WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - This Week in History - Oct. 12-18: The Battle of Saratoga, Marie Antoinette, and Walt Disney

Episode Date: October 11, 2025

Join Ava and Alessia as they explore the Battle of Saratoga, the death of Marie Antoinette, and more.

Welcome to This Week in History with Ava and Alessia, your one-stop shop for all things history. Welcome back to This Week in History. I'm Alessia. Ava, we have a wild lineup this week. This is true. Let's start with American history. What do you have? So today I'm going to be talking about General Bergoin's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga. Well, after the Battle of Saratoga, battles of Saratoga.

on October 17, 1777. So after two major battles, one at Freeman's Farm and one at Bemis Heights and upstate New York, General Burgoyne finally surrendered his British troops to American Major General Horatio Gates. Burgoyne's troops have been met with severe casualties and couldn't be provided with reinforcements. His surrender and the American's decisive victory at Saratoga was crucial in garnering French support, which helped end the American Revolution. And Alessi and I actually visited Saratoga, and we got to stand where Burgoyne surrendered, and it was really cool. That was definitely a highlight, that and seeing Benedict Arnold, the spot where he was not seeing him.

The spot where he was shot. I think we talked about this in a previous episode. We talked about Benedict Arnold, but not Bergoin. Right. I think we talked about Bregoyne because I mixed up Bregoyne and Benedict Arnold surrender. Because I think I mixed them up in a previous episode. I think literally the last episode. Alicia, what do you have for American history this week?

So for this week, I have October 16th, 1859, and this is when John Brown leads his raid on Harper's Ferry in West Virginia. It was serious drama. Basically, he was an abolitionist, but on the extreme side. So he starts this little revolution-type situation, and he goes and attacks the first. the armory in Harbors Ferry, and he takes it over and then gets trapped in this barn warehouse situation and union troops, federal troops, because this is before secession. They show up and

stop him, and yeah, I think they kill him in the process. After he is killed, this kind of is one of the many stepping stones toward the civil war. Tensions are high, especially around slavery and the abolitionist cause because, I mean, this guy just took military action. So obviously things are heating up. And it is kind of building towards the election of 1860 and then eventually secession. We obviously have seen how that all plays out. Ava, what do you have for world history? So on October 16th of 1793, we're really sticking with the 1700s, or at least I am today.

But Marie and. Antoinette was guillotined. Whoa. Yeah, so major moment in world history. During the French Revolution, right before she was beheaded, she stood trial by the Revolutionary Tribunal, which totally was completely unbiased, not. Yeah, no way. No. She was accused and later charged with high treason and depleting the state treasury, which kind of. Yeah. Did she actually say, let them eat cake? Is that a real This is a common misconception. Okay. And what I have read about it, I don't think she has ever.

She might have, like, just said that in passing, but I don't think it's actually recorded officially. Okay. I mean, it kind of sounds like maybe she wouldn't have because, I don't know. But I always wondered that if it was actually real. Yeah, I don't think so. Interesting. The most interesting part of the story to me is that Marie Antoinette was known for her extremely

opulent fashions. Right. Yeah. Yeah, fun fact, we don't have any fully unaltered surviving garments from Marie Antoinette. Wow. The closest thing we have is her wedding dress, which was significantly altered to fit another person later on. Oh, that's sad. But the reason why they did this is whenever she didn't have use for a gown anymore,

she would give it to one of her ladies in waiting to use it as she desired. So they weren't just kept in storage for like history or anything, but they were refashioned into what was in style at the time. But when she was killed, her gowns, shoes, bags, wigs, accessories, all of that things were either stolen, sold, or just straight up burned. Dang. So a lot of pieces and bits of her garments came up again in auctions and they still come up every now and again because they're just figuring out that these things were from her.

But they figure out that they used to be Marie Antoinette's because she kept this thing called her fashion book. Wait, that's so cool. It's literally one of the coolest things ever. So she had this massive book that had fabric swatches of all of her gowns and accessories and things. And she would place a pin in whatever she wanted to wear that day. So you can still see the pin marks. And that's how they've been able to figure out these garments coming up to auction used to be owned by Maria Antoinette.

It's because of her fashion book. Do you know the online fashion outfit, creator closet situation? Have you heard of this? Wait. Like, be more specific. So it's, I don't even know what the name for it is, so it's kind of hard, but it's basically you log all of the outfits that you have in this app or whatever, and then it'll create outfits for you based on what you own, but it also, you can just scroll and see all the things

you have instead of looking in your closet, I guess, because that's too difficult. Apparently. But for like Marie Antoinette, I get that because she had so much. This is like an 18th century version of that. Pretty much. That's pretty cool. And we still have it. What do you have for world history?

Alessia. So in 1944, on October 14th, the German general Erwin Rommel is killed, well, he's not really, he dies by suicide. I'm doing air quotes here. It is technically suicide, but basically

he's confronted by some upper level Nazis, and he's basically told, either you're going to kill yourself or we're going to kill you and your family and it's going to be bad. Pretty bad demotion right there. Yeah. He was known as the Desert Fox and he was doing great things over in North Africa militarily, not

actually because he was on the wrong side. But he was a really skilled general and was getting major victories. It was alleged that he had committed treason, but I don't think that was actually true. And they kind of needed a scapegoat to blame for all the, all of the military feelings, especially in North Africa and later. And he was kind of he was the person to blame. I don't know why. I can't remember why it was him. I knew this at one point.

I just don't remember anymore. But it was pretty sad. But he chose to save his family and his... By killing himself and kind of also saving his reputation, I guess, in a way, from a public trial, sort of trial, a sham trial. and public execution situation. I'm seeing common themes in our two things. It's pretty violent today.

Yeah. We should move on to military history now. Best category. I don't think this is going to get any less violent, though. No. Ava, what do you have for military history? Okay, so funny enough, my thing is also on October 14th, but it's of the year 10th. Dang, we're going back in time.

Alessia, can you guess what I'm going to talk about, given that it's the year 1066? Now, Ava, you know that I don't know a lot of things about this time period. Which is okay. But I know we've talked about it. So I'm going to go with the Battle of Hastings. That is what I'm talking about. And William the Conqueror, who has another name that I don't think I'm legally allowed to repeat on there. So we're in the final years of Edward the Confessor's Life and...

and reign in England. He had no heirs, and it's thought that he had verbally named his cousin William of Normandy, a.k. William the Conqueror, to inherit the kingdom upon his death. However, there's this guy. Oh, no. Whose name is Harold. Harold.

Harold. Who becomes Harold the second, and he's the Earl of Wessex. But during this time, in between Edward the Confessor's health decline and eventual death, he was building his power and influence around England and officially received Edward's blessing in writing to inherit the kingdom. And he was crowned on January 6th of 1066 and became Harold II. I've never heard of him in my entire life. Was obviously unhappy that he was just hashtag disinherited without his knowledge. He prepared to fight for his claim to the English throne.

So he had forces ready and prepared to cross the English tree. channel by September 27th, and once he got over the English channel, which is a really choppy ride, by the way, if you ever do it by ferry, super choppy, not fun. He began fortifying their landing area, which was around Hastings. And by October 13th, Harold II had heard about this and moved his forces down to confront William. However, his forces were comprised of mostly completely untrained peasants, which is not what you want in the army. Love it when that happens. I feel like that always ends poorly, yet people always do it. Yeah. You would think people would learn from history and not make the same mistakes.

Yeah. Every time. We were just talking about this in Ottoman Empire today. Same thing. It's always a problem. And Harold had literally just been fighting off multiple other people who were trying to make claim to the English throne. So, like, he should have known that he needed to improve his forces. But anyway, to cut a really long story short, Harold made a sense. series of extremely poor strategy and tactical decisions, which led to a decisive Norman victory with William the Conqueror, and William was later crowned king after his arrival in London on December 25th of 1066. This would be why I have heard of William the Conqueror, but not Harold. Yeah.

If you want a really cool visual depiction of the Battle of Hastings, there's this thing called the Bayou Tapestry. Have you heard of that? No. It is literally one of my favorite things. on the face of this planet. So it is this extremely long tapestry that's all hand done

around the time of the Battle of Hastings that depicts the entire process leading up to the battle of and up until Williams' crowning as King of England. But it is insane the pristine condition that it's in. I know they've had to do a lot of conservation on it,

but I was lucky enough to go see it in Bayou, in France. And it is literally so cool. and they have an audio tour that explains what each panel in the tapestry is doing. But to listen to all the audio panels and see the whole tapestry, it takes you about an hour. Wow. And also, this goes back to an idea that I'm pretty sure Thomas Payne brought up in one of his works, the English are technically French because William the Conqueror. I'm just saying, I don't think they would appreciate that.

They wouldn't. And that's not all Englishmen. But just the Englishmen that came from William the Conqueror's line are actually technically not English. If you're just tuning in, this is this week in history with Ava and Alessia on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Alessia, what do you have for military history? So this is right up my alley. I am completely in on espionage and spies. That is my thing.

Really? I would have never guessed. It's not like I had a whole show on it. or anything. It's not like it was called undetected on Radio Free Hillsdale, which everyone should totally go listen to. It's on pause right now. But maybe next year, we'll bring it back. But anyways, on October 12th, 1915, the British Red Cross nurse, Edith Cavill, is executed in Brussels. First of all, let's just take a moment to appreciate how cool she was.

What a lady. She secretly helped hundreds of British, French, and Belgian soldiers escape, Germans, essentially. And that's a super short story version. But she risked her life to help her countrymen. And even though she was with the Red Cross, she still managed to, she was working there. They kind of cracked down and they realized that she was helping. And I can't remember exactly. But this caused a lot of upheaval and people were really upset about this because she was a nurse. She was supposed to be protected, not be a combatant. But she was also a spy.

So it kind of was in this weird middle ground area. And the Germans decided that it was worth the risk and the backlash and executed her. That's so sad. I know. It's so dark today. Okay. To lighten it up a little bit, this is a really random question. But out of pure curiosity, does she have any relation to Henry Cavill?

I have absolutely no idea. Like just pure curiosity. Hopefully this will actually lighten the mood. Let's go to pop culture. I feel like this is going to be less dark. I don't know if pop culture can really be super dark. It's usually not. Let's try it.

Let's go for it. What do you have this week, Ava? Okay, this is kind of silly. It is also on October 14th, but of 2007. Long time later. Yeah, many, many years. But anyway, keeping up with the Kardashians, the hit reality TV show with many, many, many, many, many seasons premiered for the first time on October 14th of 2007.

All right, we're ready. No, no, no. We're right here. The wind, you guys, is necessary. Go change, cool. Awful. No, that is not cute. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I need someone to make me laugh.

Where's Kim? Kim is always late. I'm here. Get out of her way. Stop. Dallas. Stop! Have you ever watched Keeping Up with the Kardashians?

I have not. Okay. I am pretty sure I wouldn't like it. I don't really like reality shows. The closest that I get to a reality show is Formula One. Yeah, I think that's okay. But I have personally watched Keeping Up with the Kardashians, not like a lot of it, but enough to be concerned about the state of celebrity culture.

I haven't even seen it and I'm concerned. Yeah. How many seasons was it? There are 20 seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. There are 20 seasons. Oh my gosh. I didn't even. know that was possible. That's crazy. Yeah, I was completely unaware. Each episode is about

22 to 25 minutes long, at least in season one. Do you want to guess the rating on IMDB? Like, out of 10? Knowing Americans, it's probably higher than it should be. I don't know. Throw out a number. Because I just look this up and I personally find it entertaining. Or eight out of 10? 2.9 out of 10. Wait, really? I thought it was going to be super high. I also thought it was going to be higher. But anyway, keeping up with the Kardashians has informed a lot about American society and consumer culture. And I watched a video essay on YouTube the other day about how the Kardashian family, like the thesis of their video essay was that the Kardashian family has caused the downfall of American capitalism. Which was a really, I don't know if that's an overstatement. Yeah.

But they had a lot of information and sources to back it up. Interesting. It was a very odd argument, but I found it, it was an entertaining watch. Alicia, what do you have for pop culture? So on October 16th, 1923, the Walt Disney Company is founded. Yes! This is like the most wholesome thing ever. And we talked about Walt Disney last episode, too, with opening of Walt Disney World.

Oh, yeah, and guess that year, yeah. Yeah. That's right. Well, Walt Disney World opened, what is it, two weeks after. Or, no, I mean like in the month, in the month, why? Oh, in the month. They were almost to like the anniversary. Yeah.

They should have made it on the anniversary. That would have been cool. That would have been really cool. Yeah. Did you know that Walt Disney was the first person to combine live action with animation? That is so cool. I did not. Yeah.

In the show Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Oh, yeah. Did you know that there was a black and white live action show? No. Yeah. That was one of the first things that Disney was. made. That is so cool. Everything was animated except for Alice. Dang. And if you buy the platinum edition of it, there's a separate DVD collection that I think is two additional DVDs that's

interviewing the girl who played Alice about her experience and how they did it and why it was like so innovative. I totally don't have the platinum edition. But it's really cool. I feel like the important question here is what is your favorite classic Disney movie? Oh dear Lord, that's such a hard question. This isn't really classic Disney because it doesn't go back like to the origins, but it's probably a tie between the black cauldron and sword and the stone. Classics. Yeah, I feel like yes. Yeah, I'm also a big Cinderella fan, but that was later. But still. I mean, classic for us is different. Yeah. Classic, classic, but it's not the black and white, silent Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. No. So now that we know, Ava's favorite classic

Disney movie. It's time for, you know what. Everyone's favorite game where we tried to guess years correctly of things that happened and may or may not succeed. Guess that year. Eva, what's the first question? On October 12th of what year, did the White House officially be called the White House, whereas it was previously known as the Executive Mansion? That's a great question. I have no idea. So I'm just going to throw out 1840. I don't know. This was something that Teddy Roosevelt did, so it was 1901. Dang, okay. I was closer than I thought it would be. Well, that's good. I don't know.

What do you have for me? All right. In what year, did Christopher Columbus sail the ocean blue? 1492. That was an easy one. I know that one. Yay! It's a song. Good job, though. October 11th, 1492. So fun. All right, what do you have?

Okay. On October 13th of what year was Margaret Thatcher born? Let's see. Well, she was prime minister in the 80s, so she was old. But we love Margaret Thatcher. I don't know. She was probably like 70 something then. Maybe. So that would be, okay, I'm going to go with 1912. 25. Oh. Dang it. But we love Margaret. That's true. So she wasn't 70 in the 80s, in 1980 at least. No. If I'm remembering it correctly from my junior year of high school when I first toured Hillsdale. Okay, I have, I think this could be a tricky question. Okay, go for it. So in what year, well, I guess first of all, do you know who Chuck Yeager is? Vaguely. Okay, famous pilot. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. In what year does Chuck Yeager become the,

first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. I'd assume that would be between the 70s and the 90s. You did give me an easy one first though, so I won't. Okay. Was it 83? 1983? No, it was 1947. I wasn't even in the right, like, half of the century. Oh my gosh. I'm getting him mixed up with a different, who's the, he looks like Tim Allen, but it's not Tim Allen. I don't know. I don't. That could be a lot of people. I think I'm mixing up Chuck Yeager with Tiberallet. Not the same person at all. Not even close.

Not at all. Oof. It's okay. Well, now we're 3-3. We are tied 3-3. We're 3-3. Yes. So I guess we'll see if someone is able to pull ahead in the next episode.

Thanks for tuning in to this week in history with Ava and Alessia, the show where we talk about all things history. See you next week on Radio. Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.