Erin Blakemore

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.

1960s television executives weren’t ready to put a blended family on air.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that marriage isn’t always in the cards.

Eugenics and unethical clinical trials are part of the pill’s legacy.

The Civil War hero brought his scorched-earth policy to the Plains—and wiped out Native Americans’ food supply.

More than a third of the island's residents were of Japanese descent, and military officials doubted their loyalty.

Between 1932 and 1945, Japan forced women from Korea, China and other occupied countries to become military sex slaves.

Over 136,000 GM workers participated in the strike in Flint, Michigan that became known as 'the strike heard round the world.'

The writer's epic 1966 party helped relaunch Katharine Graham’s social life.

During the 1920s, hatred was a family affair.

Panic set in after the partial nuclear meltdown as the public tried to decide which story to trust—and whether to evacuate.

Newly uncovered court records reveal what happened after the Civil Rights icons were arrested in Montgomery, Alabama.

The casket letters were scandalous. But were they really written by Mary Stuart?

For decades, the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have demanded answers.

Richard Hornberger was famous for his wisecracking characters, but his real accomplishments were as a surgeon.

A historic surplus and a bright idea led to relief for thousands of unemployed men during the height of the Depression.

Prisoner exchanges were critical to a ceasefire in the Korean War—but a peace treaty was never signed.

The star of the Thanksgiving table was revered by the Maya.

Between 1910 and 1945, Japan worked to wipe out Korean culture, language and history.

The FBI documented Old Blue Eyes’ every move for 40 years.

The Treblinka uprising put a stop to the Holocaust’s second deadliest camp.

Ernst vom Rath’s murder triggered a two-day pogrom against German Jews.

The desperate parents of Kindertransport refugees paid a terrible price for their lives.

Mobs attacked 7,500 Jewish-owned stores and businesses and killed 96 people.

The 1938 pogrom sparked harsh criticism, but not much action.

Romualdo Pacheco was adroit at politics (and bear hunting), but in 1877 he faced a rocky road to the House of Representatives.

Fifty years later, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill admits the police department enforced discriminatory laws.

In marriage and divorce, the strong-willed princess helped modernize royal love.

The French emperor escaped his island prison in plain sight.

The royal family's distaste for divorce goes back to Henry VIII.

'Freedom Day' didn’t succeed, but it made de facto school segregation the talk of Chicago.

In the 1950s, the beach wasn’t open to everyone.

They cried. They reminisced. The master told Douglass he would have run away, too.

Deceptively simple doll tests helped convince the Supreme Court to strike down school segregation.

It took 15 years of persistent lobbying for MLK Day to be declared a national holiday.

The new material reveals a different side of the murdered teenage author.

Johan van Hulst saved hundreds of lives—but was haunted by his inability to do more.

Carl Lutz managed to save half of Budapest's Jewish population by exploiting the Nazi's respect for paperwork.

The controversial pope stayed silent on the fate of Jews during the Holocaust.

It was at this small gathering where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others let the discontent of their lives boil over—and decided to do something about it.

The midcentury TV show  traded big prizes for women’s sob stories—and predicted the reality shows of today.

Television brought film into people’s homes—but flattened Hollywood.

'Petting parties' added some steam to Jazz Age soirees.

NASA worried the Christian ceremony might draw unwanted scrutiny.

A look back at America's long-simmering conflict with Iran.

With millions of Americans unable to find employment, working wives became scapegoats.

Chilling audiotapes tell the story of the Jonestown massacre.

The protestors helped themselves to the editor's cigars and would not budge from his office.

Passage of the ERA seemed like a sure thing. So why did it fail to become law?

Carry Nation had a bad history with alcohol—and she went to extremes to try and get it banned.

While the fears may be overblown, Halloween crimes involving poison have occurred.

In the early 1980s, the U.S. government distributed some 300 million pounds of pungent-smelling processed cheese that had been produced with federal funds.