An ugly incident in U.S. Navy history occurred on Oct. 12, 1972, when a race riot erupted aboard the U.S. carrier Kitty Hawk while on combat duty in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. More than 100, and perhaps as many as 200, African American sailors began attacking their white shipmates that night, in a six-hour brawl that lasted into the morning hours of Oct. 13. By the time the rioting was finally subdued, 46 sailors—40 white, 6 black—had been injured, 3 seriously enough to require hospitalization. read more...
|
In terms of lives lost, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was not the deadliest catastrophe in the city’s history. In the extent of its damage, however, the Great Fire was the biggest disaster. The blaze, whose origins are unknown, began Sunday night, Oct. 8, 1871. Strong winds out of the southwest whipped the flames into towering walls of fire that burned uncontrollably. With the city’s waterworks damaged, firefighters were unable to combat the fire. People fled in panic with only the clothes on their back, having no time to salvage any of their possessions. read more...
|
No one saw it coming. It was the fifth game of the 1956 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Yankees trotted out a mediocre, part-time starting pitcher, 27-year-old Don Larsen. This journeyman hurler played for seven different teams in his 14-year career, compiling an unimpressive 81-91 record. In 1954, pitching for the Baltimore Orioles, he was a horrible 3-21. Known as a wild partier, his teammates called him “Gooney Bird.” All he did on Oct. read more...
|
Hollywood was booming in the first quarter of the 20th century as silent films became one of America’s favorite entertainments. Then on Oct. 6, 1927, something magical happened that radically transformed movies and doomed the silent film era: The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length movie containing songs and dialogue and starring singing sensation Al Jolson, electrified the audience gathered at the Warner Bros.’ theater in New York City for the premiere. It did not happen overnight, but silent movies were on their way out: “talkies” were what film audiences wanted to see. read more...
|
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 40 newspapers from 22 states. A total of 4,505 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Connecticut read more...
|
In a similar ceremony exactly 83 years after the cornerstone was laid in 1907, a U.S. president—this time George H. W. Bush instead of Theodore Roosevelt—addressed a crowd celebrating the final stone being laid, as construction was completed on the Washington National Cathedral on Sept. 29, 1990. A national cathedral was envisioned by Pierre L’Enfant, a French-born architect appointed in 1791 by President George Washington to design the nation’s new capital city on the north bank of the Potomac River. Nearly 200 years later, L’Enfant’s dream was a reality. read more...
|
A national cathedral was part of the plans proposed for Washington, D.C., by Pierre L’Enfant, a French-born architect appointed in 1791 by President George Washington. His task was to design the nation’s new capital city on the north bank of the Potomac River. However, Congress did not act on his cathedral idea for over 100 years, finally granting a charter to the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia on Jan. 6, 1893, to build such a grand edifice. read more...
|
Baseball, with origins in the English games of rounders and cricket, is an American innovation long recognized as this country’s national pastime. The popularity of baseball increased right after the Civil War, following the exposure of many soldiers to this relatively new game, but the origins of baseball go much deeper into the 19th century, and perhaps even the 18th century. A game called “town ball” was played in many parts of the U.S., and the first “modern” baseball club was the Knickerbockers of New York, founded on Sept. 23, 1845. read more...
|
By the end of the summer of 1863 the Union seemed well on its way to victory in the Civil War. Two significant losses had sent the Confederacy reeling: defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3 had stopped General Robert E. Lee’s northern invasion and forced his battered army to retreat back to Virginia; and the next day’s fall of the Mississippi River stronghold of Vicksburg on July 4 placed that mighty waterway under Union control and split the Confederacy in two. Surely the end of the war was near. read more...
|
President Abraham Lincoln’s determined objective and steadfast focus in waging the Civil War initially was preserving the Union—not freeing the slaves or forever ending slavery in the United States. He personally regarded slavery as an evil and was convinced it would eventually disappear, but on several occasions stated his belief that a president lacked the constitutional authority to abolish slavery. However, in the spring and summer of 1862 Lincoln began to change his mind. On Sept. read more...
|
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!
Websites: