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History / U.S. History

Zipping from San Francisco to Oakland in 5 Minutes

An inventor’s plans for traveling inside a giant bullet would have made a trip across the Bay a fast one

"...roads jammed by frantic survivors, blocking entry of rescue teams."

Would You Pass the Panic-Proof Test?

If an atomic bomb drops on your house, a civil defense official advises: “Get over it.”

Five must-read books on Thomas Jefferson from author Marc Leepson.

The Essentials: Five Books on Thomas Jefferson

A Jefferson expert provides a list of indispensable reads about the founding father

Aftermath of the Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916

Sabotage in New York Harbor

Explosion on Black Tom Island packed the force of an earthquake. It took investigators years to determine that operatives working for Germany were to blame

George McClellan, with Abraham Lincoln at Antietam in 1862, took command of the Union armies but let the president wait.

November 1861: Flare Ups in the Chain of Command

As Union generals came and left, personalities clashed and Southern farmers set fire to their fields

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Comings and Goings

To every thing there is a season

Ninety percent of Mount Rushmore was carved using dynamite.

The Making of Mount Rushmore

The 70th anniversary of the completion of the South Dakota monument prompts a look back at what it took to create it

Henry Johnson and the Harlem Hellfighters in a parade up Fifth Avenue upon their return to New York in February, 1919.

Remembering Henry Johnson, the Soldier Called “Black Death”

Henry Johnson suffered 21 wounds and rescued a soldier while repelling an enemy raid in the Argonne Forest in 1918 but died 11 years later a forgotten man

Picturing the World Series of the Future

After a brutal postseason, can London finally beat New York City?

'Blondin's rope ascension over Niagara River' by George Barker

The Daredevil of Niagara Falls

Charles Blondin understood the appeal of the morbid to the masses, and reveled when gamblers took bets on whether he would plunge to a watery death

In a video clip from the 1930s, old Confederate soldiers step up to a microphone and let loose with the howling yelp that was once known as the fearsome "Rebel yell."

The Civil War

Civil War Veterans Come Alive in Audio and Video Recordings

Deep in the collections of the Library of Congress are ghostly images and voices of Union and Confederate soldiers

"Airships may give us a birds eye view of the city."

The Boston Globe of 1900 Imagines the Year 2000

A utopian vision of Boston promises no slums, no traffic jams, no late mail deliveries and, best of all, night baseball games

A crowd gathers at the scene of the Wall Street bombing in September 1920.

Anger and Anarchy on Wall Street

In the early 20th century, resentment at the concentration of wealth took a violent turn

I Am A Man, Sanitation workers assemble outside Clayborn Temple, Memphis, TN, 1968.

The Power of Imagery in Advancing Civil Rights

“Whether it was TV or magazines, the world got changed one image at a time,” says Maurice Berger, curator of a new exhibit at American History

The Union is defeated at Ball's Bluff, where Col. Edward D. Baker becomes the only U.S. senator to be killed in battle as illustrated here in Death of Col. Edward D. Baker: At The Battle of Balls Bluff Near Leesburg, Va., October 21st, 1861.

Scattered Actions: October 1861

While the generals on both sides deliberated, troops in blue and gray fidgeted

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Great Cats

And things of beauty

A circular landing track imagined for New York in 1919

When We All Commute by Airplane

If commuting to work via personal aeroplane was the future, how might the design of cities change to accommodate them?

Richard Von Gammon, a football casualty of 1897

Score One for Roosevelt

“Football is on trial,” President Theodore Roosevelt declared in 1905. So he launched the effort that saved the game

Bob Clevenhagen, known to many as the Michelangelo of the mitt, has been designing baseball gloves since 1983 for the Gold Glove Company.

Baseball’s Glove Man

For 28 years, Bob Clevenhagen has designed the custom gloves of many of baseball’s greatest players

When Pride Still Mattered, a biography of Vince Lombardi, is as much about the man as it is about the coach.

The Essentials: Five Books on Football History

Sports columnist Sally Jenkins picks out the books that any true sports fan would want to read

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