Historic Events
Wars, important political and economic occasions, catastrophes and social movements of the past
Ties That Bind
At last, all parties were ready to make peace in the Middle East. Whoops ... Not So Fast
September 2005 |
By John F. Harris
The Best Offense
A buried Civil War battery in a Kentucky suburb tells of valiant men standing at the ready... and waiting... and waiting....
September 2005 |
By Andrew Berg
It's Over
We asked readers to tell us where they were and how they reacted to the news that World War II had ended. And what a response we got!
August 2005 |
By Smithsonian magazine
Return to Da Lat
A veteran Vietnam correspondent revisits the romantic retreat where he, and so many others, sought respite from war in Indochina
August 2005 |
By Stanley Karnow
Preservation or Development at Morris Island?
On this site where the nation's legendary African-American fighting force proved its valor in the Civil War, a housing development ignited a debate over the uses of history
July 2005 |
By Fergus M. Bordewich
Boar War
A marauding hog bites the dust in a border dispute between the United States and Britain that fails to turn ugly
June 2005 |
By Deborah Franklin
Contemplating Churchill
On the 40th anniversary of the wartime leader's death, historians are reassessing the complex figure who carried Britain through its darkest hour
March 2005 |
By Edward Rothstein
Coming Home
To a war-weary nation, a U.S. POW's return from captivity in Vietnam in 1973 looked like the happiest of reunions
January 2005 |
By Carolyn Kleiner Butler
![As many as 150,000 slaves may have gained freedom (as depicted in 1863). "We will probably never know [the total]," says historian James O. Horton. "Part of the reason is that the underground was so successful: it kept its secrets well."](http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/200*345/free_main.jpg)
Free at Last
A new museum celebrates the Underground Railroad, the secret network of people who bravely led slaves to liberty before the Civil War
December 2004 |
By Fergus M. Bordewich
Vilnius Remembers
In Vilnius, Lithuania, preservationists are creating a living memorial to the nation's 225,000 Holocaust victims
December 2004 |
By Vijai Maheshawri
TET: Who Won?
A North Vietnamese battlefield defeat that led to victory, the Tet Offensive still triggers debate nearly four decades later
November 2004 |
By Don Oberdorfer
Ultimate Sacrifice
At age 33 in 1917, the Harvard-trained lawyer and Major League baseball player Eddie Grant volunteered to serve in World War I. He fought as he'd played: selflessly
October 2004 |
By Kevin Coyne
Kilroy Was Here
En route to Vietnam in the 1960s, American G.I.'s recorded their hopes and fears on the canvas undersides of troopship sleeping berths
October 2004 |
By Owen Edwards
Francis Scott Key, the Reluctant Patriot
The Washington lawyer was an unlikely candidate to write the national anthem; he was against America’s entry into the War of 1812 from the outset
September 2004 |
By Norman Gelb
The Rocky Road to Revolution
While most members of Congress sought a negotiated settlement with England, independence advocates bided their time
July 2004 |
By John Ferling
The Law that Ripped America in Two
One hundred fifty years ago, the Kansas-Nebraska Act set the stage for America's civil war
May 2004 |
By Ross Drake
On Clipped Wings
As America's first black military pilots, Tuskegee airmen faced a battle against racism
May 2004 |
By Keith Weldon Medley
Flower Child
A Vietnam War protester recalls a seminal '60s image, part of a new book celebrating French photographer Marc Riboud's 50-year career
April 2004 |
By Andrew Curry
Titanic Sank This Morning
An artifact from the doomed ocean liner evokes that catastrophic night in April 1912
April 2004 |
By Owen Edwards
In Their Footsteps
Retracing the route of captured American and Filipino soldiers on the Bataan Peninsula in World War II, the author grapples with their sacrifice
March 2004 |
By Donovan Webster
