Chris Klein

Christopher Klein

Christopher Klein is the author of four books, including When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland’s Freedom and Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and National Geographic Traveler. Follow Chris at @historyauthor.

Latest from this author

Orson Welles' 1938 program is the most famous—and dramatic—broadcast in radio history.

Hiram Clough (driving Jeep), Lance Corporal Joe Wilkenson and Kenneth Brierley (seated at the back of the Jeep) of the 716 (Airborne) Light Composite Company RASC (Royal Army Service Corps), British 6th Airborne Division in a Willys Jeep and trailer with glider pilots and other members of the unit following their landing from the damaged wooden Airspeed AS51 Horsa glider on a supply run on D-Day, 6th June 1944 at a landing ground near Ranville in Normandy, France.

The sophisticated hoax fooled the Nazis and laid the groundwork for the Normandy invasion.

Explore nine surprising facts about the massive German airship and its fiery demise.

Approximately 700 miles of barbed wire, chain link, post-and-rail and wire mesh fencing has been erected along the border.

hith reali life jaws Shark fin above ocean water

It wasn’t safe to go back in the water of the Jersey Shore in 1916, as a series of deadly shark attacks forever changed Americans’ attitudes toward the sea creatures.

Man with Lincoln logs. (Credit: David Cooper/Toronto Star/Getty Images)

Learn how the iconic children’s toy bearing the Great Emancipator’s name was born.

Yosemite National Park

10 surprising facts about the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Competitors in the Annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, based on the route taken in 1925 when serum was distributed during an outbreak of diptheria. The race lasts for over one week, and is fraught with hazards.

Look back at the 1925 life-or-death mission that inspired the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Abraham Lincoln was disappointed by most of his generals—but not Ulysses S. Grant.

Vatican City, Rome, Italy.

Explore 10 things you may not know about the seat of the Catholic Church.

How Gilded Age Excesses Led to the Progressive Era; A rally of the Populist movement in Willowdale Township, Dickinson County, Kansas

As the rich grew richer during the Gilded Age, the poor grew poorer, spurring the call for reforms.

painting of the Titanic just as it's going under, with lifeboats in the foreground

Tennis Hall of Famers Dick Williams and Karl Behr survived the most famous shipwreck in history.

A Pennsylvania construction worker has discovered a mass grave thought to contain victims of the 1918 flu pandemic.

A circa-1910 image of Jim Thorpe in his football uniform / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The Native American was an Olympic medalist, NFL standout and a MLB player — he even won a ballroom dancing championship.

Basketball.

A Canadian is to thank for one of America’s favorite pastimes.

A would-be assassin's bullet was slowed by Roosevelt's dense overcoat, steel-reinforced eyeglass case and hefty speech squeezed into his right jacket pocket.

History of Whistleblowers in the United States

The Founding Fathers passed the country’s first whistleblower protection law just seven months after signing the Declaration of Independence. The government even footed the legal bills.

An 1830 battle between steam and horse power marked the moment when the Industrial Revolution changed transportation forever.

The “Great Arctic Outbreak” of February 1899 set temperature and snowfall records from Michigan to Florida.

After being hit by a Japanese suicide plane, the crew of the USS Comfort were forced to tend to their own.

St. Patrick may be the patron saint of Ireland, but many St. Patrick’s Day traditions were born in the United States.

Bill Mazeroski's game-winning 1960 World Series homer.

In the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the wild 1960 World Series, Bill Mazeroski of the underdog Pittsburgh Pirates toppled the mighty New York Yankees.

These Civil War veterans orchestrated one of the most audacious acts of the Fenian Brotherhood in the Americas.

Biosphere II

In the 1990s, eight adventurers spent two years separated from the rest of the world inside a futuristic greenhouse meant to mimic a spaceship—on Earth.

America's Northern Border

Criminals operated with impunity along the northern border.

Whitey Bulger

The notorious gangster was recruited as an FBI informant. It turned it out that corrupt FBI agents were the ones informing him.

During the 13 dry years of Prohibition, sneaky Americans went to great lengths to conceal their alcohol consumption from law enforcement.

President John Tyler

His party expelled him. His cabinet resigned. He was even hung in effigy on the White House porch. What made America's 10th president such a political pariah?

The image shows an elderly woman in a wheelchair wearing a military uniform and a man in a suit sitting next to her, both appearing to be engaged in conversation.

Tens of thousands of Filipinos answered the call to fight in World War II when the Philippines was an American commonwealth.

Ruins of the St. Francis Dam

When it opened in 1926, the St. Francis Dam was an engineering marvel. Just two years later, it became an engineering catastrophe. 

The History of Chocolate

Originally consumed as a bitter drink, it was prized as both an aphrodisiac and an energy booster.

Andrew Carnegie

The magnate with humble roots claimed to be pro-union, but his actions didn’t match his rhetoric.

Che Guevara billboard

A coming-of-age adventure through five South American countries set Che Guevara on the path to becoming a Marxist revolutionary.

The patron saint of Ireland first arrived in Ireland in the hold of a slave ship.

From water-powered textile mills, to mechanical looms, much of the machinery that powered America's early industrial success was "borrowed" from Europe.

WWI Inventions

These World War I inventions made life easier during—and after—the war.

America’s most notorious gangster sponsored the charity that served up three hot meals a day to thousands of the unemployed—no questions asked.

Fall of Saigon

The conflict in Vietnam ended in turmoil with the largest helicopter evacuation of its kind in history.

A series of poor decisions and mistakes led to one of the worst foreign policy failures in American history.

How Teddy Roosevelt's Views on Race Complicated His Progressive Legacy

His conviction that white men of European descent were innately superior informed his actions on matters from national parks to foreign policy.

The Big Three at the Yalta Conference, 1945

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill hammered out postwar matters like the creation of the United Nations, the fate of Eastern Europe and the 'dismemberment' of Germany.

Babe Ruth won three World Series titles with the Red Sox before he joined the Yankees in 1920.

Baseball's biggest icon once served jail time and spent most of his life believing he was a year older than he really was.

Family portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt with wife Eleanor and their young children, with parents sitting and children standing

Franklin Roosevelt’s children offered physical, emotional and political support throughout his presidency.

Vast corporate wealth and a fee-based governance structure fueled widespread corruption during America's Gilded Age.

Circa 548 BC: Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian empire. By 548 BC, he was King of Persia.

A largely tolerant and merciful ruler, Persian king Cyrus the Great established one of the largest empires in world history.

How Did World War II End?

Explore five defining events that led to the conclusion of World War II on September 2, 1945.

Still photo from HISTORY® Channel's series 'Jesus: His Life'

Some argue that Jesus wasn't an actual man, but within a few decades of his lifetime, he was mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians.

Historical accounts of the man who sentenced Jesus to death paint him as arrogant and cruel; the Bible goes easier on him, shifting the blame.

Air Force One flying over Mount Rushmore

The 'flying White House' took presidents' travel to new heights.