History Happened Today

December 3rd: When Texting Was Born

On December 3, 1992, a simple two-word greeting quietly launched a communication revolution. That evening, a 22-year-old software engineer sent the world’s very first SMS text message from his computer to a mobile phone. The message? “Merry Christmas.”
In this episode of History Happened Today, we rewind to the early ’90s—back when phones didn’t have keyboards, screens were barely useful, and texting wasn’t even considered a real feature. You’ll hear how a small technical experiment sparked a global shift in how humans talk, share, flirt, argue, and stay connected.
From that first “Merry Christmas” to the billions of messages sent each day, today’s story traces how texting evolved from a tiny test into a worldwide language—shaping culture, relationships, technology, and the way we communicate without ever saying a word.
A short, fascinating look at the day our phones learned to talk.

An Atomic December 2nd

On December 2, 1942, inside a quiet squash court beneath the abandoned football stands at the University of Chicago, a group of scientists lit the fuse on a new era of human possibility, and danger. Led by Nobel Prize–winning physicist Enrico Fermi, the team achieved the world’s first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, forever marking the beginning of the Atomic Age.
In this episode of History Happened Today, we step inside that tense, makeshift laboratory to explore how a pile of graphite and uranium—known as Chicago Pile-1—changed the course of science, warfare, energy, and global politics. You’ll hear how the experiment unfolded, why it mattered, and how its quiet success beneath a set of empty bleachers reshaped the world as we know it.
A five-minute story about the moment humanity learned to harness the power of the atom, for better and for worse.