Amazing Tales About History

General Israel Putnam is the man credited with saying, "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes," at the Battle of Bunker Hill. His military achievements, as George Washington's "go to fixer," are legendary. Among his ideas: stretching a chain under the surface of the Hudson River to keep British ships from sailing up to West Point.

The Associated Press carries more news stories each day then any other service. Most media organizations belong to the nonpartisan outlet. Moses Yale Beach created the AP during the Mexican American War, looking for a way for his New York Sun newspaper to beat his competitors and get the news to readers more quickly.

The first time a phone was used to call for emergency help. It happened after a horrible train wreck. The train crashed through a bridge and into the icy river below in January of 1878. The train full of passengers was returning from a religious revival with the passengers singing as the crash occurred.

The worst weather disasters in southern New England occurred in years that ended in the number 8. Included are the Blizzard of 1888, the Hurricane of 1938, and tornadoes and ice storms in the years 1878, 1898, 1978, and 2018.

Paul Revere and Sybil Ludington. They both rode through the countryside to warn Patriots of a pending British attack during the Revolutionary War. The big difference: Sybil was just 16 years old and rode through a major rain storm. But she doesn't get the same credit.

NASCAR was born at the Thompson Speedway, during an agreement struck in the back corner of the cafeteria. Thompson itself set many firsts, including being the first track to be asphalt paved and the first to have separate, looped racetrack that did not use public roads. It still hosts races today.

How did a titan of Wall Street manage to attain his success coming from a rural dairy farm? Charles Dow's only education was in a one-room schoolhouse, and yet managed to start the Dow-Jones Company, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Wall Street Journal.

The earliest firefighters used bucket brigades, hand-drawn pumpers, and "speaking trumpets" (to project a voice and bark orders at fire scenes). With all of the wooden structures in Colonial America, fires were frequent. This fire department has the distinction of being the oldest volunteer fire department in the country.

The media dubbed it the Glawackus - an elusive and ferocious creature first spotted in Glastonbury, CT that veteran hunters could not identify. It killed wildlife, dogs, chickens, and made unidentifiable howls at night, terrifying the population. Finally, one hunter is believed to have bagged it - but there is much more to the story.

Helen Keller - deaf, dumb, and blind from childhood. She overcame her disabilities, with help, and went on to become an internationally celebrated author, lecturer, and advocate for those with her disabilities. One of her good friends was Samuel Clemens, a.k.a., Mark Twain.

It's one of the more quoted stories from the slave era. Four deaths during a mutiny aboard a ship - La Amistad - carrying 50 kidnapped Africans from Cuba led to high profile court cases in the U.S. about the immoral slave trade in the 1800s, drawing international attention.

Veteran soldiers in the 1700s were as perplexed as ordinary towns folks - and even as scared - by the deafening, ongoing noise that woke them up on a particularly dark night. Nobody could see the source of the sound - a sound like never heard before. Was it Judgement Day? When the morning light came, the mystery was solved.

His gravestone reads "X-Y-Z" because the identity of the man who staged an 1899 bank robbery is still unconfirmed. He was shot dead during the robbery and photos of him were widely circulated in the newspapers of the day. No one ever positively identified him.

Maybe you've seen the classic 1944 Cary Grant movie "Arsenic and Old Lace." It's about two spinster women who lure unsuspecting men to their home and then poison them. What you may not know, is that it's based on a true story.

Roger Sherman is the only founding father who signed all four of the country's original documents. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and brokered the Connecticut Compromise, breaking a political impasse and allowing the Constitution to be approved.

The first flying automobile approved by the FAA was invented in the 1940s. Robert Fulton's Airphibian was only one of his incredible gifts to society. He also invented the flight simulator, that teaches pilots to fly, and Skyhook, featured in a 007 film.

Was it Wethersfield or Windsor? After English settlers arrived at Plymouth in the 1600s, they moved into Connecticut. A dispute over which town they settled first continues. Either way, Wethersfield boasts some of the nation's most incredible history.

The development of airports has occurred with many today surrounded by neighborhoods that were built when the airports were small. The Tweed-New Haven Airport fits this bill - and its runway is on the actual border between two towns.

Yankee Peddlers - the original door-to-door salesmen. Starting in New England in the 1700s, two brothers not only created the Yankee Peddler approach to consumerism, but they also happened to establish the use of tin for plates, coffee pots and dozens of other applications in the U.S.

Mount Rushmore. It was conceived and chiseled by Gutzon Borglum, a controversial artist who was the one who decided which four presidents to feature. And when he couldn't quite finish the project, in stepped his son.

In part two of our story about the sinking of the Sea Surveyor, we learn the fate of the 12-man crew that had to abandon ship 300 miles from the nearest land, in 25-foot seas, gale force winds, and a rubber lifeboat.

Fifty years ago, 12 men departed on a secret military mission in the Atlantic. Before long, the Sea Surveyor - a ship ill-equipped to handle rough seas - found itself in trouble. We hear from one of only two survivors of that ill-fated outing in part one of a two-part series.

In World War 1, General John Pershing in Europe had his top-secret documents carried by special couriers who raced motorcycles through enemy territory and dodged gunfire. Top speed in 1918 was just 45 miles per hour, but daredevil Carlton Stevens made it.

He does "Jumble" - the most syndicated word puzzle in the U.S. He also does "Word Round-up" and "Up and Down Words." How do you become the leading word puzzle maker in the U.S.?

It’s the oldest town green in North America – laid out 400 years ago in grid format and continuously maintained since colonial days. The New Haven, CT Green holds many secrets and memories, including forgotten cemeteries and famous visits.

Stonewalls. Beautiful rows of rocks piled in lines along fields or through the woods. Yet, the 240,000 miles of New England stonewalls hide a more scientific purpose – namely, classifying them in ways similar to wetlands to make future land use decisions.

More than 2 dozen American ships sunk in one night. The British did it during the War of 1812 near Long Island Sound. It was the worst loss of ships in a single military event, until Pearl Harbor.

The hanging of witches started in Connecticut in the 1600s. Decades later, the more famous Salem Witch Trials occurred. At the beginning, nearly a dozen women and men were hanged for witchcraft, until young Colony Governor John Winthrop used his political expertise to get the state to end executions entirely.

The "Old Woodbury Path" connected some of America's earliest farms with one of its earliest and nearly forgotten ports. Most of it is paved over now, but if you know where to look, parts of this 350-year-old cart path can still be hiked.

Ivory. It meant quality, class, and refinement. And, it put the town of Ivorytown on the map. That's where 90% of the material was imported into the U.S. and manufactured into piano keys, combs and buttons, taking advantage of huge demand for its smooth, glassy touch.

American soldiers held in German during WW II made many prison escapes largely thanks to a top-secret project: Post Office Box 1142. Coded info and hidden devices were mailed to prisoners in ingenious ways that got past prison guards.

About 100 years ago, a town's top leader was shot to death in his Town Hall office. Ray Gilliard telephoned the operator, said he had been shot, described his assailants, and asked for police and a doctor to be dispatched. Then, the line went dead. The investigation's outcome shocked everyone.

The "father of robotics," Joseph Engelberger, created the very first industrial robot in the 1980s. It was installed on a car manufacturing production line. His ingenuity led to other advances, including a robot that delivered food trays from a hospital kitchen to a patient's bedside.

In 1987, a novel construction technique failed, causing a multi-story concrete structure to collapse onto and kill 28 workers. Each floor fell, pancake style, on top of the one below it until the tons of concrete from the L'Ambiance apartment building project trapped the crew. Thomas Bucci was the Mayor who had to manage the disaster.

It was a complete mismatch that ended in a Revolutionary War slaughter. 1,600 British soldiers attacked Fort Griswold, where just 165 Patriot defenders gave fight. They surrendered, but the British killed them anyway in a battle directed by Benedict Arnold.

It was a difficult murder to solve. The victim's body was not in his house, which had been burned to the ground. The suspect was especially adept at deflecting attention. While he didn't like the victim, he did love a woman - and the two emotions were connected to the crime.

If you were a candidate for military service in the Civil War, and you saw Dr. Josiah Beckwith, odds are you would get a medical exemption. Why did more than 90% of Beckwith's patients end up ducking the draft?

Just because land is forested or undeveloped doesn't mean it's set-aside "open space." Many landowners are just waiting for the right time to sell to developers. The battle to commit enough open space land for future generations to enjoy is behind schedule.

Noah Webster doesn't command much attention as a founding father. Yet, he created the first American dictionary and made contributions to education that remain to this day. He's the father of U.S. copyright law and founder of New York’s first daily newspaper.

At one point, Connecticut had five zoos. Now, it's just has one accredited facility: Beardsley Zoo. This dwindling resource keeps highly endangered species alive and director Gregg Dancho says its contributions are generally unappreciated by society.

1,500 victims drowned on the Titanic. William Sloper survived. He escaped on an a “women and children only” lifeboat. One reporter claimed he got in it by wearing a dress. What was the truth?

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the pilot of a small plane you were riding in died in mid-flight? On Easter Sunday, 2009, the pilot of a twin-engine plane out of Florida suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving a father, his wife, and two daughters alone in the plane. A CT flight instructor tried to talk him down.

Is a "trading post" a "settlement?" This seemingly straightforward question is at the heart of a 400-year-old argument as to whether Windsor or Wethersfield was the first town settled by the English in Connecticut.

In part two of this two-part series, we learn the fate of the 41-member submarine crew, trapped under Long Island Sound with flooded compartments, no radio onboard, deadly chlorine gas filling the vessel, and freezing water temperatures.

In 1921, a submarine set sail in Long Island Sound for the New London Naval Base. In part one of this two-part series, we hear how the 41-member crew faced multiple, spellbinding challenges when the vessel sank, with no radio onboard.

This ghost story has dozens of witnesses. The well publicized "Lindley Street Poltergeist" saw thousands of people gathering nightly outside the house to witness supernatural activities seen by police and firefighters - floating refrigerators, knives flying through the air, and even a talking cat.

Instead of New York City, imagine the United Nations in Greenwich, CT. It was the search committee's first choice. The ensuing community battle gave rise to the slogan "NIMBY": not in my backyard. The Rockefeller and Bush political dynasties also got involved.

William Franklin was the son of famous founding father Ben Franklin. He was also the Governor of New Jersey, representing the British Crown. When the Revolutionary War broke out, Patriot forces captured William and imprisoned him. How did Ben respond?

The sounds have been described as eerie, dreadful, and fearful, and they've been heard for centuries. The so-called "Moodus noises" have come to define the small village where the sounds come from, and intriguing legends have grown around them.

Farmer Elmer Bitgood drank 10 gallons of milk at lunchtime to wash down several pounds of hamburger. His biceps were 20 inches around. Newspapers nationwide in the 1920s dubbed him the strongest man in the world, for lifting 2,000 pounds.