Dave Roos

“Racketeering” is an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of criminal activity. Here are five notable racketeering trials in American history.

A 1905 decision provided a powerful and controversial precedent for the flexing of government authority.

Doctors first tried injecting patients with blood plasma in the early 1900s. The method has been used against diphtheria, the 1918 flu pandemic, measles and Ebola.

There have always been daredevils. But never has there been such a variety of creative ways to defy death—and break a few world records along the way.

On the heels of the Great Depression, the federal government under FDR hired young people to work on projects across the country. Here’s what the Corps got done.

The town of Ferrara managed to avoid even a single death from the widespread contagion. How did they do it?

Congress has the constitutional power to "declare war," but U.S. presidents have long initiated military action without it.

The 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts called for deportation of people from 'hostile' nations and made it a crime to criticize the government.

Building New York City's 843-acre park involved sledgehammers, pickaxes, gunpowder and thousands of plantings. The project also forced out a community of African American residents.

Tanks—particularly the M1A1 Abrams—proved critical for U.S.-led coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War.

Printed just weeks after British troops opened fire on an unarmed crowd of Bostonians, Revere’s depiction of the melee likely stoked anti-British sentiment throughout the colonies.

The Founding Fathers had just broken free from one empire, and the idea that foreign power could influence their young democracy was a prominent source of anxiety.

The official declarations of war occurred during five separate military conflicts, starting in 1812 and, most recently, in 1942.

Kingpins like Al Capone were able to rake in up to $100 million each year thanks to the overwhelming business opportunity of illegal booze.

Hint: It wasn't a carnivore.

The exact location of the ancient, gnarled bristlecone pine is kept secret for its protection.

Just weeks before the match, Soviet tanks and troops brutally crushed the short-lived Hungarian Revolution.

Sunk by earthquakes or swallowed by rising tides, these five underwater settlements hold artifacts and clues to ancient life.

From desegregation at Little Rock to MLK's Selma-to-Montgomery march to the Cuban refugee crisis, these are major moments when U.S. presidents have deployed troops in America.

On June 6, 1944, more than 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops executed the largest amphibious landing in history. Five veterans share their stories from that day.

Hungry bears—whether grizzly, black, brown or polar—can be shockingly brutal.

In April 1896, Thomas Edison rented a New York Vaudeville hall to show a film—an event that many consider to be America's first movie theater experience.

These presidential candidates didn't need to secure more popular votes to win election, due to the Electoral College.

These storied rivers have played a big part in American agriculture, ecosystems—and history.

The origin story of the first iPhone reveals that Jobs was just trying to make a really cool phone.

The explorers not only produced maps from their 1804-1806 expedition to the American West, they also recorded some 122 animals new to science.

When scandalous news emerged in the final weeks of these presidential campaigns, election outcomes were at stake.

At the close of the Civil War, people recently freed from slavery in Charleston honored fallen Union soldiers.

Elite Gilded Age families competed for status by building extravagant summer 'cottages' in Newport and throwing lavish parties.

Horses were first introduced to Native American tribes via European explorers. For the buffalo-hunting Plains Indians, the swift, strong animals quickly became prized.

In 1804, Lewis and Clark set off on a journey filled with harrowing confrontations, harsh weather and fateful decisions as they scouted a route across the American West.

As the Donner Party fought to survive in the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains, four brave rescue missions ensured some traumatized members made it out alive.

Among seven Apollo moon landing missions, only one did not land men on the moon.

At the turn of the 20th century, there was life-changing money to be made in operating a “show cave.” Those prospects fueled fierce competition. 

Eyewitnesses of the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake described fissures tearing open in the earth, rivers changing course, trees being swallowed up by liquefaction and solid ground rolling like waves in the ocean.

When a small, scrappy Mexican force handed the French army a surprise defeat in 1862, the Confederacy was denied a potential ally.

Communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950 with the approval of Joseph Stalin and the promise of backing from China.

The ancient office of the pope is rich in symbols and insignia. Here are some of the most visible and meaningful of the papal symbols.

Details around the 1969 police shooting of Hampton and other Black Panther members took decades to come to light.

The Allied invasion of Normandy was among the largest military operations ever staged.

Opportunity in the United States beckoned—but first immigrants from Europe had to endure a grim journey.

After infecting millions of people worldwide, the 1918 flu strain shifted—and then stuck around.

The first strain of the 1918 flu wasn’t particularly deadly. Then it came back in the fall with a staggering death toll that eclipsed even the casualties of World War I.

Mexican American families in California secured an early legal victory in the push against school segregation.

In the 1820s, no one had heard about an anti-establishment candidate—until Andrew Jackson's campaign invented it.

With his political career in ruins after killing Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr set off to claim lands in the Southwest—and President Jefferson intended to stop him.

Federalism, or the separation of powers between state and federal government, was entirely new when the founders baked it into the Constitution.

Two of Christopher Columbus’ ships were so small that men had no refuge to sleep and poor food storage led to wormy meals.

"I am not the Catholic candidate for president,” JFK declared in 1960. “I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic."

Early versions of a carpet cleaning device were pulled by a horse, but it was a janitor who came up with a portable model you could plug in.