In 1834 the Mexican government rescinded the Constitution of 1824, taking away certain political and legal rights and transforming a federal republic into a military dictatorship led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. This action enraged residents of the Mexican province of Texas—many of them Anglo-Americans who had come to Texas, in part, because of those very rights that the Mexican government then snatched away. Defiant talk led to action, and the Texas Revolution began in October 1835. read more...
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It took a good deal of discussion and some heated debate, but by the end of February 1807 Congress finally passed a law banning the importation of slaves into the United States. The law was signed by President Thomas Jefferson on March 2, 1807, bringing to fruition a provision that was included when the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787, allowing Congress to ban the importation of slaves beginning in 1808. The ban signed by Jefferson went into effect Jan. 1, 1808. 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 56 newspapers from 21 states and the District of Columbia. A total of 3,983 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Alabama
Mobile Register (Mobile). 384 issues: 1862 to 1870
Arkansas read more...
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On the afternoon of Feb. 23, 1836, 1,500 troops led by Mexico’s president General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna occupied the town of San Antonio de Bexar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas). Thus began the first day of the 13-day Battle of the Alamo, a legendary encounter in which all but two of the Alamo’s defenders were killed, including such famous figures as James Bowie, Davy Crockett and William B. Travis. Their martyrdom inspired the fledgling Republic of Texas to “Remember the Alamo!” and defeat Santa Anna’s army the next month, securing its independence. read more...
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It was the stuff of legends, and would make any Hollywood screenwriter drool. Under cover of darkness, Lt. Stephen Decatur, Jr., and 70 brave volunteers slipped into Tripoli Harbor the night of Feb. 16, 1804, to destroy the USS Philadelphia in order to prevent the captured 44-gun frigate from becoming part of the enemy’s fleet. They did this right under the castle walls of the arch-enemy, Pasha (or Bashaw) Yusuf Karamanli, not to mention the 115 heavy cannons ringing the harbor, the Tripoli fleet with another 100 heavy guns, and 20,000 enemy troops encamped nearby. read more...
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Ronald Harmon “Ron” Brown achieved a historic first on Feb. 10, 1989, when he was elected chairman of the Democratic Party—the first African American chosen to lead a major political party in the U.S. Brown came to this position with an impressive set of credentials. A respected and successful lawyer, he worked on Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy’s 1980 bid for the presidential nomination, and on Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign. read more...
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The beauty of the U.S. Constitution is not that it is a perfect document, but rather that it can be amended to make it better. For example, the original wording was ambiguous about what happens when a sitting president dies, becomes disabled, resigns, or is removed from office—does the vice president become the actual president, or just an acting president? It also was unclear how a vacancy in the office of the vice president is filled. To clarify succession issues an amendment was required, and on Feb. read more...
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The Beatles are now so established as icons—not just in rock ’n’ roll music but in popular culture overall—that it is hard to imagine a time when they were new and unknown. However, that was the case for most of the then-record television audience of 73 million American viewers who watched the Ed Sullivan Show Sunday night, Feb. 9, 1964. That was the first time the Beatles, who had just arrived from England two days before, appeared live on American television. History was made that night, and music and culture would never be the same. read more...
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When delegates from six seceding states convened for the Provisional Confederate Congress on Feb. 4, 1861, they faced a daunting and exciting challenge: building a new country from scratch. They needed a new constitution, government, flag, seal, coat of arms and motto. They had to resolve complex issues of revenue, commerce, representation, and defense. read more...
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On Feb. 3, 1870, almost five years after the Civil War ended, the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race, color, or status as former slaves. The wording of the Amendment is simple, consisting of two sections: 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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