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What Role Did Airplanes Play in the Tulsa Race Massacre?
What role did airplanes play in the deadly Tulsa race massacre of 1921? Just after Memorial Day that year, a white mob destroyed 35 city blocks of the Greenwood District, a community in Tulsa, Oklahoma known as the “Black Wall Street.” Prompted by an allegation that a Black man ...read more
How Jim Crow-Era Laws Suppressed the African American Vote for Generations
Following the ratification in 1870 of the 15th Amendment, which barred states from depriving citizens the right to vote based on race, southern states began enacting measures such as poll taxes, literacy tests, all-white primaries, felony disenfranchisement laws, grandfather ...read more
The Chinese-Born Engineer Who Helped Launch US Commercial Aviation
In 1904, anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. rose to a fever pitch as Congress passed an indefinite extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act, almost entirely closing the gates on Chinese immigration. Yet just over a decade later, Beijing-born Wong Tsu came to study at the ...read more
The US Funded Universal Childcare During World War II—Then Stopped
When the United States started recruiting women for World War II factory jobs, there was a reluctance to call stay-at-home mothers with young children into the workforce. That changed when the government realized it needed more wartime laborers in its factories. To allow more ...read more
One of the Earliest US Car Companies Was Founded by a Formerly Enslaved Man
C.R. Patterson & Sons, the first African American owned auto manufacturer, didn’t produce many of its hand-built cars—by some estimates, only a few dozen between 1915 and 1918. The company’s signature Patterson-Greenfield car, advertised as a “sensibly priced” roadster with ...read more
The Earliest Asian American Settlement Was Established by Filipino Fishermen
The history of the oldest known permanent Asian American settlement remains mysterious and as murky as the mosquito-infested marshland it was built on. Saint Malo was first established as a fishing village along the shores of Lake Borgne in Louisiana in the 18th century and ...read more
When West Coast Cities Tried to Drive Out Their Chinatowns
The Tacoma Riot of 1885 and Seattle Riot of 1886 drew national attention to the burgeoning coastal cities in Washington territory for their forced expulsion of their Chinese populations by angry—and largely white—mobs. The actions were part of a brutal wave of anti-Chinese ...read more
What Caused the Korean War and Why Did the US Get Involved?
The Korean War (1950-1953) was the first military action of the Cold War. It was sparked by the June 25, 1950 invasion of South Korea by 75,000 members of the North Korean People’s Army. The line they crossed, the 38th parallel, was created in 1945 to separate the ...read more
Car History Timeline: From 3-Wheeled Buggies to Self-Driving Vehicles
Few inventions in history have transformed our lives, culture and environment as much as the automobile. Before 1900, most people spent their lives within a few miles of where they were born. Cars changed all that, allowing people to travel easily, with empowering freedom and ...read more
The Asian American Women Who Fought to Make Their Mark in WWII
Asian American women played a critical part in America’s war effort during World War II. Coming from diverse backgrounds—including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino—they served in important roles ranging from pilots and translators to factory workers and guerrilla fighters. ...read more
WWI's Battle of Messines: How Allies Used Massive Explosives and Tunneling to Win
The Western Front of World War I is infamous for trench warfare, long and grueling battles fought from dug-in positions separated by no man’s land. But a lesser-known type of battle also raged underground as both Allied and German forces dug extensive networks of secret tunnels ...read more
When 20,000 Asian Americans Demanded Garment Workers' Rights—And Won
It was an unlikely group to storm the streets of New York City’s Chinatown in the summer of 1982: Nearly 20,000 garment workers—mostly Asian American women—marched together in solidarity for better benefits. Clad in matching union caps, they carried signs in both English and ...read more
6 People Who Made Big Money During the Great Depression
When the Great Depression hit its lowest ebb in 1933, the unemployment rate exceeded 20 percent and America’s gross domestic product had plummeted by 30 percent. Not everyone, however, lost money during the worst economic downturn in American history. Business titans such as ...read more
How World War I Fueled the Russian Revolution
World War I saw the crumbling of empires, and among those to collapse was the Russian empire of Czar Nicholas II. When Nicholas declared war against Germany and Austria-Hungary in July 1914, he was absolute ruler of a realm of nearly 150 million people that stretched from Central ...read more
The Bin Laden Raid: Inside the Situation Room Photo
In the universe of historic photographs, few are more iconic this this image of key White House policymakers watching and waiting for confirmation that SEAL Team Six had succeeded in capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. Although this photo is known as the “Situation Room” ...read more