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History / U.S. History

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Model Moralist

Wayne Wheeler had a mission

In 1961, HAM the chimpanzee became the first upright hominid to go into space. After his death in 1983, he was interred at the New Mexico Museum of Space History.

Famous Animal Gravesites Around the World

It’s not just Kentucky Derby winners that are buried with great honor

The black community in 1960 were relegated to mere swatches of sand and surf on the Biloxi beach. After a series of "wade-in" protests, violence ensued.

A Civil Rights Watershed in Biloxi, Mississippi

Frustrated by the segregated shoreline, black residents stormed the beaches and survived brutal attacks on “Bloody Sunday”

When George Washington visited the Bartram family's prestigious garden near Philadelphia in 1787, he found it to be "not laid off with much taste."

The Story of Bartram’s Garden

Outside of Philadelphia, America’s first botanical garden once supplied seeds to Founding Fathers and continues to inspire plant-lovers today

John Wilkes Booth leans forward to shoot President Abraham Lincoln as he watches a play at Ford's Theatre in 1865.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s Missing Bodyguard

What happened to Officer John Parker, the man who chose the wrong night to leave his post at Ford’s Theatre?

The little league baseball team from Monterrey, Mexico became the first team from outside the United States to win the Little League World Series.

The Little League World Series’ Only Perfect Game

In 1957, Mexico’s scrawny players overcame the odds to become the first foreign team to win the Little League World Series

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Reorientations

Cowboy Culture and the Universe

Capitol Records building in Hollywood.

Hollywood’s Historic Buildings

Theaters and other architectural gems lined Hollywood’s famous boulevards during its Golden Age and now hold restored star appeal

As the British neared the White House, Dolley Madison directed that a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington be removed.

When Dolley Madison Took Command of the White House

It is thanks to the first lady that the famous Stuart painting of George Washington survived the British army’s invasion of D.C. in August 1814

The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors

Big Digs

Excavations in Ethiopia and Lockport, New York

Researcher Angela Walton-Raji has been studying African-Native genealogy for over 20 years. The Comanche family pictured here is from the early 1900s.

An Ancestry of African-Native Americans

Using government documents, author Angela Walton-Raji traced her ancestors to the slaves owned by American Indians

Abraham Lincoln ca. 1846, photographed in Springfield Illinois by N.H. Shepherd

Abraham Lincoln, True Crime Writer

While practicing law in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln defended a man in a highly unusual case and later recounted the mystery as a short story

Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati won snowboarding's first gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

The Top Ten Important Moments in Snowboarding History

Since its mid-1960s inception, snowboarding has seen such a boom in popularity that it is now an event at the Winter Olympics

A long-running theme of U.S. black history (a panel from Jacob Lawrence's 1940-41 "Migration Series") may have to be revised.

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

The Changing Definition of African-American

How the great influx of people from Africa and the Caribbean since 1965 is challenging what it means to be African-American

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Novelties

In praise of contributors, including you

With the flip of a switch in 1910, Lee deForest ushered in an era of radio communications that would provide instant, long-distance wireless communication.

Radio Activity: The 100th Anniversary of Public Broadcasting

Since its inception, public radio has had a crucial role in broadcasting history - from FDR’s “Fireside Chats” to the Internet Age

Shaun White, Snowboarding

Top 13 U.S. Winter Olympians

These athletes took home gold, but also stole our hearts. Choose your favorite winter Olympian in our poll

The 1960 AFL Championship game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Oilers was typical of the high-risk, exciting brand of football the AFL was known for.

The American Football League’s Foolish Club

Succeeding where previous leagues had failed, the AFL introduced an exciting brand of football forcing the NFL to change its entrenched ways

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Meat and Potatoes

Of carnivores and herbivores

Britain's leaders made a miscalculation when they assumed that resistance from the colonies, as the Earl of Dartmouth predicted, could not be "very formidable."

Myths of the American Revolution

A noted historian debunks the conventional wisdom about America’s War of Independence

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