Unrest and instability plague the Ottoman Empire, and a year of relative calm in the rest of Europe ends when a German gunboat suddenly appears off the coast of Morocco.
 

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Kâtibim”
Traditional Turkish folk song. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Tradidional Moroccan folk music
Public domain.
Recorded by Freesound user Eelke and used pursuant to a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

The world’s largest ocean liner, Titanic, strikes an iceberg and sinks on the night of April 14, 1912, becoming history’s most famous maritime disaster.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

Overture to Oberon, or The Elf King’s Oath
Composed in 1826 by Carl Maria von Weber. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

“Alexander’s Ragtime Band”
Composed in 1911 by Irving Berlin. Public domain.

“Eternal Father, Strong to Save”
Composed in 1860 by William Whiting. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

The growing rift between US President William Howard Taft and his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, comes to a head in the 1912 Presidential election, as Roosevelt decides to challenge Taft for the Republican Presidential nomination.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Scott Joplin’s New Rag”
Composed in 1912 by Scott Joplin. Public domain.
Performed by Gerluz, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery Expedition had returned to great acclaim, but had failed to reach the South Pole. Scott, Ernest Shackleton, and Roald Amundsen planned competing expeditions, each hoping to be the first human being to reach this remotest corner of the world.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

String Quartet
Composed in 1921 by Albert Doyen. Public domain.
Performed by Steve’s Bedroom Band, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

Antarctica, the remotest part of the Earth, was barely visited by humans until the 1890s. Over the next 25 years, however, many expeditions from many nations would explore this harsh land.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

Phantasie
Composed in 1905 by William Yeates Hurlstone. Public domain.
Performed by Steve’s Bedroom Band, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

William Howard Taft takes another stab at tariff reform, a Federal anti-trust suit breaks up the Standard Oil Company, and Irving Berlin publishes “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

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The Twentieth Century Rag

“Alexander’s Ragtime Band”
Composed in 1911 by Irving Berlin. Public domain.

Overture to Treemonisha
Composed in 1910 by Scott Joplin. Public domain.
Performed by L’Orchestra dell’Università di Firenze, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5. Photograph by Pat Hawks, used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license.

Explorers sought new passages to the Far East in the far north for centuries before reaching the North Pole became an end in itself. It took until the twentieth century for the first person to reach the North Pole, but exactly who that was and when it happened…well, that’s a tricky question.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

Symphony No. 6 in B minor, (“Pathétique”)
Composed in 1893 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

After years of plotting, failed uprisings, and repression, the Qing Dynasty is overthrown, and the Republic of China proclaimed.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

The Moon Reflecting in the Second Spring
Composed ca. 1940 by Abing. Public domain.
Performed by Wikipedia User David290,
and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

The first experimental steam-powered, self-propelled road vehicles appeared in France in the late 18th century. By the late 19th century, there were also vehicles powered by battery and by internal combustion. But in the early years of the twentieth century, the automobile comes into its own as a practical, economic form of transportation.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Daisy Bell”
Composed in 1892 by Harry Dacre. Public domain.

“In My Merry Oldsmobile”
Composed in 1905 by Gus Edwards and Vincent Bryan. Public domain.

Closing Theme

Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.