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...
|
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...
|
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...
|
The 10,000 people living in and around Nome, Alaska, were in desperate straits in January 1925. It was the dead of winter, howling winds, snow and ice, and bitterly cold temperatures had cut their area off from the outside world—and there was a killer in their midst. An epidemic of diphtheria had broken out, which was especially fatal to little children and the Native population, and the one and only doctor in Nome did not have any active diphtheria antitoxin to combat the disease. Somebody, somehow, had to rush medicine to Nome, or thousands of people would die. read more...
|
On Feb. 1, 2003, almost exactly 17 years after the space shuttle Challenger blew up, the nation and its space program received another jolting setback when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentering the atmosphere, killing all seven members of its crew. Just as the nation—especially the students of teacher Christa McAuliffe—was stricken with grief at the Challenger disaster, the loss of the Columbia plunged the country into mourning once again. 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 79 newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia. A total of 42,529 issues have been added in this release! Here are the details:
Alabama
Mobile Register (Mobile). 1364 issues: 1858 to 1869 read more...
|
There have been thousands of books and movies produced about the American Civil War, hundreds of thousands of eager visitors flock to Civil War battlefields every year, and the nation is in the midst of commemorating the sesquicentennial of this great and tragic conflict that caused more than a million casualties. With all this interest and knowledge, however, there are many Civil War stories that remain little known to this day. read more...
|
On Jan. 26, 1837, Michigan was admitted into the Union as the 26th state, doubling the nation’s original total of 13. Michigan’s admission did not come without opposition, however. The powerful senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, strongly objected to the political machinations that occurred during the application of Michigan Territory for statehood. read more...
|
On Jan. 20, 1801, in the waning days of a lame duck administration, President John Adams committed one of the most significant acts in American history when he nominated his Secretary of State, John Marshall, to be the next chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice Marshall began his tenure on Feb. 4 and served until he died on July 6, 1835. read more...
|
On May 13, 1846, Congress declared war on Mexico, beginning the two-year Mexican-American War. From the Mexican perspective, the war was purely an act of American aggression, flimsily based on a pretext that Mexico began the hostilities. Mexico regarded Texas as a renegade province even after the Texas Revolution established the Republic of Texas, and warned the United States not to annex the territory. 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: