NewsInHistory Blog

Thomas Jefferson Farnham was the leader of the ill-fated “Peoria Party,” a group of 16 armed adventurers who set out for the Oregon Country in 1839 intending to organize the American settlers there and drive out the British. Though the expedition did not achieve its grand goals, it did help blaze the route that became the Oregon Trail. read more...

In post-Reconstruction America, especially in the Deep South, laws designed to separate the white and black races were common. This separation received legal sanction from the highest court in the land when, on May 18, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its “Plessy v. Ferguson” decision that racial segregation was constitutional. The Court’s decision paved the way for a legion of “Jim Crow” laws in the South that legally separated blacks from white services and facilities. read more...

In addition to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, America almost had a third war with Great Britain—this one during the 1840s when the two powers competed for control of the Oregon Country. This huge area, stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, from California to Alaska, was highly prized for its fertile land and abundant resources, including timber and furs. read more...

After the Civil War began with the Confederacy firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the North responded enthusiastically to President Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to serve for 90 days. The Union mobilized for the war effort, supplying men, arms and equipment, forming a Northern army to suppress the Southern rebellion. Then the monumental task began of converting these raw recruits into an organized, effective fighting force. read more...

It was the epitome of the “landmark” ruling—a U.S. Supreme Court decision so profound that it forever changed life in America. On May 17, 1954, the Court announced its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This unanimous Supreme Court ruling overturned the established “separate but equal” doctrine, opening up the path to integration and giving the Civil Rights Movement a solid legal foundation. read more...

Amelia Earhart, the aviation pioneer who mysteriously disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean in 1937 while attempting to fly around the world, amazed the public with her daring feats in the 1920s and ’30s. She set many records flying solo, including being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, the first woman to fly nonstop across the U.S., and the first pilot—male or female—to fly from Hawaii to California. read more...

A historic first was achieved on May 15, 1970, when President Richard M. Nixon nominated two female colonels to become the first women generals in the history of the U.S. military: Col. Anna Mae Hays and Col. Elizabeth Paschel Hoisington. Since nomination by the president routinely leads to actual promotion (requiring only the formality of Senate approval), it surprised no one when the two women received their one-star rank as brigadier generals on June 11, 1970. They were the first women generals in the (at the time) 196-year history of the U.S. Army. read more...

Some of the most disturbing attacks in America’s long, troubled history of racism occurred in Alabama on May 14, 1961, when civil rights demonstrators riding buses to challenge segregationist policies in the South were viciously attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The attacks, at bus stations in Anniston and Birmingham, were against “Freedom Riders”: courageous activists—men and women, African American and white—upset that the federal government was not enforcing laws requiring desegregated facilities for interstate public transportation. read more...