On the morning of March 16, 1968, American troops went on a search and destroy mission into some tiny hamlets in South Vietnam, killing everything in sight—animals as well as human beings. The exact death toll will never be known, but estimates of the My Lai Massacre range from 347 to 504 innocent villagers slaughtered, most of them women, young children and babies. No Viet Cong were found, and at no time were the American troops subjected to enemy fire. It was, plain and simple, a massacre. read more...
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When asked to name the greatest athletes in U.S. history, most Americans readily identify Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan. However, another name should always be added to that list: Jim Thorpe, arguably the best American athlete of all time. Thorpe’s life was an incredible mixture of triumph and tragedy and reads like a Hollywood script. In fact, Warner Brothers did make a movie of his life, the 1951 box-office smash Jim Thorpe, All American, starring Burt Lancaster. Being Hollywood, the movie has a happy ending. read more...
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When the clash over slavery between North and South erupted into the bloodshed of the U.S. Civil War, its violence mirrored what had been going on in the Kansas Territory the preceding decade. “Bleeding Kansas” was ravaged in the 1850s by deadly attacks from both pro- and anti-slavery forces, fighting each other to determine whether the territory would enter the Union as a slave or free state. John Brown, whose raid on the U.S. read more...
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When ex-president and general Dwight D. Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969, America lost one of its true heroes, a man who played an enormously important role in the nation’s history during the middle of the 20th century. A five-star general, Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II. In 1951 he served as the first Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. read more...
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On March 16, 1979, Hollywood released the blockbuster film The China Syndrome, depicting a frightening near-meltdown at a nuclear power plant. In an astonishing example of life imitating art, 12 days after the film’s debut a real-life nuclear accident occurred—one of the worst in the history of the industry—when the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in Pennsylvania released radioactive steam into the atmosphere on March 28, 1979. It was publicity no Hollywood producer could ever dream up, but its environmental and public safety ramifications were real enough. read more...
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When reading the letters, poems and songs of the Civil War, it is striking how pervasive religious themes are. It seems everyone, from the highest politicians and generals to the common foot soldiers and the people back home still working the family farms, often expressed the Civil War as a religious struggle. read more...
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With peace in the Middle East and brotherhood between Arab and Jew still an elusive dream, it is worthwhile to remember the brave step taken on March 26, 1979, when Egypt and Israel signed the first peace treaty between an Arab country and the Jewish nation. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the treaty that President Jimmy Carter helped bring to fruition. read more...
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Malcolm X, the fiery and controversial Black activist and leader, was assassinated by three Black Muslims as he was giving a speech in New York City on Feb. 21, 1965. The next day, Jules Loh, an Associated Press reporter, published an interview he had conducted with Malcolm X on March 26, 1964, during which the activist discussed his own possible assassination—but insisted Loh not publish his remarks. After Malcolm X’s murder, Loh felt freed of his promise and published this article the next day. read more...
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Pioneers on the Oregon Trail traveled through Indian country. While some of these encounters were peaceful, many were violent. Newspapers at the time printed lurid accounts of “bloodthirsty savages” attacking peaceful families, but occasionally a different point of view was presented. Such is the case with the following letter, printed in the July 26, 1852, issue of the Daily Missouri Republican (St. Louis, Missouri): read more...
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The protest march on Washington, a staple of the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and an accepted form of demonstration today, received its inauguration on March 25, 1894, when socialist reformer Jacob S. Coxey led a group of unemployed laborers to the nation’s capital to demand economic aid from Congress. The official name of his group was the “Commonweal in Christ,” but it is better known as “Coxey’s Army.” 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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