History.com Editors Archives

Pride Month 2023

The history of Pride Month began with the June 1969 Stonewall Riots and continues today with celebrations honoring the LGBTQ+ community.

Che Guevara

Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna, the controversial Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader, was a central figure in the Cuban Revolution, serving as second in command to Fidel Castro.

COVID-19 Pandemic

The 2020 outbreak of the infectious respiratory disease known as COVID-19 triggered one of the deadliest pandemics in modern history.

The Murder of Mary Phagan Mary Phagan was on her way to Atlanta’s Confederate Memorial Day parade on April 26, 1913 when she stopped in at the National Pencil Company to collect her paycheck–$1.20 for her 10-cents-an-hour work. The next day, the girl’s body was discovered in the factory’s basement. As Steve Oney writes in […]

Langston Hughes

Early Life Hughes was born February 1, 1902 (although some evidence shows it may have been 1901), in Joplin, Missouri, to James and Caroline Hughes. When he was a young boy, his parents divorced, and, after his father moved to Mexico, and his mother, whose maiden name was Langston, sought work elsewhere, he was raised […]

Indian school children pay homage to a portrait of Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi to mark the 70th anniversary of Gandhi's assassination. Gandhi was on the way to a prayer meeting in the Indian capital when he was shot three times in the chest and head on January 30, 1948.

Assassination of Gandhi

Passive Resistance For some 50 years, Gandhi, born on October 2, 1869, and called “Mahatma” (“great-souled” in Sanskrit), fought for India’s independence from Britain, practicing civil disobedience and peaceful protests that included fasting, boycotts and marches. He was an adherent of satyagraha (“truth-force”), a passive political resistance he defined as “a weapon of the strongest […]

The assault on Paris during the 'Bloody Week', during the Paris Commune, in May 1871, France.

Paris Commune of 1871

The Paris Commune of 1871 was a short-lived revolutionary government established in Paris after the Franco-Prussian War.

Circa 1975: During a protest gathering, some followers of AIM (American Indian Movement ) raise their fists to swear the Red Power oath.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

The ‘Termination Policy’ and AIM’s Origins In the first half of the 20th century, the federal government imposed a higher degree of control over Indian lands, with the intention of breaking up tribes and assimilating their members into American cities. “Termination policy” became federal law in 1953, as Congress formally ended its recognition of more than […]

King Charles III

King Charles III’s Early Life Born November 14, 1948, at Buckingham Palace, Prince Charles Philip Arthur George was the first child of then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip and grandson of King George VI. On February 6, 1952, at the age of 3, he became heir-apparent when his mother ascended the throne. At age 4, Charles […]

November 1991: Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William Rehnquist and the newly installed Associate Justice Clarence Thomas (l) in the Supreme Court building. All nine Supreme Court Justices are shown.

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

After Roe v. Wade In the January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 vote, ruled that abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy was a constitutional right protected by the 14th Amendment. The ruling included a trimester framework in which it was left to a woman and her doctor […]

Arab American Heritage Month 2023

Arab Immigration to the United States In the late 1800s, Arab immigration to the United States began, according to the Migration Policy Institute, with Arab Christians fleeing the Ottoman Empire—which now includes Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel—from religious persecution and conscription, as well as economic reasons. The U.S. Department of State reports that the immigrants […]

A nurse prepares the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine a public housing project pop-up site targeting vulnerable communities in Los Angeles, California on March 10, 2021.

2021 Events

COVID-19’s Continued Toll As the year began, the nation was still firmly in the grip of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that first emerged in late December 2019 and spread around the world in 2020, prompting lockdowns, a global recession and upheaval on an unprecedented scale. In what became a record for the fastest vaccine development […]

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