When President Richard M. Nixon made his nationally-televised address to the nation on Aug. 8, 1974, announcing he was resigning the presidency, the news came as a relief to an American public weary and frustrated by the Watergate scandal. The sense of relief was felt far beyond the United States, as the following international newspaper editorials reveal. These two newspaper articles, each summarizing international opinion, were printed in American papers on Aug. read more...
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When President Richard M. Nixon made his nationally-televised address to the nation on Aug. 8, 1974, announcing he was resigning the presidency, the news came as a relief to a public weary and frustrated by the Watergate scandal. For two years Nixon had denied any involvement in the scandal’s cover-up, but the Supreme Court ruled that the president had to release tapes of White House conversations he had secretly recorded. On Aug. read more...
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In an exciting two-mile rowing race on the waters of New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee on Aug. 3, 1852, Harvard’s Oneida won the first Harvard-Yale Boat Race, beginning a regatta rivalry that continues to this day. That 1852 race was the first intercollegiate athletic competition between American colleges. It was witnessed by a large crowd including General Franklin Pierce, who was elected the United States’ 14th president later that year. Pierce presented Harvard with the prized trophy: a pair of black walnut oars inscribed with silver. read more...
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After 200 years of shielding itself from the outside world, Japan was forced to end its policy of seclusion on July 29, 1858, when it somewhat reluctantly signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States. This treaty, negotiated by U.S. Consul General Townsend Harris, was the culmination of the U.S. effort to force open Japan begun by the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and a naval fleet that arrived in Uraga Harbor (Tokyo) on July 8, 1853. 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 41 newspapers from 20 states. A total of 4,251 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Connecticut read more...
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On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, outlawing slavery. Even with this constitutional protection, however, most freed slaves in the former Confederacy were denied civil and political rights and kept in virtual slavery. To address this, Congress proposed a “Reconstruction” amendment on June 13, 1866, to ensure citizenship for emancipated slaves and guarantee due process of law. read more...
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Many myths and legends grew out of the epic sweep of America’s “Wild West” past. Some figures, heroes as well as villains, are grounded in fact—including photographic evidence—while others remain less distinct. One of the latter is a man that we know very little about, although in his brief career as an outlaw he became infamous as the “Robin Hood of El Dorado.” That man, Joaquin Murietta (or Murrieta) was killed on July 25, 1853, by a band of California State Rangers created especially for his capture. read more...
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On July 23, 1885, Ulysses S. (“Unconditional Surrender”) Grant, Civil War hero and the nation’s 18th president, died a painful and impoverished death at the age of 63. He spent the last months of his life grappling with the ravages of throat cancer, desperately writing his life’s memoirs so that his family would not be destitute after he was gone. read more...
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The First Battle of Bull Run (called First Battle of Manassas in the South) was the Civil War’s first major land battle. Over 60,000 troops clashed outside of Manassas, Virginia, on July 21, 1861, with the heaviest fighting near a small creek called Bull Run. The fifteen-hour engagement caused almost 5,000 casualties, and ended with a Confederate victory as the Union army’s retreat turned into a rout—some soldiers throwing down their guns and fleeing all the way back to Washington, D.C. read more...
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After fifteen hours of fighting on July 21, 1861, the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) was a resounding Confederate victory, with nearly 3,000 casualties inflicted on the Union army and its retreat turned into a rout. For a long time, however, the outcome of the battle was uncertain. It commenced with the Federal advance at 4:00 a.m., and throughout the morning and into the afternoon it looked like the Union army was gaining the upper hand. 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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