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Why Columbus Day Courts Controversy
Over 500 year after he "discovered" the New World—kicking off centuries of exploration and colonization of the Americas—Christopher Columbus is still honored with a federal holiday on the second Monday of every October. As historians have continued to dig into the life of ...read more
The Real Stories Behind Classic Horror Movies
How do you make a horror tale scarier? Just say it’s “based on a true story.” That’s a technique book publishers and movie producers have been using for decades, whether or not the supposedly “true story” adds up. Some movies are inspired by what might be called “real ...read more
How Trick-or-Treating Became a Halloween Tradition
Trick-or-treating—setting off on Halloween night in costume and ringing doorbells to demand treats—has been a tradition in the United States and other countries for more than a century. Its origins remain murky but traces can be identified in ancient Celtic festivals, early Roman ...read more
12 Surprising Facts About the Powers of the Senate and House of Representatives
The executive branch enforces laws. The judicial branch interprets laws. But it is in the law-making legislative branch, says Howard Schweber, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, “that the people deliberate and arrive at an agreement about the common ...read more
When Gandhi’s Salt March Rattled British Colonial Rule
Since the late-1910s, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had been at the forefront of India’s quest to shake off the yoke of British colonial domination, otherwise known as the “Raj.” The thin and abstemious former lawyer had led civil disobedience against colonial policies, encouraged ...read more
This Mexican American Teenager Spent Years in a Japanese Internment Camp—On Purpose
The station was filled with worried faces and hushed voices. Soon, those who gathered there would leave their lives and livelihoods behind as prisoners of the internment camps where over 110,000 people of Japanese descent—most American citizens—would be incarcerated for the ...read more
The Election of One of the First Latino Congressmen Was Contested—Twice
When Romualdo Pacheco walked up to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1877, he’d already served in nearly every government capacity in the still-new state of California. Now, the charismatic politician had broken another barrier as one of the first-ever Latino Congressman. ...read more
How Bread Shortages Helped Ignite the French Revolution
Voltaire once remarked that Parisians required only “the comic opera and white bread.” But bread has also played a dark role in French history and, namely, the French Revolution. The storming of the medieval fortress of Bastille on July 14, 1789 began as a hunt for arms—and ...read more
How Did Magna Carta Influence the U.S. Constitution?
In 1215, a band of rebellious medieval barons forced King John of England to agree to a laundry list of concessions later called the Great Charter, or in Latin, Magna Carta. Centuries later, America’s Founding Fathers took great inspiration from this medieval pact as they forged ...read more
The Prehistoric Ages: How Humans Lived Before Written Records
Earth’s beginnings can be traced back 4.5 billion years, but human evolution only counts for a tiny speck of its history. The Prehistoric Period—or when there was human life before records documented human activity—roughly dates from 2.5 million years ago to 1,200 B.C. It is ...read more
The United States Began Protecting Whistleblowers in 1777
The U.S. government has long made protecting whistleblowers a priority. In fact, just seven months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress passed what Allison Stanger, author of Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump, ...read more
Why the 'Radical' Brady Bunch Almost Never Got Made
It’s been burned into generations of brains: the story of a lovely lady and a man named Brady whose marriage creates a blended family of eight (not counting Alice, Tiger or Cousin Oliver). Today, The Brady Bunch is viewed as classic, family-friendly entertainment—not scandalous ...read more
How T. Rex Got Its Powerful Bite
With blunt, serrated teeth and a bite powerful enough to crush the bones of its prey, Tyrannosaurus rex has earned a reputation as one of the largest and most terrifying predators of the dinosaur world. Scientists have estimated T. Rex had a maximum bite force of more than six ...read more
7 Reasons Why the Chicago 8 Trial Mattered
The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago is most-remembered for what happened on the streets outside of it. Before the convention began on August 26, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley refused protest permits to most anti-war demonstrators and deployed 12,000 police ...read more
Why the Great Steel Strike of 1919 Was One of Labor’s Biggest Failures
Mike Connolly had a dream: an eight-hour day. A Pennsylvania steel worker for 41 years, he toiled for 12 or more hours a day behind the locked doors of a steel mill with no days off and little hope for the future. If he worked eight hours a day, he imagined, “I could have a ...read more