American History

Former NFL center Samson Satele was born in Hawai‘i and played college football there. He’s one of a growing number of pro football players of Samoan descent.

The Roots of Samoans' Rise to Football Greatness

It all started in Hawaiʻi on Oahu's North Shore, where plantation managers and Mormon elders nurtured future generations of football stars

A Memorial Sign to Emmett Till Was Defaced With Four Bullet Holes

This is the third time the marker of the African-American boy’s brutal torture and murder in Mississippi in 1955 has been vandalized

Nancy by Olivia Jaimes for May 4, 2018

The Revamped "Nancy" Is the Perfect Comic Strip for 2018

The comic's first woman artist mines her own girlhood experience to make the eternally 8-year-old, cookie-loving grouch even funnier

New Map Chronicles Three Decades of Surface Mining in Central Appalachia

The data shows about 1.5 million acres of forest have been affected by surface and mountaintop mining since the 1970s

Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon smiles for the cameras during a 1968 news conference.

Fifty Years Ago, a Conservative Activist Launched an Effort to Record All Network News Broadcasts

Convinced of rampant bias on the evening news, Paul Simpson founded the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, a repository that continues to grow today

Scientists don full-body suits to minimize contamination and disturbance of the precious artifacts uncovered in the 1617 church in Jamestown, Virginia, where a new skeleton awaits identification.

A Jamestown Skeleton is Unearthed, but Only Time—and Science—Will Reveal His True Identity

Jamestown Rediscovery archeologists use new technology to uncover the bones of one of the first English colonists

You'll Soon Be Able to Stay in This Historic California Ghost Town

Cerro Gordo was once a lively mining town. Now its new owners have plans to refurbish it in hopes of attracting visitors to the relic of the Wild West

Heinz is why ketchup seemed to become distinctly American.

A Brief (But Global) History of Ketchup

Canada recently slapped a tariff on U.S. exports of ketchup, and the EU plans to do the same. But is the condiment all that American?

Fire fighters attempt to douse a smoldering building on Superior following the shootout in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland on July 23, 1968.

What Happened When Violence Broke Out on Cleveland's East Side 50 Years Ago?

In the summer of 1968, the neighborhood of Glenville erupted in “urban warfare,” leaving seven dead and heightening police-community tensions

The image on the left is a wood engraving that was likely commissioned by a popular magazine hostile to abolitionism and happy to render Angelina strangely distorted. This is the first time that it has been published next to the photo on the right, on which it was based and which was likely taken in the 1840s.

The South Carolina Aristocrat Who Became a Feminist Abolitionist

After moving to Philadelphia and joining the Quakers, Angelina Grimké rededicated her life to fighting for racial equality

The Naturalization Act of 1906 federalized the naturalization process, allowing millions of immigrants a smoother process for becoming U.S. citizens.

Stripping Naturalized Immigrants of Their Citizenship Isn’t New

The United States has a history of denaturalization spanning more than a century

Why Al Capone Wasn't Your Typical Discreet Gangster

Al Capone wasn't just one of the biggest distributers of bootleg alcohol during Prohibition, he also embraced his notoriety in some flamboyant ways

The Gilbert Stuart painting “Portrait of George Washington’s Cook” may depict Hercules, the first president’s famous chef.

How Enslaved Chefs Helped Shape American Cuisine

Black cooks created the feasts that gave the South its reputation for hospitality

A sign marks the spot on Nauset Beach

How a Tiny Cape Cod Town Survived World War I's Only Attack on American Soil

A century ago, a German U-boat fired at five vessels and a Massachusetts beach before slinking back out to sea

A 1921 political cartoon portrays America’s new immigration quotas, influenced by popular anti-immigrant and nativist sentiment stemming from World War I conflict.

A 1911 Report Set America On a Path of Screening Out 'Undesirable' Immigrants

The Dillingham Commission conducted one of the most extensive investigations on immigration to the U.S. But in the end, bias hijacked its recommendations

Cover of a propaganda comic book, 1947. During the Cold War, book publishing and popular culture became an ideological battleground.

This Cold War-Era Publishing House Wanted To Share American Values With the World

Funded by the U.S. government, Franklin Publications was viewed as pushing imperialist propaganda

Kasimu Harris, "War on the Benighted #1," 2015. Digital photography.

Seven Artists Explore New Orleans' Forgotten Histories

A new exhibit timed to the city's tricentennial explores The Big Easy's diverse and sometimes troubled past

Rendering of the Tower of Voices

Building the Flight 93 Memorial's Massive Chime Tower

The Tower of Voices, being erected in Pennsylvania this summer, will feature chimes on a scale unseen anywhere else in the world

How a "Sultry" Statue of Liberty Cost the U.S. Post Office More Than $3.5 Million

A sculptor was awarded millions in royalties after the USPS accidentally used an image of his Las Vegas replica on a 2010 postage stamp

Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam

What Did the Founding Fathers Eat and Drink as They Started a Revolution?

They may not have been hosting a cookout, but they did know how to imbibe and celebrate

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