History Dispatches

One of the most ubiquitous and highest selling foods in the United States is the banana. From the big box Walmart, to your local mom and pop grocery store everyone sells them. But the banana we eat today is very different from less than a century ago. And that is because the banana we used to eat almost went extinct. This is the story of why bananas used to taste so different.

Sources

https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/history-of-the-gros-michel-banana

https://www.planthealthaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Panama-disease-FS.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavendish_banana

https://www.britannica.com/science/Panama-disease

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On March 9, 1862, two ships met at Hampton Roads near where the James River flows into Chesapeake Bay. What followed was a historic clash - the first ever between iron clad ships. This is the story of the Monitor vs the Merrimack.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads

https://www.marinersmuseum.org/learn/explore-topics/uss-monitor-story/

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ironclads_battle_7.jpg

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With just 70 men the gladiator slave Spartacus planned a revolt and escaped. Turning those 70 men into over 70,000. And in the process defeated multiple Roman armies and became one of the biggest thorns in the side the Roman Republic ever saw. This is the story of Spartacus.

Sources

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/plutarch/plutarchs-crassus/plutarch-on-spartacus/

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-spartacus/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Servile_War

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tod_des_Spartacus_by_Hermann_Vogel.jpg

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Valentine’s Day is a $20 billion a year industry in the United States. So how did St. Valentine’s Day become such a big deal? Today we will tell you by looking at who St. Valentine really was - and how his day has evolved into one of the biggest holidays - money wise - in the world.

Sources

https://www.history.com/articles/real-st-valentine-medieval

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matija_Bradaška_-_Sv._Valentin.jpg

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In November of 1520 the king of Sweden and Denmark, King Christian II, betrayed the Swedish nobility. After a feast, he imprisoned dozens of nobles and clergymen and then proceeded to execute 82 of them in the town square of Stockholm for heresy. This is the story of the Stockholm Bloodbath.

Sources

https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2021/11/the-stockholm-bloodbath-of-november-1520/

https://www.britannica.com/event/Stockholm-Bloodbath

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Bloodbath

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stockholm_Bloodbath.jpg

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