Episode 92: Covert Ops - Hitler, CIA and Civil War
The Y in History
The July 20 plot was intended to assassinate Hitler and invoke Operation Valkyrie in Germany, post the assassination. LBJ and Nixon got the CIA to snoop on US students under Operation CHAOS. The Union soldiers initiated the Great Locomotive Chase during the Civil War, to cut off the Confederacy's supply routes.
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Episode 91: the history of Cinema
The Y in History
In 1891 the Edison Company successfully demonstrated a prototype of the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. The first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience were the Lumière brothers in December 1895 in Paris, France. The first feature-length movie incorporating synchronized dialogue was The Jazz Singer in 1927. A 20-year stretch, from 1927 to 1948, is considered the Golden Age in the history of Hollywood.
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Episode 90: the physics of Dictatorships
The Y in History
Dictatorships can be classified into Military, Hybrid, Dynastic Civilian and the Democratically elected dictatorships. Dictators aspire to stay in power for a long time and do so by instilling fear in their citizens. And once they've achieved this, some prefer to build a cult following. But under certain circumstances Dictatorships can be toppled and replaced by Democracy.
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Episode 89: Singapore - the Economic miracle
The Y in History
The British arrived in Singapore in January 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles landed on the island, establishing it as a trading post for the British East India Company. Singapore declared independence from Britain in 1963 and became part of Malaysia. Due to political and cultural differences, Singapore separated from Malaysia and became independent in 1965. And that was the start of the economic miracle that saw its GDP multiply from $1 billion in 1960 to approximately $300 billion in 2014.
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Episode 88: 1975 - Emergency in India
The Y in History
In 1975, the Allahabad High Court finds Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices during the 1971 election and rules that she needs to step down as Prime Minister. This triggers a series of events that culminate in the imposition of Emergency in India - a period when all civil liberties of common citizens, are taken away by the government.
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Episode 87: Explorers and Cosmonauts
The Y in History
Norway's Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole in Dec, 1911. Tenzing and Hillary became the first to scale Mt. Everest in May of 1953. Yuri Gagarin had the world spellbound as he became the first human in Space in April 1961.
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Episode 86: Great Political Upsets
The Y in History
After leading the United Kingdom during WWII, Churchill loses his re-election bid. Harry Truman surprises polls to defeat Republican Thomas Dewey in 1948. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is ousted in a very democratic way in the Soviet Union, in 1964.
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Episode 85: A history of Medicine
The Y in History
Modern medicine owes a lot of its development to the Ancient civilizations of Greece, India and China. Modern medicine took off after the Industrial Revolution because of faster spread of disease and infection within large industrial communities. The medical professionals were able to understand bacterial diseases way before they understood viruses. But the electron microscope took medical research to the next level.
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Episode 84: The Children of Dictators
The Y in History
Stalin micromanaged his daughter and she ended up defecting to the US. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. though won the Presidential Office his dictatorial father held, via a democratic election. Mao's children mostly died young.
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Episode 83: A history of Tibet
The Y in History
Tibetan Empire reached its zenith under Songtsen Gampo's descendant Tri Song Detsuen in 755 AD who expanded Tibet politically and economically and promoted Buddhism to bring the nation together. However, about a century after him, the empire collapsed and Tibet entered its traditional "dark age." The Mongols conquered Tibet in 1244 but let the local Buddhist leaders manage the administrative affairs and Tibet gradually eased into a Theocracy as the Dalai Lama was acknowledged as the Spiritual Head. In 1950, China, looking for a buffer zone between itself and India, invaded Tibet.
info_outlineModern medicine owes a lot of its development to the Ancient civilizations of Greece, India and China. Modern medicine took off after the Industrial Revolution because of faster spread of disease and infection within large industrial communities. The medical professionals were able to understand bacterial diseases way before they understood viruses. But the electron microscope took medical research to the next level.