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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When the Civil War began with the Confederacy firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, President Lincoln responded by issuing a call for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to serve for 90 days. The Union responded enthusiastically to the president’s call, supplying men, arms and equipment, forming a Northern army to suppress the Southern rebellion. Then the nation waited…and waited…and waited. read more...
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), founded in 1958, has been America’s leading government agency for space exploration and scientific and aeronautics research for 53 years. The highlight of NASA’s history occurred on July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 space flight successfully landed the first humans on the moon. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin thrilled Americans and the world with their two-hour walk on the moon’s surface while astronaut Michael Collins piloted the command module orbiting above the lunar explorers. read more...
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When Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered on April 9, 1865, it was a clear sign the devastation of the four-year Civil War was drawing to a close. Then, five days later, the North was plunged into sorrow when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth on April 14, while the president was relaxing at Ford’s Theatre enjoying a play. Lincoln was the first U.S. president to be assassinated, and the country’s grief was augmented by an angry resolve to catch the assassin. 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 55 newspapers from 28 states and the District of Columbia. A total of 8,245 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Alabama
Mobile Register (Mobile). 11 issues: 1970 to 1977 read more...
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Part of President Abraham Lincoln’s enduring legacy is the reputation he earned as a gifted orator. He is the president who delivered two of the greatest speeches in American history: the Gettysburg Address, and his second inaugural address. These are speeches that are familiar to many Americans, and both are inscribed on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. 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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