Just two years after the Civil War ended, while the nation was busy rebuilding itself, Secretary of State William Henry Seward surprised many by negotiating with Russia to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million, amounting to the ludicrously low price of about two cents per acre. Even so, critics blasted the purchase as “Seward’s Folly,” wasting money on a barren, remote land of ice and snow. The Alaska Treaty of Cessation was signed on March 30, 1867, and ratified by the U.S. Senate on April 9. Russia transferred Alaska to the U.S. on Oct. 18, 1867, in a formal ceremony in Sitka. 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 36 newspapers from 21 states and the District of Columbia. A total of 6,140 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Arizona
Arizona Citizen and Weekly Tribune (Tucson). 1 issue: 1876
California read more...
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The final act of a carefully orchestrated campaign to grant Adolf Hitler supreme power in Germany occurred on March 23, 1933, when the Reichstag (German parliament) passed The Enabling Act. This legislation gave Hitler’s cabinet (which, in reality, meant Hitler himself) the power to create its own laws for the next four years without needing the consent of the Reichstag. Adolf Hitler was now the dictator of Germany. read more...
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German heritage has deep roots in American history, going back to the arrival of 13 German families who formed the first German settlement in the Thirteen Colonies, Germantown, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 6, 1683. Almost two hundred years later, German Americans living in South Carolina faced confusing times and hard choices when their state seceded from the Union on Dec. 20, 1860. read more...
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The United States Military Academy at West Point was formally established on March 16, 1802, when President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation creating a Corps of Engineers that was to be permanently stationed at West Point, New York—the nation’s first military academy. An army post had been established at West Point during the Revolutionary War, on Jan. 27, 1778, and it has had a military presence ever since—giving it the distinction of being America’s longest continually-occupied military post. George Washington headquartered there in 1779. read more...
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On March 16, 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published one of the classics in the history of American literature: The Scarlet Letter. This novel, with its risqué story of an adulterous affair between a married woman and the local minister set in 17th century Puritan New England, combined with the author’s gentle and dignified portrayal of the adulterous woman Hester Prynne, was certain to cause controversy. And it did—but not for its subject matter. read more...
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It was an atrocity that shamed and angered many Americans, and spurred opposition to an already unpopular war. We were supposed to be the good guys, protecting Vietnamese people from the horrors of communism. Yet on the morning of March 16, 1968, American troops went on a killing spree in some tiny hamlets in South Vietnam, blasting everything in sight, animals and human beings. The exact death toll will never be known, but estimates of the My Lai Massacre range from 347 to 504 innocent villagers slaughtered, most of them women, young children and babies. read more...
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With cell phones a global phenomenon, it seems like almost everyone is talking on the telephone these days. Phones are now an essential component of modern life, enabling conversations and keeping us connected to the world by providing Internet access. We use telephones to look up information, send text messages, take pictures, record videos, and play music, movies and games. read more...
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The United States’ war with Mexico (1846-48) was little more than a land grab, justified by Americans with the belief that it was the country’s “Manifest Destiny” to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending that war granted to the United States a huge swath of Mexican territory. It was ratified by the U.S. Senate on March 10, 1848. read more...
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On March 9, 1990, President George H. W. Bush appointed Antonia Coello Novello, M.D., to be surgeon general of the United States. With this appointment Novello achieved the honor of two historic firsts: the first woman, and the first Hispanic, surgeon general. She served with distinction until June 30, 1993. 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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