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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

In the United Kingdom, the constitutional crisis over the role of the House of Lords comes to a head in 1910, amid two general elections and the death of King Edward VII.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

Symphony No. 3 in E♭ Major (“Eroica”)
Composed in 1804 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain. Source.

Tombeau fait à Paris sur la mort de Monsieur Blancrocher, C minor
Composed in 1652 by Johann Jakob Froberger. Public domain.
Performed by Joan Benson. Source.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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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.

For many years, Mexico has been living under the rule of Porfirio Díaz. By the early twentieth century, Díaz is in his 70s and is growing increasingly out of touch. He will be deposed, and that will trigger the Mexican Revolution.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“El Pájaro Carpintero” (“The Carpenter Bird”)
Traditional. Public domain.
Performed by Los Hijos de la Malinche (Noé González Molina, Alberto de Jesus Nazario, & Julio Cesar de la Cruz Gonzalez) and edited by Widkipedia users Manetx, PlatinumCarlos, Sophie AgDz, Andresmedina95 & AmandaGraM95. Source.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

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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.

An episode on certain developments in astronomy in the early years of the twentieth century: the appearance of Comet Halley, of a second, brighter comet, the Tunguska event, and the debate on the possibility of life on Mars.

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Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Vanishing”
Composed by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

1. X. 1905
Composed in 1905 by Leoš Janáček. Public domain.
Performed by Pandora Selfridge. Public domain recording. Source.

Symphony No. 1 in D major
Composed by Gustav Mahler in 1888. Public domain.
Performed by the DuPage Symphony Orchestra, Barbara Schubert conducting.
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License. Source.

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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.

Before Theodore Roosevelt left office, he’d settled on William Howard Taft as his successor. The two men had been political allies and close friends. With Roosevelt’s support, Taft was elected President in 1908, but the two men would have a falling out soon afterward.

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Ragtime Fanfare

The Twentieth Century Rag

Euphonic Sounds
Composed in 1909 by Scott Joplin. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source. With much gratitude to Ragnar Hellspong for converting the music into a playable mp3 file.

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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.