In the late 1940s, television faced a bind: no programming without ad money, no ad money without an audience that already owned sets. Sports broke the deadlock — cheap to broadcast, built-in fan bases, and perfectly suited to tiny black-and-white screens. Boxing and wrestling led the way; the 1946 Louis-Conn rematch reached crowds as far as DC and Connecticut, watched mostly in bars since almost nobody owned a set yet.

Skeptics thought TV would kill live attendance — one college coach predicted only ten football teams would survive it. Instead the opposite happened: sports coverage acted as, in one contemporary's words, "publicity for these sports and publicity that was PAID for at the source." By 2024, US sports draw close to 300 million in-person fans a year.

It was the smallest, least-populated and shortest-lived colony in the US. But despite being virtually unheard of today, it helped shape the nation's birth 250 years ago.

Ask most Americans and they'll tell you that the United States started in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776 when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Fittingly, the city is the epicentre of the US's 250th anniversary celebrations this week, and as many as 1.5 million people are expected to descend on it for what will be the nation's largest Fourth of July festival.

But chances are, almost none of those coming realises that the US's political and ideological birthplace was once part of a little-known Swedish colony known as Nya Sverige (New Sweden). In fact, very few Americans (or Swedes) have any idea that there ever even was a Swedish colony in America.

Hi everybody,

Welcome to our weekly book recommendation thread!

We have found that a lot of people come to this sub to ask for books about history or sources on certain topics. Others make posts about a book they themselves have read and want to share their thoughts about it with the rest of the sub.

We thought it would be a good idea to try and bundle these posts together a bit. One big weekly post where everybody can ask for books or (re)sources on any historic subject or time period, or to share books they recently discovered or read. Giving opinions or asking about their factuality is encouraged!

Of course it’s not limited to *just* books; podcasts, videos, etc. are also welcome. As a reminder, r/history also has a recommended list of things to read, listen to or watch here.

Welcome to our History Questions Thread!

This thread is for all those history related questions that are too simple, short or a bit too silly to warrant their own post.

So, do you have a question about history and have always been afraid to ask? Well, today is your lucky day. Ask away!

Of course all our regular rules and guidelines still apply and to be just that bit extra clear:

Questions need to be historical in nature. Silly does not mean that your question should be a joke. r/history also has an active discord server where you can discuss history with other enthusiasts and experts.