William Magear Tweed was a larger-than-life corrupt politician, a 300-pound behemoth whose extravagant lust for power and money matched his girth. From 1858 to 1871 “Boss Tweed” controlled New York City and much of the state, using Tammany Hall (the lead committee for the local Democratic Party) as a power base to dominate the city’s political and economic life. The “Tweed Ring” had a hand in every election and business transaction, routinely rigging elections and demanding bribes and kickbacks from merchants and contractors. It was corruption on a staggering scale. read more...
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What is arguably the world’s greatest archaeological discovery, the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamen in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, did not come easily or quickly. The head archaeologist, Howard Carter, had been working for his sponsor Lord Carnarvon since 1908, and as the 1922 season began Carnarvon told Carter this would be the last season he would fund his work. Then, on Nov. 4 the steps leading down to Tutankhamen’s tomb were discovered. read more...
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In Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963, one undisputed fact occurred: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife Nellie. Beyond that almost every detail is disputed, and Kennedy’s assassination remains the subject of vigorous debate, with many competing conspiracy theories. Did Lee Harvey Oswald actually kill the president, even though he denied it before Jack Ruby in turn murdered him? read more...
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After convening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Annapolis, Maryland; Trenton, New Jersey; and New York City, Congress finally moved to its permanent location in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 17, 1800. Although the Senate wing was completed, the House wing was still under construction and in fact was not finished until 1811. This did not deter Congress, however; Washington, D.C., was the nation’s capital, the Capitol Building—finished or not—was the seat of Congress, and the U.S. Congress went ahead and held it first session on Nov. 17 as scheduled. read more...
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In what remains a shameful and controversial episode in United States military history, American soldiers on the morning of March 16, 1968, attacked the My Lai area, a series of hamlets in Vietnam, and killed anywhere from 347 to 504 villagers (estimates vary). The soldiers were looking for Viet Cong enemy, but only found unarmed, defenseless villages filled primarily with women, children and elderly people. There was absolutely no hostile fire, but the Americans started shooting anyway, killing everything they saw, people as well as livestock, and torching the homes. read more...
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In the pre-dawn darkness of Nov. 7, 1811, around 500 warriors of Shawnee Chief Tecumseh’s Indian confederation attacked a small army of 1,000 men being led by Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Tecumseh had spent the past decade carefully building his Indian confederation to fight back against white encroachment on Native American lands, but the charismatic leader was away the day of the great battle. read more...
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On Nov. 7, 1916, Congress—and the entire nation—forever changed when Montana’s Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress, winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Women at that time did not have universal suffrage—the 19th Amendment, granting all American women the right to vote, was passed by Congress in 1919 but did not become law until it was ratified on Aug. 26, 1920. read more...
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John Willis Menard is not a familiar name, even to most historians, but on Nov. 3, 1868, he nearly achieved something that would have secured his name in the nation’s history: first African American elected to Congress. This near-historic event occurred in the confusing world of Reconstruction politics in post-war Louisiana. James Mann, the white Democratic congressman representing Louisiana’s Second Congressional District, died before his term expired. Accordingly, during the presidential election of Nov. 3, 1868, Louisiana citizens also voted for a replacement for Mann. 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 23 newspapers from 17 states. A total of 4,183 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Connecticut
Columbian Register (New Haven). 36 issues: 1836 to 1876
Georgia read more...
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Congress passed the Volstead Act on Oct. 28, 1919, which defined “intoxicating liquors” to reinforce the Eighteenth Amendment, making Prohibition the law of the land. Formally called the “National Prohibition Act,” the Volstead Act was named for Andrew Volstead, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who sponsored the legislation. However well intentioned, Prohibition turned out to be a disaster for the United States as organized crime flourished, taking over the now-illegal business of manufacturing, transporting and selling liquor. 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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