Geschiedenis Sites Buitenland

Determined to Remember: Harriet Jacobs and Slavery's Descendants by Koritha Mitchell Public history sites have the potential to spark intellectual engagement because when they make embodied connections between people and the sites they visit—even when those connections evoke the cruelty of the past.  Commemoration of the Tulsa Massacre Has Put... Read more »

James Peale, "The Artist and His Family," 1795 Historians have spent decades investigating whether the American Revolution benefited women or provoked changes in women’s status. By and large, white women’s traditional political rights and legal status remained relatively stagnant in the wake of the American Revolution. In some ways, women’s... Read more »

Striding masterfully through St. George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, Vlad the Conqueror pondered his role as a Man of Destiny. “It’s not easy to measure up to the past leaders of Russia,” he brooded.  “Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great slaughtered enormous numbers of people at home... Read more »

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Members of the Combahee River Collective, 1974. Included are (back row, l-r) Margo Okazawa-Rey, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Chirlane McCray, and Mercedes Tompkins; (front row, l-r) Demita Frazier and Helen Stewart.  The Combahee River Collective “We were asserting that we exist, our concerns and our experiences matter,” said Black feminist activist Barbara... Read more »

"American Army Entering the City of Mexico" by Filippo Constaggini, 1885. Architect of the Capitol.  In April 1846, the United States invaded Mexico after a highly disputed incident at the border. Freshman Congressman Abraham Lincoln challenged President James Polk’s account of Mexican provocations as misleading and demanded to know the... Read more »

Some of the 800 members of Women Strike for Peace who marched at United Nations headquarters in Manhattan to demand UN mediation of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis   It should come as no surprise that the world is currently facing an existential nuclear danger.  In fact, it has been caught up... Read more »

Desertification, village of Telly, Mali. Photo Ferdinand Reus, CC BY-SA 2.0   The 24 main chapters of The Earth Transformed: An Untold History by British historian Peter Frankopan cover a longer period of history--from “the creation of our planet around 4.6 billion years ago” until late 2022--than any book I’ve read... Read more »

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The latest twist in America’s culture wars saw crowds at the capitol in Salt Lake City this summer, protesting a book ban from the elementary and middle school libraries of Davis County, Utah. Such bans are increasingly prevalent in American public life, with issues of race and sexuality proving especially... Read more »

An 1880 Puck Cartoon depicts Ulysses Grant surrendering his sword to James Garfield after being defeated for the Republican nomination. The candidate, at first glance, seemed to have no business being his party’s nominee for the White House. In an era seething with political strife, he had long been viewed by peers... Read more »

On March 25, 1945, the United States Army issued “Fact Sheet #64: Fascism!” to promote discussions amongst American troops about fascism as the war in Europe wound down to a close. Discussion leaders were alerted “Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze; nor, once in power, is... Read more »

Matthew Hawn, a high school teacher for sixteen years in conservative Sullivan County, Tennessee, opened the 2020-21 year in his Contemporary Issues class with a discussion of police shootings.  White privilege is a fact, he told the students.  He had a history of challenging his classes, which led to lively... Read more »

Blaine Harden (Photo by Jessica Kowal) "The Whitman lie is a timeless reminder that in America a good story has an insidious way of trumping a true one, especially if that story confirms our virtue, congratulates our pluck, and enshrines our status as God’s chosen people."—Blaine Harden, Murder at the... Read more »

In the fall of 1774, Massachusetts farmers won a revolution months before the war broke out at Lexington and Concord. While every American fifth-grader knows about the shot heard ’round… The post The Forgotten Revolution of 1774: When Massachusetts Won Independence Before the War Started appeared first on New England... Read more »

An oft-told tale about lobster goes like this: Prisoners or servants got so sick of eating lobster that they refused to eat it. An alternative version has towns passing laws… The post 7 Fun Facts About the Lobster appeared first on New England Historical Society.... Read more »

You’ve probably seen his name and glossed over it without a thought. But if you had been born in the 19 th Century, it was a name that was famous… The post Beyond Darwin: The Pioneering Voyage and Science of James Dwight Dana appeared first on New England Historical Society.... Read more »

Margaret Eloise Knight (1838-1914) was a prolific late 19th- and early 20th-century  inventor.  She made improvements to various devices but is best known as the creator of the flat-bottom bag… The post Margaret Knight Invents the Flat-Bottom Bag and More   appeared first on New England Historical Society.... Read more »

When Andrew Robinson in 1713 sailed his new boat around Gloucester, Mass., someone watching exclaimed, “There she scoons!” It’s a Scottish word meaning to skip lightly across the water, as… The post Seven Fun Facts About New England Schooners, the Forgotten Workhorses of the Sea appeared first on New England... Read more »

Ruth Fish Jenkins defied New England’s mid-19th-century conventions when she went to sea with her husband. Women were supposed to stay at home, take care of the children and set… The post Ruth Fish Jenkins: Defying Domesticity on the High Seas appeared first on New England Historical Society.... Read more »

With little formal education and a raging curiosity, John Farmer founded systematic genealogy in America from a small room above an apothecary shop in Concord, N.H. Admirers called him the… The post Before ‘Roots’: How John Farmer Shaped America’s Obsession with Ancestry appeared first on New England Historical Society.... Read more »

The decorations and epitaphs of early Puritan gravestones offer a fascinating glimpse into the religious beliefs, social values, and daily struggles of 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century New England. These intricate… The post Winged Skulls and Poetic Epitaphs: The Art and Soul of New England’s Gravestone Carvers appeared first on New... Read more »

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Connecticut copper played a pivotal role in the state’s industrial expansion. The state’s dominant industry began as buttons and trinkets for peddlers to sell.… The post Seven Fun Facts About Connecticut Copper appeared first on New England Historical Society.... Read more »

 On the night of August 31, 1944 in the town of Mattoon, Illinois, Urban Reef, a sheet metal worker, who has lived most of his adult life in the same small ranch-style house located at 1817 Grant Avenue is awakened by a strange and pungent odor. He rises out of... Read more »

 J. Robert Oppenheimer the scientist in charge of the Manhattan Project codenamed the test “Trinity” after a sonnet by Elizabethan poet John Donne--Holy Sonnet 14--famed for these lines:Batter my heart, three personed God, for youAs yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mendThat I may rise, and stand o’erthrow... Read more »

 It is a movie that is aptly titled Roundhay Garden Scene because that is exactly what it is.  That is exactly ALL that it is--simply a movie of people walking in a garden that lasts for a whopping three seconds.  But what makes this mundane few seconds of grainy black... Read more »

 The Puritans who settled in Boston during the early 17th century built a large wooden structure on Boston Common in around the year 1635 that they called The Granary.  Since there is little arable land surrounding Boston, the Granary was, arguably, the most important building in the city during many of... Read more »

 A few weeks before Easter in the year 1512 alarming reports began to reach Pope Julius II in Rome.  Reports of a strange and monstrous creature--a true demon (it was said) brought to life--near the Adriatic coast in the historic and holy city of Ravenna, only about two-hundred miles as... Read more »

 The nomadic herders who live in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia call the creature Olgoi-Khorkoi and have known about its existence for generations.  Olgoi-Khorkhoi means “Intestine Worm” because of the cryptid’s blood red color.  It is said that the Olgoi-Khorkhoi can grow upwards of seven feet in length and that... Read more »

 It is the 10th of May 1553 and famed English arctic explorer, diplomat and soldier Hugh Willoughby has been given command of three ships under the financing of a new joint stock venture called London’s Company of Merchant Adventurers of New Lands.  This joint stock company has been tasked with... Read more »

 On February 9, 1889 in front of a crowd of 1200 bemused bedouins, none of whom had any idea what the Hell they were watching--in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza and beneath the gaze of the sphinx--the Chicago White Stockings and a team of professional all stars... Read more »

 It is April 12, 1955--a Tuesday, exactly ten years to the day after the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who had served for over twelve years in the White House, but who also had spent most of his life crippled by polio. On this day, in 1955, Dr. Thomas... Read more »

 February 25, 1866--two men, James Mattson a gold miner and John Scribner a commissary store owner, Wells Fargo employee and part time miner himself, at a place called Angel’s Mining Camp in Calaveras County, California, are looking-- just like thousands of others among them who have recently headed west over... Read more »

“A.P. Andrews of the Civil War Roundtable of Jackson, Mississippi and Dr. Laurin C. Post of San Diego State College, and other historians, say they have confirmed that Sylvester Magee was born in Carpet, N.C in 1841, that later he became a slave to Hugh Magee of the Dry Creek... Read more »

 In September and October of 1903 the small rural Iowa farming community of Van Meter was terrorized for five nights by an unknown winged creature that many described as being both half-bat and half human and, that some say, emitted beams of light from its forehead not unlike those of... Read more »

 The media called it the “Fight for America” and like almost every single major prize fight ever since with high stakes involved, and even higher public interest, the bout was dubbed “The Fight of the Century”--the Fight of the 19th Century that is!   Ten thousand dollars and some would say... Read more »

 On June 22, 1861 the day of the fire, Arthur Munby, a local resident who was attempting to get back to his home via horse drawn omnibus in London that night, wrote in his diary, “From Epsom and Cheam we saw a great fire in the direction of London.  ... Read more »

She was just 25 when she volunteered to be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Clara Maass died in 1901 during yellow fever experiments in Cuba—but her sacrifice helped prove the mosquito theory and changed public health forever. Read her story: utterlyinteresting.com... Read more »

Meet Johnny Coulon, the bantamweight champion who baffled the world as “The Unliftable Man.” At just 5ft and 110lbs, he stunned wrestlers, strongmen, and even Muhammad Ali with a clever trick of leverage and nerve pressure. A boxer turned vaudeville sensation!... Read more »

John Aspinall gambled with people’s fortunes, their lives, and sometimes their trust. From cheating dukes at the Clermont Club to letting keepers die in his zoos, he thrived on scandal. Discover the dark legacy of the gambler who loved tigers more than people.... Read more »

Noor Inayat Khan, the daughter of a Sufi mystic and descendant of Tipu Sultan, became the first female wireless operator sent into Nazi-occupied France. Betrayed, tortured, and executed at Dachau, her story is one of bravery and extraordinary sacrifice.... Read more »

In 1903, Horatio Nelson Jackson bet $50 he could drive across America. With a mechanic, a bulldog, and a car named Vermont, he made history.... Read more »

From Arthur Guinness myths to Beatles connections and family tragedies, explore the rich and turbulent history of the Guinness dynasty.... Read more »

In 1983, Metallica recorded Kill ’Em All in a haunted studio with stolen amps, champagne raids, and no backup guitars. Here’s the chaotic story behind their legendary debut.... Read more »

In 1980, Turkish Airlines flight 293 was hijacked — and war correspondent Coşkun Aral captured it all. Discover the surreal story of the hijacking where both hijacker and pilot smiled.... Read more »

In the Public Enemy era of the 1930s, gangsters like John Dillinger turned to underworld plastic surgeons to change their faces and erase fingerprints. Discover the history of outlaw surgery, the doctors involved, and why it never truly worked.... Read more »

In 2006, the Liberty City Seven were arrested in Miami for plotting to attack the Sears Tower. But were they dangerous terrorists — or hapless men caught in an FBI sting? Here’s the strange story.... Read more »

Beyond curry and chutney, discover how Indian words like pyjamas, bungalow, loot, shampoo, and jungle entered English during the British Empire and remain part of everyday UK speech.... Read more »

Sydney’s 1920s criminal women turned mugshots into fashion portraits. Figures like Kate Leigh, Tilly Devine, and Dulcie Markham posed in pearls, furs, and frocks — unforgettable images of crime and style from the City of Shadows archive.... Read more »

On 6 Sept 1949, Howard Unruh walked through Camden, NJ, killing 13 people in just 12 minutes. Known as the “Walk of Death,” it is often called America’s first modern mass shooting. His chilling story still echoes today.... Read more »

When Jane Cunningham Croly and her peers were denied entry to a Dickens dinner in 1868, they created their own club. Sorosis became the first women-only club in America, and a catalyst for women’s rights, civic activism, and the power of sisterhood.... Read more »