Erin Blakemore

Ride was eminently qualified for space flight. So why did the press ask about makeup and periods?

Would-be mail thieves didn’t stand a chance against Stagecoach Mary. The hard-drinking, quick-shooting mail carrier sported two guns and men’s clothing.

Denounced, questioned, pressured to resign and even fired, LGBT people were once rooted out of the State Department in what was known as the Lavender Scare.

America didn’t always extend citizenship to those born within its borders.

In the late 1880s, Weldon was vilified as a harpy who was in love with Sitting Bull. Both she and the Lakota leader would meet tragic fates.

The swift, often comfortable ride on the Transcontinental Railroad opened up the American West to new settlement.

Up to 16,000 Native Americans were murdered in cold blood after California became a state.

The executive order acknowledged state-sponsored violence and discrimination against Native peoples as part of 'California's dark history.'

The pioneers hoped to shave 300 miles off their journey. But the route they took to California had never been tested.

Napoleon was eager to sell—but the purchase would end up expanding slavery in the U.S.

Horrifying medical experiments on twins helped Nazis justify the Holocaust.

The archives’ treasures are the stuff of legend—but their existence is absolutely real.

A proclamation by King George III set the stage for Native American rights—and the eventual loss of most tribal lands.

The third president had a secret: his carefully edited version of the New Testament.

How the Plattsburg camps for young men tried to raise a volunteer army ahead of World War I.

Appointed by a Republican president, the Associate Justice’s views on the death penalty and affirmative action shifted dramatically over time.

Did it help or hurt the civil rights movement?

Fleming Begaye, Sr. was deployed to the Pacific Theater.

There were multiple memorials and tributes to the fallen civil rights leader.

Plagued by bad press and fraught with racial and ethnic tensions, the huge steel strike was doomed to fail.

Under the Treaty of Versailles, the German emperor was supposed to be tried as a war criminal. Why wasn't he?

Caroll Spinney—the puppeteer in the yellow suit—was in talks to go to space.

The more than 900 passengers of the M.S. St. Louis were denied entry by immigration authorities in multiple countries in the lead-up to the Holocaust.

Normal Danes sprang into action and pulled off an astounding feat.

When Helmuth Hübener learned the truth about Nazi Germany, he spread the word—and paid the ultimate price.

General Orders No. 11 gave Jewish people just 24 hours to leave their homes and lives behind.

“My Yiddishe Momme" became an anthem for new immigrants in the 1920s. Victimized Jews later sang it in concentration camps.

In the 20th century, the country issued reparations for Japanese American internment, Native land seizures, massacres and police brutality. Will slavery be next?

Publishers were initially reluctant to publish the teenage author’s chronicle of life during the Holocaust. They thought readers were not ready to confront the horrors of World War II.

Desperation drove ingenuity among East Germans determined to reach West Berlin.

The Los Alamos Historical Museum halted a Japanese exhibition on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of a controversy over its message of abolishing nuclear weapons.

Born in the ashes of World War II, the currency used by 19 European countries went into effect on January 1, 1999.

Maya Lin won a design competition—and sparked a national controversy.

The state was once known as 'the world’s sanatorium.'

Nisei members of the Military Intelligence Service were discriminated against by their own country—even as they worked to protect it.

When Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in protest at the 1968 Summer Games, Australian runner Peter Norman stood by them. It lost him his career.

While some had been driven from the camp, thousands of emaciated prisoners had been left behind to die.

For decades, the country's Black majority was controlled by racist laws enshrining white supremacy.

The iconic music festival faced massive resistance from local residents who feared an invasion of long-haired druggies in August of 1969.

Law enforcement knew who killed Harry and Harriette Moore on Christmas in 1951. So why wasn’t justice served?

When Cleveland's Cuyahoga River burned, the nation noticed.

Right-wing paramilitary groups killed political foes with no repercussions in Weimar Germany.

The 1882 trial of laborer Yee Shun set a new legal precedent in America.

Richard Nixon derided environmentalists in private, but became the main driver behind legislation protecting the country’s air, water and animals.

During Operation Peter Pan, over 14,000 children became exiles with the help of the United States.

The Panthers’ popular breakfast programs put pressure on political leaders to feed children before school.

Nearly 500 patrons perished in the 1942 inferno at Boston’s Cocoanut Grove.

The Cold War-era law went into effect during a time when President Truman felt the nation was unprepared.

Over a 75-year period, up to 200,000 indigent children went from city to farm.

In 2019, the island nation long ruled by dictator Fidel Castro and his family, got a new leader: Miguel Díaz-Canel.