Based on a True Story

BOATS THIS WEEK (SEP 9-15, 2024) — Tuesday this week marks the anniversary of the Battle of Marathon, which we see in the movie 300: Rise of an Empire. Then, of course, we'll be looking at this week's anniversary of the 9/11 attacks from the movie United 93. For our third historical event, we'll learn about A Star-Spangled Story and how an event from this week in history inspired the U.S. national anthem. We'll also learn about the true story behind The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which released exactly 19 years ago today.

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BOATS TODAY (SEPT 5, 2024) — After four days of fighting the flames, the Great Fire of London was finally extinguished on this day in 1666 so today we'll learn more about how the events from exactly 358 years ago today were shown in the TV miniseries called The Great Fire.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

Watch it now: Find where The Great Fire is streaming

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BOATS THIS WEEK (SEPT 2-8, 2024) — On this day almost two thousand years ago, the Battle of Actium decided power in Rome. Not coincidentally, we'll learn about that today from a TV show called Rome. The second event from this week in history according to the movies comes from the 1993 film called Geronimo: An American Legend, because Wednesday this week marks the 138th anniversary of that event. For our third event, we'll learn about one of Jesse James' infamous holdups from September 7th, 1876 as it's shown in the movie The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid.

Until next time, here's wh...

Editor's Note: The fire started after midnight on September 2nd in London, so if you're in the United States like I am then you might see this minisode release on September 1st due to time zones.

BOATS TODAY (SEPT 2, 2024) — The Great Fire of London started exactly 358 years ago today, so we'll learn how well the TV miniseries called The Great Fire shows the way it all started.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

Watch it now: Find where The Great Fire is streaming

BOATS THIS WEEK (AUG 26-SEPT 1, 2024) — Tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of Disney's Mary Poppins premiered, and that event is shown in the 2013 movie called Saving Mr. Banks about the making of Mary Poppins. If that's too confusing, give the episode a listen to unravel it all. From there, we'll travel to the west of Java to the movie incorrectly titled Krakatoa, East of Java. It got the geography wrong in the title, but we'll find out how well it shows the eruption of Krakatoa from August 28th, 1883. Then we'll go to London in 1888 because this Saturday is the anniversary of...

BOATS THIS WEEK (AUG 19-25,2024) — Historical events from the movies start with The Crucible and how it depicts the Salem witch trials from this week in 1692. Then, we'll learn a bit about Patsy Cline's hit song "Crazy" because it was this week in 1961 that she started recording it in the studio, and that's shown in the 1985 biopic about her life called Sweet Dreams. For our third event, we'll learn about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius as it was shown in the movie Pompeii.

Editor's note: The filmmakers couldn't have known this, but there's a good chance it di...

The Mummy (1999) is packed with supernatural powers, Hollywood magic, and...maybe some truth? After all, mummies were a real thing. We'll chat with acclaimed Egyptologist Dr. Aidan Dodson to find out how much of the movie is based in history.

Where to start learning more of the true story

More from Aidan's Lives and Afterlives series

BOATS THIS WEEK (AUG 12-18,2024) — Today is the 81st anniversary of the conspiracy theory from the 1984 movie The Philadelphia Experiment. Or is it? Tune in to find out. After that, we'll move into the Shakespearean classic-turned-modern movie Macbeth (2015) because this Wednesday is the 984th anniversary (1040 CE) of King Duncan I of Scotland's death. This week also marks the 79th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day, so our third event will come from the HBO miniseries The Pacific.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

Events from This Week in History

BOATS THIS WEEK (AUG 5-11,2024) — This week's events from historical movies starts with Monday's 719th anniversary (August 5th, 1305) of William Wallace's (Mel Gibson) capture shown in the movie 'Braveheart.' In the History Channel's dramatic miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys", we'll see how it portrays the feud between their two families turning to bloodshed for the first time on August 7th, 1882. It was also on August 7th, but in the year 1974, that Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) became the only person in history to ever walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. We'll learn about th...

BOATS THIS WEEK (JUL 29-AUG 4,2024) — There were two major disaster this week in history. The first we'll learn about is an event many consider the worst shark attack in history, which began on July 30th, 1945, and is shown in the movie USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage. 

Our next historical disaster marks its 48th anniversary on Thursday this week, and we'll watch the racing movie starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl called Rush, because it was on August 1st, 1976, that Daniel Brühl's character in that movie, Formula One legend Niki Lauda, nearly died in a fiery wreck...