WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - This Week In History: September 21-27: Benedict Arnold commits treason, the Rosetta Stone is deciphered, and Warsaw falls to the Nazis

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Join Ava and Alessia as they investigate Benedict Arnold's betrayal, Warsaw's fall to the Nazis, 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. This week is quite historical. Eva, what do you have first? Okay, the first thing I have is something I actually forgot to mention last week. But my favorite historical commentary book, More Than Dates and Dead People by Stephen Mansfield, is officially 25 years old as of yesterday. So, yay Stephen Mansfield. For American history this week, I actually will not start us on a downer.

That's the first. I know. Crazy of us. What do you have? On September 23rd, 1845, the first baseball team, the New York Knickerbockers, organizes and adopts a rulebook, creating baseball as we know it today, pretty much. So the rulebook they adopted was a set of 20 rules compiled by Alexander Cartwright and his committee. And those rules included setting framework for baseball where bases are 90 feet apart. part and each team has three outs per inning, which we still use today. So they basically made the game fair and made sure the bases were properly separated. Yeah. Before the rules were adopted,

baseball was more of like an informal sport that people just did for funsies. But after that, it became an organized sport. The first formal rulebook was printed in 1848, which was the same year as the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in case anyone was wondering. Fun fact. But oddly enough, the first edition was the first edition of printed rules in the National Archives of America isn't until 1858. So there's a 10-year discrepancy. That's really odd. Yeah. Somebody was not paying attention to their baseballs.

I was like, why don't you have the first one? You have like the third one. But the New York Knickerbockers were still active until the 1870s. But funnily enough, the name was reused by a professional basketball team and shortened to a team that we still have today, the Knicks. Different sports, but yay America, I guess. Alessia, what do you have for American history? So I have, this is actually back to the dark note, but also this is one of my favorite historical events to read about and just honestly listen to anything about.

Benedict Arnold on September 21st, 1780 commits treason. He meets with the British and officially sells out the fledgling America. Benedict Arnold is just, he's crazy to me because he was such a successful general. He practically won the Battle of Saratoga for the Americans. If it wasn't for him, we probably would not have won. And that honestly was a major factor of why the French decided to join us against the British. And without them, we definitely wouldn't have won the war for independence. So Benedict Arnold, he decides that it doesn't matter.

His loyalty is, it can be bought. and he was going through some debts at the time. And his wife, who was a loyalist, ironically, who actually they suspect that she was part of the reason that he got into contact with John Andre. Really? And yeah, she kind of like convinced him to go over to the other side, which is really crazy. She kind of was this figure behind him that no one really saw. And then when he finally switched over, it was devastating, especially for, you. George Washington because he had treated him as one of his closest allies and he felt really betrayed.

That's wild. Yeah, the war effort never really, it was different after that. Morale took a serious hit after he joined the British side. And they actually made several attempts to try to capture him or even kill him. And none of them worked out, which is kind of crazy. I wonder why. They did catch John Andre, though, because they decided to meet behind American lines, which was a bad choice.

But he was hanged, but Benedict Arnold managed to escape. And they actually wanted to trade Benedict Arnold for, well, the Americans wanted to trade John Andre for Benedict Arnold. But the British couldn't do that because otherwise no one else would desert and go over to their side. They wouldn't defect if they would give him back. So basically. Wild.

Bonkers. He died sad in Britain. On spring break this year, fun fact. We actually saw the spot where Benedict Arnold was shot at the Battle of Saratoga, and that really changed his trajectory as well. He couldn't be a battlefield commander anymore after that point. There was supposed to be a memorial there, but I think it was under repair. So they had this little miniature memorial out, and we got there and we were really confused. The real one was in a box.

Yeah. And we thought, is this? Is this it? Is this the thing? No, it was just under repair. I'm very glad, although I am sad that we didn't get to see the real thing. But the miniature one was really disappointing. A little bit.

Yeah. I was so excited to see the spot and then it was closed in a metal box. But it's okay. Anyways, that is my American History event. Let's hop into World History, much broader category. Eva, what do you have for us? Okay, so on September 27th of 1822, the Rosetta Stone was officially deciphered. The Rosetta Stone was actually discovered on July 15th of 1799 during Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, found in a town near the Nile.

And it was called Rosetta because the town Rashid directly translates to Rosetta from that to English. But after Napoleon was defeated by the British, the Rosetta Stone became British property under the Treaty of Alexandria. and arrived in England in 1802. And since the stone was inscribed with the same decree in three different languages that allowed scholars to be able to decipher hieroglyphics for the first time. That's really cool. Without that, we probably never would have understood it. Yeah.

Known what the Egyptians were up to. The three languages that were on the Rosetta Stone were the ancient hieroglyphics, Demotic, I think I'm saying that right, which is pretty much Egyptian cursive and then ancient Greek. And using the ancient Greek is how we were able to figure out all of that other stuff. But these two guys, one from England and one from France, both kind of discovered at the same time that Egyptian hieroglyphics were really phonetic with how they were written. So what they depicted is kind of what the beginning of that letter sounded like. So you could go back and using all of that information, figure out what ancient Egyptian language would have sounded like. Oh, that's really mean.

Which is super cool. But yeah, what about you? Something for world history. For my world history event, it's kind of also military history. Basically everything I talk about is military history. That's okay, though. We love. It's the best.

But on September 27th, 1940, the tripartite pact is signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan, officially forming the Axis Powers. So this is kind of when they all get together and decide that they're going to be friends and this is after Germany has already been at war. And for about a year now, I think it's almost exactly a year. They're allies after this. And Italy is the first to bail out. They are done in 1943.

They're like, okay, yeah, we're over this. And switch shots. So pretty impressive. The Italians get their act together, which I'm really proud of. Totally unbiased opinion. For sure. All right. Let's move into military history.

our favorite category that we sort of kind of already talked about. But, Ava, what do you have for military history? On September 25th of 1237, King Henry III, not the 8th of England, and Alexander II of Scotland, signed the Treaty of York, which established a mostly unchanged border between England and Scotland. So in the treaty, the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmerland became official lands of England. researching that was really weird to me because all of those are counties really close to where I live in Tennessee. That's really funny. It's really funny. But anyway, Scotland was given smaller lands within these counties that were taken away from them due to pre-establish feudal bonds that had already been created within the communities by Scotland with the English, which I just think is really cool that they were, they didn't want the village to be destitute. When the Scottish Lords who were kind of over that particular community just left.

They wanted to make sure their people were still functioning and thriving, which was so nice of them. For that time period, absolutely. The only change to the Anglo-Scottish border between 1237 and today was when England annexed, this is a great town name, by the way, Berwick upon Tweed. That's amazing. In 1482.

There was another treaty of York that ended the War of the Roses in 464, but that's different treaty of work. And a whole other story. They didn't have Berwick upon Tweed. I wouldn't be from there. That sounds like a cool place to be from. Like Shakespeare was from Stratford upon Avon. Like, can I be from a cool name that has a pawn in the middle with hyphens? Like that would just be so fun.

That's really cool. Very fancy. Very, very English, I guess. Alessia, what do you have for military history? So we're back to World War II, and on September 27th in 1939, so exactly one year before the tripartite pact, Warsaw falls to the Nazis. So when the war started and the Germans went into Poland, they almost kind of set it up and made it look like the Polish attacked first, and so that they could go into Poland and the German people would be okay with it, although I'm sure they would have been anyways. They attack Warsaw. They bomb it for quite a while.

It's pretty damaged by the end there. And then finally, Warsaw has no other option and the Germans pull up and they have to surrender. And life changes very quickly in Warsaw. Poland in general is one of the hardest hit places during World War II. Because not only are the Germans being absolutely awful, but the Russians kind of. in and do the same thing. Yeah. They were not, not much better.

And the ghettos weren't established too far after the invasion, right? Or am I wrong? I'm not sure exactly when, but it was definitely, I'm sure it wasn't that long after. I don't know an exact date, though. Have you seen the zookeeper's wife or read the book? Oh my gosh. I love that movie so much. I need to read the book.

I watched it at probably too young and age. I think I watched it when I was 13. That is definitely not a movie for this year. It's very traumatic. But it was so good. But I really like the way that they portray the, when the Nazis are coming to Warsaw and they bomb the zoo and they have, they kill a bunch of the animals and then the reaction to that. I love how they, the main characters, like they prioritize trying to go and help the animals after. There's nothing they can do.

And so it shows that there's just no one is safe, not even animals in a zoo from bombing. And that's an aspect of the city. you don't really think anything about. Yeah. The zoo. I mean, who's going to think about that? The zookeeper and his wife. Yeah.

And their son. Yeah. I love that kid. It was just a really interesting portrayal of what they went through. Was it based on a true story? I feel like maybe. I can't remember, but maybe it's been too long since I've seen that movie. Because I think the last time I watched it was a handful of years ago.

If you're just tuning in, this is This Week in History with Ava and Alessie. on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Well, that's military history. Ava, what do you have for pop culture? Guys, this is like one of my favorite pop culture things that I have talked about, and I know I say that probably every time. But on September 21st, 1937, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien was first published.

And if you know anything about Hillsdale, J.R.R. Tolkien is just an icon. People watch the extended edition, Lord of the Rings, while we stake out for banner drop for homecoming. And it's just a tradition now because it's fantastic. It's really cool to see them. It's fantastic. But The Hobbit was my first Tolkien that I ever read. And it, ah, it made my childhood.

My childhood was already great. But it's such a good book. And the movies are fine. for The Hobbit movies. Yeah. They're good, but the book is better. I would love to comment, except I've never seen them, and this will probably get me ostracized from Hillsdale. Yeah, we're going to have to change that.

But I have not read the books either. Oh, dear Lord, we're going to have to change that. There's too many, and they're so long. There's The Hobbit, Fellowship of the Ring, two towers and Return of the King. Simil-Morillian, if you count that one. I haven't read the Simerilurielian. As you know, Ava, I absolutely hate book series. And I mean, almost none.

I know. I can't be attached after more than one book. But you could just read The Hobbit. Well, like, you should read the other ones, but you could get away with just reading The Hobbit, I think. I'm not a vague fantasy reader. I don't really like fantasy at all, actually. In fact, it might be my least favorite genre. Which is perfectly fine.

Except you at least need to read The Hobbit at some point. It's worthwhile, I promise you. Okay. I'll have to take your word for it. One of my friends gave me this idea. So what some people do for their 21st birthdays, they just watch all of the Tolkien movies back-to-back marathon with all of the food that's in the movies. And I high-key want to do that.

What about you? What do you have for pop culture after my rant about how much I love Tolkien? So my pop culture event, I guess this is pop culture. I mean, kind of. I feel like I've said that every single week, but it's fine. The first televised presidential debate took place between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon on September 26, 1960. Good evening. The television and radio stations of the United States and their affiliated stations are proud to provide facilities for a discussion of issues in the current political campaign by the two major candidates for the presidency.

The candidates need no introduction. the Republican candidate, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, and the Democratic candidate, Senator John F. Kennedy. This was the first time that it was on TV. I guess you could listen to it on the radio before. But otherwise, I think it was on the radio before. Probably. But other than that, I guess people know, they just, you had to go watch or you heard about in the newspaper.

And that was that. Yeah, I bet there was commentary published on it like the next day in the paper. Probably a transcript. Probably. And I would not want to be the person writing out that transcript. Oh, no. That would take forever. That would not be good.

But yeah, so that's pretty cool. Honestly, it's kind of later than I thought it would be. But anyways, a pretty cool event. Mm-hmm. And now it's time for... Guess that year, the game where we may or may not embarrass ourselves about our date-knowing abilities. That was very eloquent, Eva. What?

Do you remember what... Is it two to two? I think so. We did not get any... Did we get any... No, you got a point. I got one. Okay. And you... I think we're two to two.

I think so. Okay. I think. I remember us being tied. Do you want to go first? Okay. In White Year, on September 23rd, was Billy the kid arrested for the first time? Okay. Famous outlaw. Oh, geez. I saw a place in Wyoming where he was briefly imprisoned. That could be a lot of places, I guess. Yeah. It was cool. I bet. I don't remember the date, though. I want to say it was like early 1800s, but...

You're in the century. Oh, lovely. 1849. I like how you specifically went after the Mexican-American War. That's literally what I was thinking in my head and after James Polk's presidency. Yeah. No, it was 1870. So you were, you were almost there. That was the next thing I was going to guess, totally for sure 100%. I'm sure. All right. What do you have for me?

Okay. On September 22nd and what year were the last hangings of the Salem Witch trials? Oh my gosh. Okay. Let's see. Do I know when those happened? A couple episodes ago. And you kind of gave me it a couple episodes ago.

It's nowhere even. All right. Is it, let's see. I think it's before the 18th century. I don't know. 1690 something. Is that a final answer? No.

I honestly have no idea. Just throw out a number. Okay. Let's just go with 1696. 1692. Wait, no way. It was really close. I was very proud.

Or am very proud? I'm proud. I appreciate that. That means a lot to me. Still, I don't know if that's close enough to garner a point, but that was pretty darn close. Half a point? Do we get half points? If we can keep track of it, yeah. We should honestly probably keep track of it. Yeah, I'm going to write it down. Okay, go for it. Okay, so I have two and a half points. Do I get a half point for that?

I'll give you a half a point. You're in the same decade. Thank you. You're so generous. All right. In what year, also September 23rd, does the first standard oil geologist arrive in Saudi Arabia? Oh, goodness. It's so random. That's really random. Americans are going after oil. Okay, so I'd assume, I don't like assuming things about history. That usually goes poorly. That's very true, for me at least.

Because I'm trying to think of where that would be in relation to when Rockefeller started his oil situation. So it has to be after the Gilded Age. After the Gilded Age. Okay, I was going before. because if America didn't have it, Saudi Arabia could have it. Yeah, but he had to have already started Standard Oil, right? Oh, yeah, that was literally in your statement. Oh, my gosh. 1897? 1933.

Oh, that was way far off. Okay. A little bit after the Great Depression. Well, it was still happening, but after it started. Okay. I took a class on that last semester. I should know better. We didn't go all the way up to that.

Well, true. We also didn't talk about Saudi Arabia. Yeah. And American exploits there. But, okay. So we're at two and a half. To two. Yeah.

And I've got one more for you. Go for it. On September 26th of what year did the lovely band, the Beatles, released their hit album, Abbey Road? I don't know that I've, I would never choose to listen to the Beatles. I don't really like that. Well, when I started playing here, here comes the sun. like an hour ago.

You were like, oh, I like that song. Okay, well, that's because I honestly didn't know that it was them. I never realized that song was actually that. Yeah, that song is The Beatles. But that's embarrassing for me. That's just how much I know about music, which is nothing. I don't know. The 60s.

Throw out a year. Throw out a year. Nineteen 67. 69. Wait, no way. Okay, do I get a half point for that? give you a half point. Okay. That was a completely random guess. Because you said 80s and I started shaking my head and I was like, shoot, I shouldn't start shaking my head. Well, I really appreciated that.

So, okay, three to two. Yep. All right. We're going to pick that back up next week. Hopefully I can tie it. 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.