WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - This Week in History - Oct. 19-25: Yorktown, MacArthur's return, and the moon

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Join Ava and Alessia as they discuss the Siege of Yorktown, General MacArthur's return to the Philippines during the World War II, and more.

Welcome to This Week in History with Ava and Alessia, your one-stop shop for all things history. Battles were fought, borders were redrawn, and history was written. It's been a week, so let's dive right in. Eva, what's on the docket for today? So on October 20th, 1803, Congress ratified the Louisiana purchase. We love. So the Louisiana purchase encompasses about 530 million acres, which the U.S. purchased from France for about $15 million.

If you think about the price of land today, that's insane. So insane. Yeah. But then again, things were different. So the Louisiana territory was actually originally Spanish territory, and the U.S. had an agreement with Spain for the right to travel on the Mississippi to move goods to their trade ports in New Orleans to ship them other places. And Spain was like, yeah, sure, you can do that, whatever.

In addition to having this agreement with Spain, the U.S. us noticing that the Spanish Empire in North America was pretty weak, they're like, whoa, this is great for us because westward expansion is way more possible, seeing that they're letting us use the Mississippi. This is fantastic. But then France, under Napoleon, bought the Louisiana territory from Spain, and then all of our hopes for westward expansion were kind of hashtag dashed. But then Napoleon was dealing with issues of his own. He had a lot of those. He had a lot of those. The most important ones for the Louisiana territory being that his soldiers in North America

were high-key dying of dysentery in losing a lot of men really fast. And on top of all of that, the tensions with England were increasing and eventually the war would start again between England and France. But we bought the territory from him before that happened. Because Jefferson sent James Monroe to try to buy it from him. for $10 million and he said don't go over $10 million. And Napoleon was like, I'll give it to you for 15 and they're like, sure, going directly against Jefferson's orders. So now we have the Louisiana territory. But fun fact, the Louisiana purchase was not the biggest addition of territory to the U.S.

in its history at once. The largest addition was actually 768 million acres under James K. Polk's administration, which included the states of Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, and more. Alessia, what do you have for us today? So I have October 19th, 1781. I feel like we've talked about the American Revolution a lot recently. But that's okay. There's been a lot of great anniversaries.

But on October 19th was the American victory at the Battle of Yorktown. This effectively ended the Revolutionary War and was a victory for the Americans. And after this, it was a lot of much smaller battles and eventually led to the Revolutionary War. to the treaty that was signed between America and Britain when they actually had to recognize the U.S. as a country. So we actually, on this trip that we can keep talking about, we also went to Yorktown. It's such a pretty place. It is a pretty place.

But as you look out onto the Chesapeake Bay, you can almost imagine the British Navy and then the French Navy behind them on the water. And that was the most incredible thing. It was very cool. It's also just gorgeous. You can also see the readouts that are still there. There's remnants of them. And one of them looks like it's almost falling into the water.

But it's pretty cool to see where the Americans actually, where their line was and then how close they were to the British. And then how they continue to just get closer and closer as they tightened up their siege. Yeah. The readouts are really cool. So there's also the really awesome monument that has George Washington, Lafayette, Rocheonbo, and. de Grasse all together kind of chatting. It symbolizes the relationship between the French and American forces and their alliance. That was just really cool to see. Let's go to world history now. Eva, what do you have? So the thing I have for us today is really sad, but on October 21st of

1966 was the landslide at Abervan, also known as the Abervan disaster. What is that? I actually haven't heard of that. Okay, so Abervan is a really small coal mining village in the south of Wales. And we've read about coal mining disasters before with slurry runoff and things. And that's no different for this event, except it was absolutely tragic to this community and to pretty much the mainland of the British Empire as a whole. So the refinery had semi-reinforced areas where waste and slurry could just build up. And they were like, eh, it's fine.

It's not going to collapse or anything. But then it did. I feel like every time somebody says, oh, it's not going to collapse. It always does. Yeah. There was a really similar event actually in northern Appalachia, actually around the same, like within the same decade. I'm pretty sure here in America. But on October 21st, 1966,

one of the seven spill-off areas that they had supposedly strengthened and reinforced collapsed, which led to about 107,000 cubic meters, or for us Americans, about 28.5 million gallons of slurry to just absolutely obliterate their village. And that's a lot, and that was just one receptacle of the stuff. This slurry started moving around 7 a.m., hitting the town not too far after it exploded. But directly in the path of the avalanche of coal slurry were multiple small farms, cottages, and two schools. Oh, no. But since it was in early to mid-morning that it reached the town, it absolutely

devastated the entire community. The total losses were 144 deaths and 116 of those were school children. Oh my gosh. And this was the day before they left for fall break or the English equivalent for fall break. That's really sad. It's extremely sad. And many of those 116 children were under the age of 10. Wow. I can't believe I never heard of this before. This is horrible. It's not widely talked about there's actually an episode on this and I think it's either season five or six of the crown really goes into how much emotional impact it had on the monarchy and the British Empire and Wales as a whole yeah I mean considering the impact though you would think that it would be talked about it's it's just absolutely devastating but if you listen to newscasts

of the event in the aftermath like specifically during the funeral I actually found a clip of it. It's devastating. It wasn't a mass grave, but they dug a giant trench in the countryside and laid all of the coffins in the trench next to each other. And most of them were small child's coffins. So they were, it was just devastating. But you can listen to part of that newscast in just a second. Reiths and poses that came from all over the world were laid in the form of a huge cross. It seemed to say that the ways of providence are beyond the understanding of men and women. No use to ask why are the children to die. On the threshold of life, life was taken from them. Alessia, what do you have for world history? I have October 20th, 1935, and this is when Mao's Long

March effectively ends. This was communist forces in China retreating. The nationalist had surrounded them and they were able to break through and then they retreat it's a really really long time that they're on the retreat but they eventually arrive to a location that i can't pronounce and start rebuilding and this is when mao's like really coming to power before he starts implementing all of his yeah it is this is pre-world war two okay yeah have been talking about mao a lot in our counterinsurgency class oh yeah and about all of his um tactics to get people on his side. And it's crazy.

One of the biggest ones that kept inspiring other insurgencies later in the 20th century was separating families and breaking family ties so that his idea was if you're separate from your family who originally that's who your loyalty is to, when you're not around them anymore, your loyalty will be to the country. Wow. And he was right. Yeah. Because it worked in multiple occasions.

Oh, for sure. Let's move on to military history now. Ava, I know you're going to talk about this for a while, so go for it. Okay, so when Alessia first introduced the idea of having a podcast about this week in history, the first event that immediately popped into my head was this one that I'm about to yap about for a hot minute, but you're going to like it, I hope. Anyway, so that is the Battle of Agincourt, which happened on October, 25th in the year 1415. I'm going to do my best to keep this short, but I did write a 22-page paper

about this battle last semester. You can do it, Eva. I'm going to try. So Henry V and the English troops have just ended their siege of the French city of Harfleur, and this was completely devastating for them. They lost a lot of soldiers due to disease and starvation. And Henry the 5th didn't think his soldiers could handle another battle. So his plan was to just go home until the beginning of the next war fighting season in the spring. However, in order to get back home, they had to go to the English-held port of Calais. But to get to Calais, they were kind of blocked by a river, so they had to take a detour through Agincourt to get to Calais. But what they didn't know is that French troops had moved and were waiting for them at Agincourt. And just to put it in perspective, Henry the

and his army were definitely the underdogs in this battle. The French had significantly more men, more training, better armor, and better equipment, and horses that were still alive. And Henry V's army was significantly smaller. Almost all of them were sick. A lot of them didn't have any clothes. And the only weapons he really had left were his archers and then a couple swordsmen. His cavalry had been pretty much demolished.

So his plan to keep his soldiers safe, he made these things that are called Cheval de Freese, which are anti-Calvary equipment that you can put in the field to deter Calvary. So those were sharpened stakes put in the ground. He used a V formation in the battlefield. So when the French cavalry the next morning came running towards the English to, obliterate them because they thought they were totally going to win since they had the English outnumbered. A lot of them even got drunk and party the night before. So they were like massively hungover during this battle. Wow. Massively hungover. Except, fun fact about horses is that they don't like to run into walls of sharp objects. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. And in that case, they're smarter than humans a lot

of the time. But a lot of them either wouldn't go towards the Cheval de Frees or got killed by it. But since all of the hold up of the French line was at that V-point that allowed his archers to absolutely obliterate them. And the field was super muddy because it had been raining all the day before so people would get stuck in the mud and with their heavy armor that weighed about 100 pounds, you just couldn't get back up. And so you got trampled by the people coming in after you. And so you ended up getting crushed by your own people

and sometimes your own horses, which is insane. But Henry V and the English won. And this is the battle that technically won the Hundred Years' War for the English. And as a result, the Battle of Agincourt and Henry V were greatly remembered in England afterwards, being in many poems, songs, and even inspiring, William Shakespeare's play Henry V. But the Carol of Agincourt is actually really cool, and you can hear what it would have sounded like. Our king went forth to Normandy with grace and might of chivalry. Their god for him rocked marvellously, where for England they call and cry. So that's my favorite battle.

Now you all know. 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? I have another topic that I also like to talk about. This is October 20th, 1944. General MacArthur returns to the Philippines. So earlier, a couple years earlier, the Japanese took control of the Philippines, and they had pushed the American troops who were there all the way to the edge of the main island.

I think it's Luzon, and they were cornered at the Baton Peninsula, which is mostly jungle. There's not a lot there. not really a civilized area at the time. I don't even know if it still is. It's just harsh jungle. And a lot of the Americans who were left had malaria. They were sick. They were just in a terrible place.

They were running low on supplies. And eventually they were just forced to surrender. But before that, MacArthur decided that he was going to leave and go to Australia. He says that it's because the president, Franklin, Rose about recalled him and had him go to Australia in order for him to not have to surrender and to survive, which makes sense. But at the same time, all of the troops were like, still there. You just abandon us. Yeah. You're our leader and you left us. And not a good look. No, not at all. And the people who were captured there, they were prisoners of war for almost the

entirety of the war after that, depending on which camps they were sent to. And when they were sent to the camps, that was almost worse than the actual march because the conditions were just atrocious and the cruelty was insane. There was not enough food. There was disease everywhere. And the actual march, I think it was 60 some miles, maybe 66 is sounding right. I think you're right. You couldn't stop walking unless they gave you explicit permission or they would just shoot you. If you fell, you were done. They just killed you. They would pull random people and beat them. They would, them. There was actually some nurses. This is one of my favorite things to talk about. The nurses who were captured at Baton, they were also taken on this march. And that was not a good position to be in.

They, at least, I mean, even, I think there was an account of even some of them being shot on the side of the road, which is just crazy. The Japanese did not follow the Geneva Convention at all. And so when MacArthur left, since they felt betrayed, he knew that he had to come back because otherwise his reputation would be completely ruined. So eventually the Americans were able to win victories against Japan and work their way back to the Philippines. And then MacArthur made this whole deal about being back. And here's a segment of the speech that he gave when he returned. This is the voice of freedom. General MacArthur speaking. people of the Philippines

I have returned by the grace of almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil soil consecrated in the blood of our two people so that was MacArthur's return to the Philippines

in his grand cinematic fashion that he always does he's known for that that'll come back to bite him in Korea but for now he was proclaimed to hero once again. Eva, let's move on to pop culture. What do you have?

So on October 22nd of 2008, an Indian lunar space probe was launched and later found water in the moon's atmosphere. In the conspiracy mindset, does that mean that we could colonize the moon? Potentially. There's many a movie about this. It gives us possibility for this now. As of 2008. What do you have for pop culture, Alessia?

I have October 23rd, 1998, and this is one of my favorite movies. It's called Life is Beautiful, and it's originally in Italian films. It's released in the U.S. in October of 1998. This film is just so cute. It's devastating mostly, but in the overall, it's still just a beautiful, it shows a beautiful relationship, and the kid is just adorable. So here's one of my favorite segments from the movie. Goodjourner, Princess. This night, have you seen life is beautiful before.

I haven't watched it a couple times over the summer. Yeah, we did. You talked about it a lot. And I got genuinely intrigued. We should definitely watch it. We definitely will at some point. Ava, do you know what time it is? I think I do know what time it is.

It's time for guess that year. Yes, it is. Everyone's favorite game show where we may or may not embarrass ourselves about our ability to guess and or no dates. We usually embarrass ourselves. But that's okay. With the first question. I think you might be able to get this one. Oh, I have a chance.

So on October 21st of what year was the Constitution known? as old iron sides launched in Boston. Oh, man. Eva. This seems like something that was up your alley. Wait, the first. The original. The original.

The Constitution. Old Ironsides. The boat that we went on. 1797? Yeah. Wait, actually. Yeah. I totally guess that.

I had a feeling, a gut feeling inside of me that told me that it was 1797. I don't know. I must have. learned that at some point. Maybe the osmosis from all the plaques that we saw around the bone. It was in there somewhere, in my brain. All right. I knew you would get that one.

Thank you. I needed that. So now it's 4.3. Me? Okay. Okay. In what year was Carrie Fisher, the famous actress who plays Princess Leia in the original movie, well, I guess in all of the movies, what year was she born?

Because the movie came out in, what, 71? Something like that? Seventies, yeah. Yeah, early 70s, or was it late 70s? I don't remember. Shoot. Was she born in like 52? You were close, 56.

Oh, I was in the right decade. Yeah, that's pretty impressive. Okay, on October 22nd of what year were hot air balloons first suggested for military use? This isn't the first use. This is the first suggestion. Oh, man. Okay, this is going to be early. I feel like this is going to be pretty early.

than what I'm thinking. I honestly don't know. I'm just going to throw out something random. Go for it. Like 1820? It's actually the same year as when old iron sides was launched. Oh, wow. Okay.

1797. Dang. Okay. Ava, final question. Go for it. We're at 4.3. Yes. In what year was the first...

This is really silly. Go for it. I'm ready. What year was the first barrel ride down night? Niagara Falls. Wait, I actually read about this somewhere because the first engraving in a publicized print of a barrel race in Niagara Falls was in the late Victorian early Edwardian era because there was a lady in a bustle. Hold on. 1882. Not quite. I think you have the right time periods, but it's 1901. Sadness. You were in the general vicinity.

I guess within 50 years. Yeah. Via my knowledge of Edwardian fashion engravings. That's honestly so impressive. But that was guessed that year. And it's still 4.3. Yeah. All right.

So I'm leading currently. And I need to work on my dates of random facts, it appears. I mean, same. We're not doing well. We only have like seven points. It's okay. It's fine. We'll get better maybe.

We can totally get better. We're getting better every week. Thanks for tuning in to this week in history with Ava and Aleccia, the show where we talk about all things history. See you next week on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.