Hear the story of the first paramedic services, which grew out of a community training program in 1960s Pittsburgh.

America's first trained EMT service was established in Pittsburgh's inner city

Watch this documentary about the Freedom House Ambulance Service—the foundation for all paramedic training in America. Founded in 1967, this emergency care force composed of Black men and women from Pittsburgh sought to respond to Pittsburgh's Black community emergencies when the Black community couldn't rely on the police and fire departments to consistently respond to their emergency calls.

In the 1960s, Virginia became home to the first emergency department in the US.

Most US fire departments are staffed entirely by volunteers, though they tend to serve smaller communities

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 2024 registry, 70% of US fire departments are all volunteer, while 9.5% are fully staffed with paid employees. Volunteer departments are mainly found in rural and suburban areas, whereas most urban Americans are served by career or mixed departments.

The peer support movement may date back to 18th century France

At the Bicêtre Hospital, an asylum near Paris, Jean-Baptiste Pussin (who had previously been a patient but later led the hospital administration) tried to hire as many staff as possible from among recovered patients. Chief physician Philippe Pinel found these individuals to be kinder than other staff and "averse from active cruelty" which was common at the time. This approach allowed the facility to move away from shackling patients and other violent methods.

Volunteer fire departments are declining as communities shift to career staff

As populations increase and emergency calls grow more complicated, many communities are replacing volunteer fire departments with full-time professional staff—a change that boosts response capacity and reliability but also significantly raises costs.

Read what it's like working in emergency medicine

A board-certified emergency medicine physician working in the Bronx writes about what her workweeks look like and what attracted her to this fast-paced medical specialty, including being able to help suffering patients quickly, treating a wide range of ailments, and tending to disadvantaged communities.

HBO Max's 'The Pitt' has found success with an old-school, broadcast-TV production model that harkens back to weekly dramas that mostly disappeared during the streaming era.

The start of commercial radio depends on how someone defines the word 'commercial.'

One of the earliest Memorial Day ceremonies was held by newly freed Black Americans in South Carolina

On May 1, 1865, roughly 10,000 people, mostly freed slaves, paraded around a Charleston racetrack where Union prisoners had been buried, predating the first national commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery by three years.

The story of hospice and its founder, Dame Cicely Saunders

Dame Cicely Saunders founded St. Christopher's in 1967, the first modern hospice. Hospice is a healthcare movement focused on providing compassionate, holistic end-of-life services on the dying and their loved ones. A colleague of Saunders, Mary Baines, was interviewed in 2005 to discuss her experience alongside the founder and the growth of the movement.

A history of raising the alarm, from rattles to 911

Because fires spread so quickly, communities around the world have deployed many tactics to raise the alarm to get help. This history from the Museum of Natural History dives into the use of rattles, bells, and brigades to gather help to fight fires, showing just how far we've come since 911 was introduced in 1968.

Freestanding emergency departments are growing increasingly common

These satellite emergency rooms, though not yet approved in all states, are helping meet the need for emergency services beyond a hospital setting. But from an insurance perspective, they are considered emergency rooms—not urgent care. Freestanding emergency rooms grew tenfold from 2001 to 2016.

A fire has been raging underneath a mostly abandoned town in eastern Pennsylvania for 60-plus years.

Good Samaritans help Florida driver experiencing medical emergency

When a driver experienced a medical episode and was drifting into an intersection, people around her sprang into action and saved everyone on the road from a potentially life-threatening crash.

See how a 2018 fire in Paradise, California, exposed the limits of emergency coordination

This Frontline documentary shows how the Camp Fire stretched and ultimately overwhelmed the complex web of agencies involved in emergency response, including fire suppression, 911 dispatch, law enforcement, and emergency management, with catastrophic results.

Concierge medicine officially began in 1996, with the first concierge practice

MD2 International, a concierge medical office that opened in Seattle, Washington, was founded based on the idea of unrushed, no-wait-time visits and personalized care offerings with strong relationships between patients and their providers.

The first successful organ transplant was performed in 1954

The successful kidney transplant procedure, at what's now-called Brigham and and Women's Hospital, ushered in a new medical era and gave hope to patients with organ failure. The recipient, 23-year-old Richard Herrick, lived eight more years after receiving the donated organ from his living twin brother, Ronald.

The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in 1927

Black players were not permitted on the existing professional basketball teams, but Abe Saperstein—the team's original coach, owner, manager, and sometimes player—leaned into the team's all-Black roster, nodding to New York's historically Black neighborhood even though the team didn't play there until the late 1960s.

Public transit has been a front line of civil rights battles for over a century

Public transit was among the most contested terrain in the fight for racial equality in America, because it was where Black Americans and white Americans were unavoidably forced to share public space.

How a Philadelphia soup kitchen taught business students about ethical decision-making

As the St. Francis Inn—a Philadelphia soup kitchen—struggled with decisions about moving its operations to serve more people, a management professor at St. Joseph's University realized his students might have been able to help. Business students used ethical decision-making frameworks to help the soup kitchen serve more people and attract more volunteers.

Benjamin Franklin founded America's first lending library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.

Go behind the scenes of a 911 dispatch center.

When police raided New York's Stonewall Inn, a well-known gay bar, in 1969, patrons resisted, leading to 6 nights of protests that would eventually inspire modern Pride celebrations.

Deinstitutionalization in the 20th century unintentionally led to the incarceration of schizophrenia patients

Activism to shut down problematic asylums in the mid-20th century led to the community release of many patients with severe mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, but without adequate support, this deinstitutionalization in the 1960s and 1970s led to a significant increase in patients with schizophrenia ending up in prisons and homeless shelters.

In 1974, Los Angeles’s Community Analysis Bureau built a smart city

Los Angeles utilized aerial imaging and cluster analysis to gather and interpret civic data, leveraging surveillance technologies developed by the Department of Defense during the height of the Cold War. Instead of being used for military purposes, data insights helped direct social services to high-poverty neighborhoods.

Hospitals are required to care for emergency patients, even if they can't pay

A federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which was passed in 1986, requires any Medicare-participating hospital with an emergency room to provide emergency medical care—including if the patient is in labor—until the patient is stable. That requirement applies regardless of the patient's ability to pay, insurance status, or, in some cases, immigration status.

The early years of the Met

The Met didn’t start out in the grand, sprawling grounds that it currently occupies. This episode of Hometown History, a podcast about lesser-known historical places and events, covers the early years of the venerable institution. Learn about how the vision and planning of a group of 19th century artists and philanthropists took the Met from a small collection in a humble brick building to the cultural powerhouse that it is today.

The massive gathering that rang in the first Earth Day

Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 and helped inspire a significant nationwide environmental movement. In Philadelphia, the holiday was rung in with a gathering in the city’s Fairmount Park featuring musicians, speakers, and over 10,000 attendees. This video from CBS offers remarkable footage from the day and explains why Philadelphians were especially drawn to the environmental cause.

Benjamin Franklin donated the books that became the first true public library in the US

In 1778, the town of Franklin, Massachusetts—named in his honor—asked Benjamin Franklin for a bell, but he donated a book collection instead, saying "sense" was more important than "sound." Residents voted in 1790 to make the books freely available to all, creating the nation's first public library.

Watch a performance of the influential ballet 'Appalachian Spring'

This performance of the American ballet—choreographed by Martha Graham, with music composed by Aaron Copland—about a small community in 19th-century Pennsylvania, aired in 1959 on Pittsburgh's WQED.

Private education offered an alternative for Black Americans

The early public school system was ostensibly designed for all Americans, but it was also racially segregated, offering substandard schools for Black Americans. Some private schools were founded to combat that problem, including St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, the United States' oldest predominantly Black Catholic high school.

Most Americans are now dying at home, reversing 20th century trends

For most of the 21st and 20th centuries most Americans died in hospital settings. But in 2016, home-based deaths overtook hospitals; most Americans are now dying at home, likely fueled by individual preferences to die at home or to receive at-home palliative care.

Learn about a new schizophrenia healthcare model that's making a difference

Schizophrenia used to be considered a progressive disease that was beyond a patient's ability to manage. This article gives an in-depth look at OnTrackNY, a New York-based program that empowers patients to define the goals of their own treatment for psychotic disorders. At the time of this 2022 article, it consisted of 25 affiliate clinics and hospitals in 14 New York counties, with another seven sites then slated to begin offering services in 2023.

Grace Hopper graduated first in her class of 800 officer candidates

As a volunteer in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service program, Hopper was able to fulfill roles beyond the nursing and clerical responsibilities normally available to women in the military. However, once World War II concluded and the emergency status was lifted, the Navy declined her request for a regular commission.

Read the first (and only) issue of the magazine started by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and others

"Fire!!" was founded in New York in 1926 by Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and several other artists involved in the Harlem Renaissance. The publication was intended to flout the respectability of the middle-class Black tradition and instead engage with sometimes controversial ideas in a contemporary vernacular. The magazine's offices were, ironically, burned to the ground shortly after the first issue.

Fire engines are among the most complex vehicles on the road

These vehicles are purpose-built to carry water, foam, hoses, ladders, and lifesaving equipment to a scene in minutes. This animated video pulls apart every system inside a pumper truck, showing exactly how the machinery that fights fires actually works.

Hughes reported on Black Americans volunteering in the Spanish Civil War

In 1937, the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper sent him to cover the Black soldiers who’d left the US to fight in the International Brigades cooperating with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Hughes’ dispatches mainly focused on the racially integrated military companies, something that was prohibited in the US.

This Indiana medical school encouraged students to get to know their cadavers' families

The school's anatomy professor instructed medical students to think of the cadavers they worked with as their "first patients"—using their names to acknowledge that this was a person and to exchange letters with the cadaver's family members if they agreed to participate. At the conclusion of the course, families were invited to a lab-based memorial service.