Moment of Indiana History
podcasts Archive
April 17, 2006
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The Little 500
Little 500, "the World's Greatest College Weekend" bike race began as a simple way to help working students pay for their education.
April 10, 2006
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Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak
Nearly 50 tornadoes cut a swath from Iowa to Ohio, leaving 271 people dead and more than 3400 injured. In Indiana alone, the death toll was 137, 1700 injured.
April 3, 2006
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Tarzan’s Hoosier Connection
When Burroughs' first Tarzan novel was adapted for the screen, Hoosier-born Elmo Lincoln debuted in the title role.
March 27, 2006
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Persimmons
Food connoisseurs prize native persimmons, Diospyros virginiana, Latin for "food of the gods." The burnt-oragne fruit is indigenous to the Wabash Valley.
March 20, 2006
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Historic National Road
Interstate Highway 70 began as a conduit from the east to the interior west conceived of by George Washington, realized slowly as The Historic National Road.
March 13, 2006
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Hoosier Hysteria
It was invented in Massachussetts in 1891, but basketball's inventor claimed the game, "really had its origin in Indiana." And so began Hoosier Hysteria.
March 6, 2006
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Daylight Saving Time
In Indiana, time itself has its own history. The state has always bucked the trend toward the standardization of time, Daylight Saving Time included.
February 27, 2006
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Will Geer
Actor Will Geer, "Grandpa" from "The Waltons" fame, recited poetry as a boy at the knee of James Whitcomb Riley, and went later to the University of Chicago.
February 20, 2006
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Little Orphant Annie
James Whitcomb Riley's four-stanza poem "Little Orphant Annie" became the basis of a comic strip, a musical, a film, and even a doll.
February 13, 2006
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Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan had a resurgence in the early twentieth century. But the Grand Dragon's 1925 conviction ended the Klan's reign.
