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- [00:00]
Lindsey Graham
There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. Listen with Wondry plus in the Wondery app as a member of Noiser plus at Noizr.com or in Apple Podcasts. Or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts@intohristory.com It's 7am on June 30, 1908, in a village near the Tunguska river in Siberia, Russia. A merchant sits on the front porch of his trading post, enjoying his breakfast. But as he eats, something extraordinary captures his attention. A bright cylindrical object traversing the northern sky. It's like nothing he's seen before. His eyes widen with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation as the seconds tick by and the object maintains its unhurried trajectory until suddenly the merchant drops his spoon and shields his eyes. The shape streaking through the sky disappears in a white flash as the sky is engulfed in a blinding incandescent burst between his fingers. The merchant watches the light fade to a bright orange and then an angry red as the sky changes color. The ground convulses beneath him, flinging the merchant from his seat. A guttural rumble moves through the earth, and the merchant feels a blast of hot wind. He curls into a protective ball, trying to protect himself from the scorching heat. Time seems to stand still as he endures this hellish ordeal, but after just a few moments, the chaos is over. The hot tempest abates, the shaking stops, and an ominous silence descends on the village. The merchant and his fellow villagers will have no idea what just swept through their community, and for years, neither will scientists or researchers. Exactly what caused the Tunguska event, as this strange incident is named, will remain unknown for decades, but its mystery will eventually be revealed thanks to the work of one determined scientist whose expeditions into the Siberian wilderness will form the basis of modern theories explaining the peculiar explosion that confounded witnesses on June 30, 1908. Foreign is sponsored by A Truby Lately you may have been hearing about a serious but rare heart condition called attr cardiac amyloidosis, or attrcm. Because symptoms can be similar to other heart conditions, it may take time to be diagnosed, but learning more about ATTRCM and a treatment called a truby, also called acharamatous, could be important for you or a loved one. Attending ATRUBY is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with ATTRCM to reduce death and hospitalization due to heart issues. In one study, people taking a truby saw an impact on their health related quality of life and 50% fewer hospitalizations due to heart issues than people who didn't take a truby, giving you more chances to do what you love with who you love. Tell your doctor if you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding, and about the medications you take. The most common side effects were mild and included diarrhea and abdominal pain. If you have attrcm, talk to your cardiologist about attruby or visit attruby.com that's att r u b y.com to learn more.
- [03:21]
Gordon Carrera
The CareCredit credit card lets me pay over time for just about anything my dog needs, from food to vet care.
- [03:26]
Lindsey Graham
But.
- [03:27]
Gordon Carrera
But what if, hypothetically speaking, I got a bird? No, a horse? Well, I've got good news for my hypothetical self. CareCredit is accepted at more than 270,000 locations and works for, wait for it, all animals. And the even better part is, it also works for me. I can use it for spa trips, dental treatments, and CareCredit offers flexible financing for all my hypothetical animals and Hypothetical me.
- [03:47]
Lindsey Graham
Visit carecredit.com to apply and find a location near you subject to credit approval from Noiser and Airship. I'm Lindsey Graham and this is History. Daily history is made every day on this podcast. Every day we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is June 30, 1908. The Tunguska event. It's early 1921 in Siberia, Russia. 13 years after the still unexplained Tunguska event, 38 year old Leonid Kulik scribbles down notes while he listens to a merchant describe the unusual events he witnessed over a decade ago. Leonid is a mineralogist at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Petrograd. A few weeks ago, he stumbled across an old newspaper report detailing some strange happenings in Siberia. Leonid instantly recognized the reports of a bright light, earth tremors, and fierce winds as a sign that a meteorite had struck the earth nearby. Determined to confirm his theory, Leonid dropped his other research projects and set out for Siberia, hoping to find the meteorite's remains. But locating the space rock has not been a simple task. Right now, the newly declared Russian Soviet Republic is embroiled in a civil war, making travel dangerous. Fortunately, Leonid managed to reach Siberia safely, but upon his arrival, a new problem arose. The region is even more vast than he imagined, with Siberia's population spread across more than 5 million square miles. Leonid's search for evidence and witnesses has been difficult, but the scientist has not lost hope of tracking down the meteorite. For weeks, Leonid has been traveling between towns and villages by train, collecting accounts from any eyewitnesses he stumbles upon. By now, he's collected plenty of colorful tales of this strange event. But none of the witnesses he's encountered have any idea where a meteorite could have struck the earth. But today's interviewee seems more promising. As the Siberian merchant recalls what he saw that morning, Leonid interrupts with a question. He asks if the man can describe in which part of the sky he saw the object. Leonid's face brightens as the merchant says not only where in the sky it flew, but but where he thinks it landed. According to the merchant, the meteorite must have fallen to the north, where the Tunguska river drains into a large waterway deep in the Siberian wilderness. Leonid is delighted to finally find someone who can indicate the meteorite's potential location. But his joy turns to resignation when he realizes the site is too far from the region's railways, making it impossible for him to reach. After two years spent exploring Siberia, Leonid has no choice but to return to Petrograd empty handed. But Leonid refuses to give up on his dream of locating the meteorite he is sure is still out there. So five years later, he returns to Siberia, better prepared to explore the wilderness. Using horses, reindeer and local guides, he treks through forests until he reaches the trading post where the merchant saw the mysterious explosion of light. Then he ventures even farther north, far past any houses or signs of civilization. And there, in the middle of the Siberian wilderness, a vast area of flattened and burned forest land comes into view. As Leonid spots the site, he eagerly pushes forward. But his local guides come to a halt, refusing to enter this zone of destruction. They worry that the Tunguska event was a curse laid down by a God, and that entering the leveled forest will bring divine retribution. Undeterred, Landed continues on alone, encountering thousands of uprooted, charred trees all pointing in the same southward direction. Further on, he discovers some trees still standing upright, but they're all dead and oddly stripped of their branches. The peculiar nature of the devastation convinces Leonid that he has reached ground zero, the exact point where the Tunguska meteorite struck the earth. He surmises that that the shock wave was so intense that it stripped the trees of their branches with such speed that no strain was transferred to the trunks. The sheer size of the affected area also suggests an enormous impact, surpassing any meteorite he has studied before and making it possibly the largest known to strike Earth. But one thing still puzzles he cannot find an impact crater. Instead, the swampy soil is pockmarked with deep holes. Lanid concludes that the meteorite must have shattered in the atmosphere, falling to the ground in fragments that caused these holes rather than a single massive crater. With these findings, Leonid will return to Petrograd confident that he has located the correct meteorite strike site. But he still won't have any tangible evidence to carry with him. While he may have found the meteorite's location, he will be unable to excavate the area on his own, forcing Leonid to return to Siberia once more with a new party of people determined to dig for answers.
- [09:17]
Gordon Carrera
Hello, I'm Gordon Carrera, National Security Journalist. And I'm David McCloskey, CIA analyst turned spy novelist. Together we're the co host of the Rest is Classified where we bring you the best stories from the world of secrets and spies. We have just released released a series on the decades long battle between the CIA and Osama Bin Laden and this week we are stepping into the devastation of the 911 terror attacks to understand how Osama Bin Laden was able to carry out such a plot right under the nose of the CIA. It was a moment that changed global politics forever, shifting the focus of spy agencies away from nation states towards hunting for terrorists and understanding the extremist ideology that drove them. We will then go into the decade long manhunt for Osama Bin Laden which culminated in a dramatic raid at his compound in Pakistan in 2011 which killed the world's most wanted terrorist. Listen to the Rest Is Classified wherever you get your podcasts.
- [10:16]
David McCloskey
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- [11:14]
Lindsey Graham
It'S spring 1928 in Siberia, one year after Leonid Kulik discovered the likely epicenter of the Tunguska event. Leonid is on his way back to the possible impact site, only this time he has a group of laborers with him. The journey is still arduous, the laborers have to carry enough rations to support the group for weeks in the wilderness. Next to them, reindeer pull sledges packed with group's shovels, pickaxes and other excavation tools. But Leonid is confident that all their discomfort and hard work will soon pay off. In time, the expedition reaches the stretch of flattened forest forest where they immediately get to work searching the waterlogged ground and its pockmark hole for any remnants of a meteorite. They dig and dig until finally a shout catches Leonid's attention. He rushes to a hole where a worker grins, having struck a hard object with his shovel that he suspects is the meteorite. Excitement fills the air as the two men carefully excavate the find. But when the dirt is cleaned off, Lanid's heart sinks. It's not a meteorite. It's just the stump of an enormous dead tree. With this discovery, Lanid starts to second guess his theory. Perhaps meteorite fragments were not responsible for the holes on the forest floor after all. From the looks of it, the stump they excavated caused one of the holes itself, perhaps by gradually sinking into the swamp. Disheartened, but still determined, Leonid's team spends the next few weeks excavating other holes. But their confidence in this meteorite theory continues to erode as they discover more ancient tree stumps at the bottom of each one. Still, Leonid insists no stone remain unturned. He bores the ground with hand augers. He sweeps across the site with sensitive magnets. He conducts a painstaking survey to identify any depressions that might mark an impact site. But there's nothing out of the ordinary. When summer arrives and clouds of mosquitoes make further investigations impossible, Leonid once again retreats to Petrograd empty handed. Nevertheless, his photographs of the devastated forest land cause a sensation in the Soviet scientific community. The scale of destruction is enough to persuade many previously skeptical scientists to agree that the Tunguska event was indeed a meteorite strike. Encouraged by his colleagues, Leonid is urged to return to Siberia and solve the mystery once and for all. Eight years after his second expedition, Leonid embarks on a new plan. He knows he has exhausted all avenues of searching for the meteorite on the ground, but he hasn't yet tried to inspect the area by air. So in the spring of 1937, Leonid takes off in an airplane to survey the site from above. For two years, he conducts various trips observing the land. And what he sees amazes him. Only from the air can Leonid really take in the extent of the devastation. The total affected area covers 800 square miles. And he estimates that 80 million trees were destroyed. The aerial perspective also reveals astonishing patterns. The uprooted trees form an elliptical shape while the trees fallen all align radially, pointing away from a central area where the branchless trees stand upright. This odd nature of the damage erases any doubts in Leonid's mind. He is sure the Tunguska event was a meteorite strike and he is certain this is where it landed. But the meteorite itself remains elusive. Leonid never finds any trace of the space rock he thinks hit Earth. His ambitions and expeditions are cut short by the outbreak of World War II. When the fighting begins, Leonid volunteers for the Soviet army and then dies in a Nazi prisoner of war camp. But his two decade inquiry into the Tunguska event will not be lost. Despite his untimely death, Leonid's scientific records endure and the investigation into the incident continues. After the war, the space race begins. And as the USSR starts sending up satellites and cosmonauts, the Soviets understanding of space advances. Among their scientists new discoveries is the revelation that meteors falling into Earth's atmosphere sometimes explode in the sky, disintegrating as they burn up. A phenomenon known as an air burst. This information will align with Leonid's theory about the Tunguska event and help explain why he struggled to locate a meteorite. But scientists will be unsure whether an explosion could occur on such a large scale. Without ever having observed such an airburst with modern scientific instruments, they will be unwilling to declare exactly what occurred in the skies above the Tunguska River. But decades after Leonid's passing, new evidence will emerge suggesting that the Tunguska event was indeed a meteor airburst and bringing an end to many scientists search for answers.
- [16:11]
Gordon Carrera
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- [16:43]
Lindsey Graham
Reese's peanut butter cups? Probably so they never slip from her hands. Could you imagine I'd lose it? Luckily, Reese has thought about that. Wonder what else they think about? Probably chocolate and peanut butter. It's the morning of February 15, 2013 in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. 105 years after the Tunguska event. Inside her car, an office worker glances at her dashboard clock and curses, realizing she's running late for work. But as she speeds toward her office, an odd sight captures her attention. She watches in awe as a bright light arcs across the sky before vanishing in a blinding flash that forces her to shut her eyes and slam on the brakes. As her car screeches to a halt, a tremendous explosion rocks the ground, shaking her vehicle side to side. Once the shaking and rumbling stops, she slowly and cautiously exits her car as other drivers do the same, all in shock at what just occurred. Scientists scramble to understand the event, and within an hour, the Russian Federal Space Agency announces that a meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere and exploded in an airburst. News of the incident spreads rapidly worldwide, capturing global attention. Investigators later reveal that the meteor had a diameter of of almost 60ft and weighed 10,000 tons. They conclude that it exploded in the air 18 miles above Siberia, causing extensive damage and injuring over a thousand people, though fortunately, no one was killed. The Chelyabinsk incident, as this explosion will come to be known, becomes the largest meteor airburst recorded by modern scientific instruments. And it proves that huge meteors can explode in the atmosphere. With their detailed observations of the Chelyabinsk meteor, most scientists will acknowledge that the Tunguska event was also a meteor airburst, but on an even greater scale. While the Chelyabinsk meteor created an explosion that was the equivalent of 500 kilotons of TNT, the Tunguska explosion is estimated to have been 30 times more powerful. With the Chelyabinsk explosion, the mystery surrounding the Tunguska event will seem solved, leading modern scientists to a long awaited conclusion. Born out of Leonid Kulig's relentless efforts to investigate the peculiar phenomenon that unfolded in the Siberian Skies on June 30, 1908. Next on History Daily, July 1, 1863. The American Civil War meets a turning point when the bloodiest battle in US History erupts outside of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily. Hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham Audio editing by Christian Peraga Sound design by Katrina Zemrak Music by Lindsey Graham this episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves. Executive producers are Alexandra Curry Buckner for Airship and Pascal Hughes for noiser.
- [20:07]
Gordon Carrera
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here and I am so excited to tell you all about a podcast from Ballin Studios called Declassified Mysteries. And it's hosted by the incredible Luke Lamanna. From COVID government experiments to bizarre assassination attempts Redacted dives deep into the astonishing true stories of of uncovered secrets, lies and deception within the world's most powerful institutions. Stories like the mind bending truth behind Operation Paperclip, where former Nazi scientists were smuggled into America to advance US Technology and intelligence during the Cold War. Or the shocking story of Charles Manson and the CIA revealing how a notorious cult leader might have been entangled in a web of covert operations. Trust me when I tell you the stories are real and the secrets are shocking. Be sure to follow Declassified Mysteries with Luke lamanna on the Wondery app or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple. Podcasts.