When John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated as the nation’s 35th president on Jan. 20, 1961, he delivered a stirring inaugural address brimming with confidence, while at the same time acknowledging the dangerous tensions in a world dominated by the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. On the day of his inauguration the Seattle Daily Times’ editorial page reflected these themes, as shown in the following three editorials. read more...
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The inauguration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy as the nation’s 35th president on Jan. 20, 1961, included several notable achievements. For one, Kennedy at 43 was (and remains) the youngest elected president in American history. He was the first (and, to date, only) Roman Catholic elected president. Perhaps his most significant achievement on that cold, raw day in 1961were his words: he delivered one of the most famous inauguration speeches the nation has ever heard, exhorting his follow Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” read more...
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Billionaire Howard Hughes died in 1976 a 70-year-old eccentric recluse, whose strange behavior stemmed from a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. During the last few years of his life he only cut his hair and trimmed his nails once a year, and avoided contact with people. As a young man, however, Hughes was an enormously successful film producer, industrialist, engineer and aviator. read more...
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On Jan. 13, 1865, Military Governor Andrew Johnson of Tennessee (who became Lincoln’s vice president on March 4) sent a message to President Lincoln announcing that a state convention of more than 500 delegates had adopted an amendment to the state constitution forever abolishing slavery in Tennessee. Johnson remarked in his message: “Thank God that the tyrant’s rod has been broken.”
The 500 delegates passed the following two amendments “without a single dissenting voice”: read more...
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The United States reached a milestone on Jan. 12, 1932, when Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, representing the state of Arkansas. When her husband of 29 years, Senator Thaddeus H. Caraway, died in 1931 Arkansas Governor Harvey Parnell appointed her to the vacant seat, and she was sworn into office Dec. 9. Arkansas held a special election in January 1932 to fill the remainder of Senator Thaddeus Caraway’s term, and Hattie Caraway won easily. read more...
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New Mexico, wrested from Mexico in 1848 at the close of the Mexican-American War, waited 64 years before finally being admitted as the 47th state of the Union on Jan. 6, 1912. As the anticipated day drew nearer, internal political squabbling caused delays. Then there was the matter of a federal lawsuit over land acquisition by a lumber company holding things up. The official inauguration was set for Jan. 1, 1912, but that day came and went without President Taft signing the statehood proclamation. read more...
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Early in the morning of Jan. 6, 1919, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the nation’s 26th president, quietly died in his sleep. His death ended one of the most remarkable lives and careers in American history. Ranked by historians as one of the nation’s greatest presidents, Roosevelt was a state legislator, police commissioner and governor (of New York); assistant secretary of the navy; and vice president (under William McKinley). read more...
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Few Americans realize that we almost fought a third war with the British when, in the 1840s, war fever gripped the nation over the dispute concerning the “Oregon Country.” This was a vast area, stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, from California all the way up to Alaska, rich with resources and fertile land. The U.S. and Great Britain signed the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, agreeing to joint occupancy of the Oregon Country, and updated this with another treaty in 1827. 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 48 newspapers from 20 states. A total of 33,785 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Arkansas read more...
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In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison began publishing his powerful anti-slavery newspaper, the Liberator. His paper became the pre-eminent abolitionist organ of 19th-century America, printing many articles, letters and editorials denouncing the cruelty of slavery. 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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