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History.com: How Jim Thorpe Became America's First Multi Sport Star
Decades before Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders starred in baseball and football, Jim Thorpe was America's original multi-sport athlete. A two-time college football All-American and charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Thorpe...
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History.com: 8 Tales of Pearl Harbor Heroics
From the man who led the evacuation of USS Arizona to the fighter pilot who took to the skies in his pajamas, learn the stories of eight of the many servicemen who distinguished themselves on one of the darkest days in American military...
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History.com: Continental Congress
From 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in reaction to...
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History.com: 5 Iconic Mashup Inventions That Have Stood the Test of Time
The clock radio, multi-tool pocket knife, and smartphone are all examples of mashup inventions: the combination of two or more ideas in a different configuration to create something new and productive, says Bernie Carlson, a history...
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History.com: How Levee Failures Made Hurricane Katrina a Bigger Disaster
By the time Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana early on the morning of August 29, 2005, the flooding had already begun. In all, levees and floodwalls in New Orleans and surrounding areas fell in more than 50 locations...
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History.com: Hurricane Katrina
Early in the morning on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. While the storm itself did a great deal of damage, its aftermath was catastrophic Levee breaches led to massive flooding, the federal...
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History.com: How Five of the World's Worst Pandemics Finally Ended
As human civilizations flourished, so did infectious disease. Large numbers of people living in close proximity to each other and to animals, often with poor sanitation and nutrition, provided fertile breeding grounds for disease. And...
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History.com: Challenger Explosion: How Groupthink and Other Causes Led to the Tragedy
Seven lives were lost as communications failed in the face of public pressure to proceed with the launch despite dangerously cold conditions. January 28, 1986, The sun had been up for less than an hour and air temperatures were a few...
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History.com: How Seal Team Six Took Out Osama Bin Laden
The operation to kill the world's most wanted terrorist was the result of years of planning and training. On May 2, 2011, U.S. Special Forces raided an al-Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed the world's most wanted...
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History.com: How Portugal's Seafaring Expertise Launched the Age of Exploration
In the 15th century, a small kingdom with a population of approximately 1 million launched the era of maritime exploration that would transform the world. Portugal turned to the boundless Atlantic Ocean as its only outlet to the wider...
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History.com: The Mariel Boatlift: How Cold War Politics Drove Thousands of Cubans to Florida in 1980
After Fidel Castro loosened emigration policies, some 125,000 Cubans landed on U.S. shores over a span of five months. The Mariel Boatlift of 1980 was a mass emigration of Cubans to the United States. The exodus was driven by a stagnant...
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History.com: Why the Construction of the Panama Canal Was So Difficult and Deadly
A staggering 25,000 workers lost their lives. And artificial limb makers clamored for contracts with the canal builders. In a quest to fulfill a centuries-old dream to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the builders of the Panama...
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History.com: 5 Terrifying Moments During the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Mission
The astronaut crew had to troubleshoot a series of problems throughout the historic 1969 flight. This historic exchange on July 20, 1969 marked the end of a perilous journey to the lunar surface, but a multitude of threats still faced...
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History.com: Why the Statue of Liberty Almost Didn't Get Built
Although France paid for the statue, the US had to pay for the pedestal. When the Statue of Liberty arrived (in pieces) in New York Harbor on June of 1885, the pedestal was still under construction, and fundraisers were still collecting...
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History.com: 7 Famous Loyalists of the Revolutionary War Era
From a son of Benjamin Franklin to a Mohawk leader to the governor of Massachusetts, these men chose to side with the British. In a way, the American Revolution was also a civil war. By 1774, American colonists were divided into two...
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History.com: Colin Powell
Colin Powell (1937-2021) ascended from a humble upbringing in New York City to rise through military ranks and eventually become a four star general, a national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first...
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History.com: How Alexander Hamilton's Men Surprised the Enemy at the Battle of Yorktown
Hamilton's leadership in the war's last major land battle would deliver the future Secretary of the Treasury his long-sought glory. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, known for his famous, fatal duel with Aaron Burr...
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History.com: The Life of Lou Gehrig
Find out more about the legendary first baseman. Born Henry Louis Gehrig in New York City on June 19, 1903, the future sports icon was the son of German immigrants.
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History.com: The Wwi Origins of the Poppy as a Remembrance Symbol
The Remembrance Day symbolism of the poppy started with a poem written by a World War I brigade surgeon who was struck by the sight of the red flowers growing on a ravaged battlefield. From the devastated landscape of the battlefields,...
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History.com: What Did the Three Continental Congresses Do?
During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress became America's de facto government. Over a period of 15 years, from 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress underwent a profound evolution. Starting out as a temporary group that...
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History.com: How Photos From the Battle of Antietam Revealed the American Civil War's Horrors
In October 1862, a shocking and unique photo exhibition opened at Mathew B. Brady's Broadway gallery in New York City. A small placard at the door advertised "The Dead of Antietam," and, as The New York Times reported on October 20,...
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History.com: How the Iroquois Confederacy Was Formed
In the story of the Great Law of Peace, Hiawatha and the Peacemaker convince leaders of the Five Nations to literally bury the hatchet. Centuries before the creation of the United States and its Constitution, democracy had already taken...
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History.com: 9/11: Rebuilding of Ground Zero
An intense debate raged over how best to rebuild the World Trade Center, as well as how to memorialize the thousands of victims. Though initial plans called for the rebuild to be completed by September 2011 -- the 10th anniversary of the...
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History.com: How John Marshall Expanded the Power of the Supreme Court
When John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1801, the nation's highest court occupied a lowly position. There was no Supreme Court Building in the newly completed capital, Washington, D.C., so the six...