in Christianity. It is a linen cloth that bears a faint image of a man who appears to have undergone crucifixion. Could this have been the burial robe of Jesus? This is the story of the Shroud of Turin.
Sources
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/jesus-burial-cloth-or-medieval-forgery-dna-evidence-further-complicates-the-debate-over-the-shroud-of-turin-180988514/
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7248/5/1/8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin
https://www.shroud.com/
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Secundo_Pia_Turinske_platno_1898.jpg
Sponsor
Go to factormeals.com/dispatchespod50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box. New subscribers only. While supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details).
History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com
Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices