2. The Attack that Shook America: Black Tom Explodes (Ep 2)

Journey Through Time

Goalhanger

History

4.3 • 595 Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New York harbour erupts with an explosion as Black Tom island is ripped apart. The shock waves ripple out around Manhattan and New Jersey, shattering windows miles away and even registering on the Richter scale. However, despite the widespread destruction, the attack was downplayed as an accident by the US authorities and it was only years later that the truth of the event came to light. Despite its absence from public knowledge, the explosion at Black Tom island has a seismic legacy. It played a part in the rise of the Nazis, the brutal internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, and the creation of America’s counterintelligence operations. Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga on Journey Through Time to explore how this explosion reverberated throughout the 20th century. To find out more about Find My Past visit: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/journey-through-time Email: journeythroughtime@goalhanger.com X: @ThroughTimePod Blue Sky: @ThroughTimePod Instagram: @ThroughTimePod Assistant Producer: Alice Horrell Producer: Callum Hill Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:22.1	The shock was so great that I was thrown off my chair into the hall, and the broken glass fell in showers upon me as I lay on the floor. Four shells of three-inch caliber fell on the gravel path in front of
1:29.7	the main door, and another shell passed through the roof of the coals bunker attached to the
1:35.1	powerhouse. That was part of a witness statement given by a Mr. Owen Fitzpatrick to a reporter
1:41.5	from the New York Times in July 191616 in the middle of the First World War.
1:47.0	I'm Sarah Churchwell and welcome to Journey Through Time. And I'm David Olushooga. And this is the second
1:52.9	of our two episodes on the Black Tom explosion of 1916, the first terror attack on New York City,
2:00.2	an event that as you can tell from that, quote,
2:02.9	caused devastation across New York Harbor that sent blast waves crashing into the skyscrapers
2:09.7	of Manhattan.
2:11.3	Okay, so let's recap for our listeners.
2:14.1	It's the summer of 1916.
2:16.3	We're in New York City.
	...

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