By Feb. 1, 1861, seven states had seceded from the U.S. In chronological order, they were: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Three days later, on Feb. 4, the first six sent delegates to Montgomery, Alabama, where they convened as the Provisional Confederate Congress. Their objective: form a new country and permanently sever their break from the Union. (The seventh seceding state, Texas, sent its four delegates to the Congress on March 2.) read more...
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On Feb. 3, 1870, almost five years after the Civil War ended, the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race, color, or status as former slaves. The wording of the Amendment is simple, consisting of two sections: read more...
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The 10,000 people living in and around Nome, Alaska, were in desperate straits in January 1925. It was the dead of winter, howling winds, snow and ice, and bitterly cold temperatures had cut their area off from the outside world—and there was a killer in their midst. An epidemic of diphtheria had broken out, which was especially fatal to little children and the Native population, and the one and only doctor in Nome did not have any active diphtheria antitoxin to combat the disease. Somebody, somehow, had to rush medicine to Nome, or thousands of people would die. read more...
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On Feb. 1, 2003, almost exactly 17 years after the space shuttle Challenger blew up, the nation and its space program received another jolting setback when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentering the atmosphere, killing all seven members of its crew. Just as the nation—especially the students of teacher Christa McAuliffe—was stricken with grief at the Challenger disaster, the loss of the Columbia plunged the country into mourning once again. read more...
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An important event in the history of the Civil Rights Movement in America occurred on Feb. 1, 1960, when four African-American students from a local college sat down at the segregated lunch counter in the Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The lunch counter’s stools were for whites only; black customers had to stand and eat. The four students were polite, well-dressed, and stayed quiet, letting their presence speak for them. They were refused service, and ignored. read more...
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NewsInHistory is continually adding more content to our historical newspapers archive—titles new to our collection as well as expanding the date ranges and number of issues for titles already in our archive. New titles are indicated by an asterisk (*). This current addition involves 79 newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia. A total of 42,529 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Alabama
Mobile Register (Mobile). 1364 issues: 1858 to 1869 read more...
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On the morning of January 31, 1968, over 80,000 combined Communist and Viet Cong troops surprised the Vietnamese army and its American allies by launching the Tet Offensive during what was supposed to be a cease-fire celebrating the Vietnamese lunar New Year. Around 100 cities and provinces throughout South Vietnam were simultaneously attacked with a coordinated force that surprised their adversaries. read more...
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President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect Jan. 1, 1863, only freed slaves under the control of the Confederate States of America—it did not abolish slavery in the border states that had remained loyal to the Union. Lincoln was acting with the authority of his war powers, but he knew he did not have the authority to make slavery illegal in the United States. read more...
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In today’s political climate everyone is talking about how dysfunctional the federal government has become, and the way that harsh political rhetoric divides Republicans and Democrats and makes bipartisan solutions impossible. While this is undeniably true today, it was equally true of America’s political parties and politicians in the 1830s during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. read more...
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Andrew Jackson, the nation’s seventh president, was known for his toughness—both during warfare and in the political arena. As a military man, Jackson served with courage and tenacity in the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Creek War, and the First Seminole War. During the War of 1812 Jackson’s men admiringly called him “Old Hickory” because he was as tough and strong as a piece of that legendary wood. read more...
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I understand that when writing a blog, it’s necessary to show a picture and say a few words about yourself, so that people don’t think a nameless, faceless committee or advisory board is running the show. Here I am, a real person. My name is Tony Pettinato, and I live in Deerfield, Mass. I did my undergraduate studies in English at Oberlin College, my graduate work in Journalism at UC Berkeley, and have been a reporter for six newspapers. For the past fourteen years I have worked at NewsBank, six of those as a managing editor for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set project – NewsBank’s acclaimed effort that digitized and indexed twelve million pages of primary source documents – that gratified my lifelong interest in American history. And that led me to editing this history blog!
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