A dizzying series of events from late 1989 to 1991 marked the collapse of the Soviet Union as a unified power. In six months, from August 1989 to January 1990, six Warsaw Pact countries embraced a multi-party system of government, abandoning the monopolistic Communist one-party control: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989. read more...
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The history of the Civil Rights Movement in America is filled with stories of brave individuals who stood up for their rights in the face of hatred and racism. One such courageous fighter is Autherine Juanita Lucy, who in February 1956 became the first African American student to attend a white university or public school in Alabama. read more...
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Accompanied by the 32-gun warship USS Cyane, the Elizabeth sailed out of New York Harbor on Feb. 6, 1820, on a pioneering voyage with an unusual passenger list: 88 free African American emigrants supervised by three white agents from the American Colonization Society (ACS). Their destination: the coast of Africa, where the ACS hoped to found a colony to pursue its goal of deporting all of America’s black freedmen. The ACS colony became the independent nation of Liberia in 1847. read more...
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Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman faced an impossible task in February 1862. In charge of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, he had the vital responsibility of preventing Union forces from coming up the river and penetrating Tennessee and Alabama. Inside the fort he had 17 pieces of artillery, some of large caliber, and about 3,400 soldiers camped outside. Coming against him was General Grant’s 15,000-man army and Flag Officer Foote’s flotilla of seven gunboats, four of them ironclads. read more...
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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 February 4, the first six seceded states 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 seceded state, Texas, sent its four delegates to the Congress on March 2.) 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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On the morning of Jan. 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 everywhere. For instance, slavery remained legal 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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Fishermen and sailors on New York’s East River saw a startling sight on Jan. 30, 1862, when the Union ironclad Monitor launched and took its maiden voyage. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. The armored gunboat looked like a round cheese-box on a raft, with only its pilothouse and a revolving turret (housing the ship’s two large cannons) sticking up above the water. 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. In fact, some newspapers blamed the attempted assassination of President Jackson in 1835 on the severe criticism he had been receiving. 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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