History Dispatches

St. Nicolas is famed for bringing gifts to good children. But in the Alpine regions of Europe, there is a legend about a grotesque creature - half human, half goat - that comes to punish naughty children. This creature - with horns and a long forked tongue - would beat bad children with birch rods - and even carry them away to be eaten. Today, this creature has become a world wide phenomenon. This is the story of Krampus. Sources https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/krampus-could-come-you-holiday-season-180957438/ https://www.history.com/articles/krampus-christmas-legend-origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gruss_vom_Krampus.jpg History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

30 miles south of Washington DC, in a small part of the Potomac River, lies an area called Mallows Bay. This bay is not home to a handful of shipwrecks or even a dozen. Or even 30 or 40 wrecks. Mallows Bay has over 200 wrecked vessels dating back to the 1920s. This is the story of the Ghost Fleet of the Potomac. Sources https://savingplaces.org/places/ghost-fleet https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/press/mallows-potomac/ https://projects.wamu.org/the-ghost-fleet/ Image: By Amaury Laporte - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ghost_Fleet_of_Mallows_Bay_009_-_Accomac_Shipwreck_Close-Up.jpg History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people probably know that Winnie the Pooh was based upon the stuffed toy bear of Christopher Robin Milne - the son of author A.A. Milne. But there is another tale behind the famed bear - which involves a Canadian veterinarian, a black bear cub, and World War 1. This is the story of Harry Colebourn and a bear named Winnie. Sources https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2015/nov/24/winnie-the-pooh-inspired-by-a-real-bear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Colebourn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_(bear) Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harry_Colebourne_and_Winnie.jpg History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the discovery of Radium in 1898 it began to be used in numerous applications. The most famous was a glow in the dark paint. Thousands of women applied for jobs painting watch dials and other instruments, and to keep their paint brush extra fine, they were instructed to lick the brush. This would all be fine, if a bit unsanitary, except that radium is radioactive, and dozens of these women started to die. This is the story of the Radium Girls. Sources https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2018/01/04/the-radium-girls-at-the-national-archives/ https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2019/03/radium-girls-living-dead-women/ https://www.britannica.com/story/radium-girls-the-women-who-fought-for-their-lives-in-a-killer-workplace Images: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1928-05-13/ed-1/?sp=58 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:All_women_or_girls_using_radium_paint_with_no_protection_or_warnings_in_1922,_from-_USRadiumGirls-Argonne1,ca1922-23-150dpi_(cropped).jpg History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The French Revolution would bring about many, many changes in Europe. One of the most radical was the dechristianization of France - including the banning of religious holidays. Will Clark, the host and creator of Grey History - a French Revolution Podcast - joins us to tell the story of How the French Stole Christmas. Sources Learn more about Will Clark and his podcast, Grey History, at https://greyhistory.com History Dispatches is part of the Airwave Media Network: www.airwavemedia.com Interested in advertising on History Dispatches? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices