In the spring of 1963, African American protesters organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference nonviolently demonstrated against the racist “Jim Crow” laws that made Birmingham, Alabama, a tense, segregated city. On May 2 police were confounded when organizers had schoolchildren participate in the marches. More than 1,000 schoolchildren, mostly teenagers, skipped school to march in the streets, and over 600 were arrested. read more...
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Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia faced a daunting task in the spring of 1863 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The Union’s huge Army of the Potomac, with its new leader General Joseph Hooker, was about to smash into Lee’s forces to annihilate his army and finally capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. On May 1, 1863, the pivotal Battle of Chancellorsville began. Five days later the fighting was over, and Lee had won what most historians call his most brilliant victory. 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. This current addition involves 16 newspapers from 7 states and the District of Columbia. A total of 2,737 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
California read more...
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In 1802 President Thomas Jefferson sent two representatives to France, James Monroe and Robert Livingston, to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans from Napoleon Bonaparte. Jefferson’s agents were authorized to offer up to $10 million for the Mississippi River port, vital to American shipping interests. Imagine their astonishment when the French government offered to sell not only New Orleans, but its entire territory of Louisiana—for $15 million! read more...
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Exactly 68 years later, the sheer horror of it remains as incomprehensible as ever. On April 29, 1945, U.S. troops liberated the Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany, where the Nazis murdered tens of thousands of prisoners. What the American troops found when they entered the camp shocked them and revolts us still, disturbing stories and images that can never be forgotten. read more...
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After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter began the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call on April 15, 1861, for 75,000 volunteers to serve for 90 days to end the Southern rebellion. The response was extraordinary, as men throughout the North rushed to their country’s aid. It was not only the men who rallied to Lincoln’s call, however; the women were zealous as well. read more...
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Just five days after celebrating the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, euphoria in the North suddenly plunged into grief and despair when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. The murderer was John Wilkes Booth, a 26-year-old actor and fervent Southern sympathizer, who shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., while the president was enjoying a performance of Our American Cousin. read more...
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On May 13, 1846, Congress declared war on Mexico, beginning the two-year Mexican-American War. The spark for this conflict began 18 days earlier, with a skirmish on April 25 called “the Thornton Affair.” From the Mexican perspective, the war was an act of American aggression, flimsily based on a pretext that Mexico began the hostilities. The United States, on the other hand, claimed that Mexico truly was the aggressor. Which nation is responsible for provoking the war’s bloodshed is disputed to this day. read more...
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Although it was not unanimous, the majority of the American press and public approved Congress’ declaration on April 25, 1898, that a state of war existed with Spain. Animosity toward Spain had been growing throughout the 1890s as reports circulated in the American press about Spanish atrocities in its colony of Cuba, just 90 miles offshore of Florida. Here is a range of newspaper reactions at the beginning of the Spanish-American War. read more...
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The U.S. rationale for the Spanish-American War was a desire to intervene in Spain’s harsh rule of its colony Cuba, just 90 miles offshore from Florida. The American public grew increasingly angry as stories of Spanish atrocities circulated in the U.S. press during the 1890s. When the U.S. battleship Maine sank in Havana harbor under mysterious circumstances on Feb. 15, 1898, American war fever grew to a crescendo, and the administration of President William McKinley knew it had to take action. 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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