I live in the city of Horsens, where Bering was from in Denmark. There are several streets, monuments and buildings named after him. So he's not quite forgotten 🙂
And the Vitus Bering Park. In my childhood (70's) the main library of Horsens was situated in one corner and we went there twice a month for new books.
I'm from Alaska and I like to learn about our history. I didnt know most of this. It was nice to learn something new about our land. Thanks History Guy.
Most of us have no idea what a struggle is, even after COVID. That's why there's so much bellyaching over trivial matters in the first world. We are weak and entitled. Past generations had it much rougher.
ROFL. I was alive when it became a state, but not yet in my memory range. Old folks hang out on youtube? we used to have an old 48 star flag though, and I do remember that. Dad was probably annoyed that he had to go get a new flag when that perfectly good old one was still usable.
I spent some tours in Alaska when I was in The US Air Force in the early 1980's ( Cold War ). We did some work on the radars sites there . Some of stations faced the Bering sea and I never gave it much thought about why it named that way. Now I know. I will always remember that from now on. Alaska is a beautiful State. Great story History Guy, Thank You.
I did know about him. He's a proud son of Horsens - the same town my father grew up in. He's still remembered there, even though he spent most of his life in the service of the Russian Tsars.
I should probably chech that exhibition out, as I live in Horsens. Not from here, though. I don't think I even knew Bering was from here, until I moved here. But there are statues and streets named after him, so I looked it up, shortly after moving here.
Hi, vitus is my great great great etc. grandfather and I was wondering where Horsen is? I love learning about him and would like to visit places where more of his history is.
This tidbit of history is an amazing story in itself. I visited my sister in Alaska and found it fascinating and beautiful. If it hadn't been for having wife and kids in Texas I would have remained. My sister constantly sends pictures.
Having been born in Alaska I thought that I was well schooled in the history of the area. Once again you have done your usual excellent work and brought forth many facts that wasn't taught to me in school. Thank you!
Vitus Bering is one of my great grandfathers . My mother is a Bering. It’s cool to learn about my relative. Thanks for the video. Most people don’t know but our last name use to have a “h” in it. Vitus dedicated his life to the navy and died for discovery. He should be more recognized.
Congratulations on being so fortunate, it's too bad the overwhelming majority of public school teachers are so immoral and incompetent that they utterly overshadow teachers like the one you are talking about
@@micfail2 Teachers are the servants of the city, and the citizens. If you have crap teachers look in the mirror, and what names are on the ballot to find who is responsible.
@@dirus3142 that's an awesome fantasy land that you live in. Do you want that Fantasyland to become reality? If so then you should be in favor of abolishing public sector unions. Almost every single problem with our public schools can be traced directly back to teachers unions. Public sector unions are antiliberal, unions are meant to protect workers from greedy bosses and companies. Public sector unions are a corruption of liberal principles, they exist only to extract money from the middle and working class for the benefit of people who contribute nothing to society, and in fact cause a great deal of damage to our social relationships and our republic.
He DOES reply!!!! Pretty cool. I know he says he will happy to personally reply, but I hardly ever see that being the case. Just a little bit of history that deserves to be remembered.
Yep, and Magellan is renowned as the first person to circumnavigate the globe, although he didn't actually do it. A small number of his crew members did, but few people know their names without looking them up.
Interesting side note on Cook’s expedition. The sailing master on his third voyage was a guy named Bill and he got an island in Prince William Sound named after him, a reef just off the island also got named for him. He also had a big hand in getting The HMS Resolution back to England after Cooks Death. 1787 after the war with France Bill got was selected to command a mission to move breadfruit trees from Otaheite aka Tahiti to the west indies to use as food for slaves on the various plantations there. A ship the Bethia was acquired by the RN for this mission and retrofitted for the task. It was commissioned into the RN as HMS Bounty. Yes....THAT BOUNTY. The reef that was named after Bill (William Bligh) became infamous on March 24, 1989 when the oil tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on it spilling 11 million gallons of oil, the largest US oil spill until Macondo (aka Deepwater Horizon) in 2010
@@mylucidlife495 in the first couple of years he was able to reply to each person who wrote to him. But I noticed that once the number of subscribers grew rapidly that he no longer could reply. (His outro just needs to be updated so that people don’t expect a reply now!)
Great treatment of the subject. As a fellow Dane I am pleased that he too was part of exploration history and naturally all Danish school children are taught this story. Fittingly and in true Danish fashion a very nice beer was named after his as well. Ha ha ha
I do enjoy your work. Most of the stories I know a little about and learn more. This one I knew practically nothing about, other than the strait having been named after Bering. Excellent video. Take Care and be safe, John
I see a sextant on the shelf to your right. That is such a important instrument in the exploration of the earth and heavens, it's invention and development is "history that deserves to be remembered" and shared.
They literally built another ship from the shattered remnants of the first, while, essentially, slowly starving and freezing. It was an extraordinary feat indeed.
You did it again. Knowledge passed down to now be able to know why we have a "Bering" strait on our northwest shoulders of our continent. Not on the Canadian school curriculum circa 1970. Thanks HG as always for filling my mind where it might have remained blank on this subject.
Thank you Virus Bering for your bravery and tenacity in the discovery of Alaska amongst your other discoveries which would otherwise be unknown to the entire world. The title of "Discoverer" belongs to you alone.
I was stationed in Alaska at Ft Wainwright near Fairbanks from 83-86 as a Arctic Paratrooper. History of our Airborne forces past and present along with the Canadian mishap in Jan 1989 would be a great show.
So did I. Great book...so much we should have learned in History and Geography classes. We received more details during my graduate research work in Denmark and Norway. It was so real.
Great story. I was a Russian/Russian History major back in the ‘70’s. This was a good review along with great new information. Hearing you speak of lands of Russia such as Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka, brings back memories of my USN days. Not fond, since I was shot at near both areas.
I did a project in grade school on Arctic explorers. Vitus Bering was in it. We learned about explorers in the 60s. They were not colonizers they were brave men who opened up the hidden parts of the world.
Most people don't realize that the closest the US and Russia (Siberia) are located is about 2.5 miles between the two Bering Strait islands of Big and Little Diomede. That distance is often traversable in winter as the sea is frozen over. The island of Big Diomede is Russian and uninhabited while the island of Little Diomede has a population of about 110 native Inuit persons.
I love your show and history is my favorite subject. I was a Navy Hospital Corpsman and would like to see the history of Navy Corpsman especially the corpsmen serving as medics to the U.S. Marines. If you have already covered this topic I'm sure I will find it. TY, Mike
Did you ever consider doing a story about the old great lakes ships that were purchased, and turned into aircraft carriers, to teach pilots to land, on ships. One was the Seaandbee, which became the U.S.S Wolverine, and another that became the U.S.S. Sable, which is the ship that George H.W. Bush landed on, in training, during the second W.W. I was always interested in this story, being not far from Lake Erie. Have a good day.
A lot of that difficulty in supporting the colony also precipitated the failure of the Russian America company and subsequent sale of Alaska to the United States. In fact most of the Russian America company’s income came from fur sales to China not Russia and they had to put a rule in place requiring settlers to buy their supplies from them not from cheaper American sources coming up the coast You have to remember too the Russians got as far south as Northern California.
It still is a tough long trip even today, they finally cut a road that you can drive on to the port of Vladivostok but not during mud season. Riding the train from Paris to Moscow to Vladivostok is on my bucket list.
After the first trip, I would have suggested sailing around Europe, Africa, India and China to get there. Magellan had proved it was possible before then. Or gone around South America. Whichever seemed fastest and safest.
Without mentioning the struggle to get food, protection and avoiding getting sick which most of the times meant death. Walking ten thousands kilometers without toilet paper while wearing several layers of clothes must have felt like torture because you can't use water in extreme cold.
Having many friends and family who have lived in Alaska, any stories about the discovery of it is much appreciated. As my Alaskan buddies say, Alaska is as big as your imagination.
I have a book in my library entitled A History of the Russian- America Company By P. A Tikhmenev. Translated and edited by Richard A. Pierce and Alton S. Donnelly in 1978 from the original release of 1888. It is an accounting the company's operations while in Russian America now known as Alaska.
Was Vitus Bering related to Ball Bearing? I once contracted scurvy on a trans-Atlantic crossing. However, the doctor wasn't able to explain how such a thing could have occurred on a 9 hour British Airways flight between London and New York City.
Well, it is not forgotten here, in Russia and Bering considered on the russian great explorers and sailors. As you may see in video, Bering and his expeditions were well celebrated and immortalized many times on banknotes, books, movies e.t.c.
Great episode! I’d be interested to see a follow up episode of what Russia did with this newly discovered land up to the selling of it to the U.S. Have you ever done an episode on “Seward’s Folly”?
I'm going up to Alaska to see the sunset at midnight. And travel up the Alcan Highway. I talked to a Black veteran who's engineer regiment help build the Alcan Highway.
@@alfredpeasant5980 bit of history for you. During WWII segregation took place in the military. The Engineer units that were all black are a large part of that history. The deserve the recognition.
@@davidsmith731 once Irish people were discriminated against too, make sure to mention Irish people separately and identify them too, and their % of victimhood so we can all make sure to properly worship at the church of woke. You have wasted synapse.
It makes me laugh a little that Peter the Great was able to travel incognito across Europe. A giant Russian man with odd proportions seems like something you would notice.
He was definitely recognized by quite a few people there. As Bob said, it was an open secret. The nobility in the western countries also didn't want to call him out when they would see him with his sleeves rolled up, working in the shipbuilding docks with the common laborers. He was definitely a hands-on guy when it came to one of his passions, ships.
I literally can't hear the name Kamchatka without imagining a Russian admiral hurling binoculars off the balcony of his bridge, screaming "Lecherous Whøre" at a nearby repair ship, and getting the signal flag reply from the Kamchatka; "do you see torpedo boats?" Right before it opens fire on a bunch of civilian fishing boats sparking an international incident that nearly expands the russo-japanese war into a Russo-Everyone War 🤣
The History Guys style of story telling reminds me so much of the late great Paul Harvey and his "The Rest of the Story" radio broadcasts. I loved Paul Harvey as a boy. And I would tune in our AM Radio everyday to hear the legendary Paul Harvey and The Rest of The Story. My mom bought me all of The Rest of The Story Books.
According to Tlingit oral history, the men on Chirikov's boats in the shore party in Southeast Alaska were adopted into local clans. Source: Anóoshi Lingít Aaní Ká / Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka, 1802 and 1804 (Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature)
I can barely find any information on the career of Admiral George Morrison father of singer Jim Morrison. 1. He served in 3 wars 2. He was a naval aviator (who knows what he flew?) 3. He was involved in nuclear weapons training of some kind?? 4. He was at the Gulf of Tonkin during the incident. 5. That’s it
@THG Request for a topic: The US immigration, 1900-1915. If a truly balanced view can be presented (yes, difficult to do) what politics was driving the immigration? Did it have the desired effect? How did the immigrants survive/thrive in a new land in an era prior to progressive views of government welfare? In what ways did the arrival of the immigrants significantly alter the balance of political power?
Yeah they got as far south as Northern California. The Russians never really got into interior Alaska and stayed on the coast. The English were supposed to stay in Canada but crossed over and The English were supposed to stay west but did colonize Fort Yukon. The Spanish also made expeditions from California to Alaska and ended up in Prince William sound Cordova and Valdez are named after their explorers
Another great episode. Thanks THG. Some suggestions: Nicholas Baudin- a largely forgotten french explorer who had a remarkable life. The tragic story of a Dutch ship called the Batavia and what happened to the crew when it shipwrecked off the west coast of Australia. Cheers. TRJ.
The Russian history of Alaska barely rates a footnote in most U.S. history books, but it's still apparent here. 5% of Alaskans are of the Russian Orthodox faith, predominantly among the Native populations, and a surprising number of Russians come to our colleges to study. Prior to European colonization, the various Native populations carried on a robust trade and even migration in both directions. I've read that the Japanese fished in the Aleutian Islands for centuries and may even have a trade in furs with the Natives. The western coast of North America apparently wasn't as isolated as the eastern coast in the centuries prior to 1492.
Tough times to be an Explorer. The remedy for scurvy was probably beyond their reach. It would have been interesting for this video to connect this discovery to ",Stewards Folly" and the USA ownership of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.
The two events are probably too far apart to connect (about 126 years from Bering's death to the U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867). I was surprised to learn quite a bit about President Buchanan while researching this. The Russians approached the U.S. about buying Alaska during Buchanan's term in office, but the purchase wasn't accomplished then because of the burgeoning split between north and south. James Michener's _Alaska_ tells the story well.
