Decades before the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the strategic plateau on the banks of New York’s Hudson River played a crucial part in the American victory in the Revolutionary War. Both British and Patriot forces understood the Hudson’s vital ...read more

Thomas Jefferson, writing the list of 27 grievances against King George III included in the Declaration of Independence, didn’t hold back when talking about Britain’s decision to dispatch foreign troops to fight in the American colonies. “He is at this time transporting large ...read more

Few people have had as profound an impact on the political empowerment of America’s Latino electorate as Willie Velásquez. His grassroots work registering and mobilizing Latino voters, starting in his home state of Texas, parlayed the frustrations, hopes and pride of a diverse, ...read more

In the early days of March 1968, as many as 22,000 mostly Mexican American students walked out of their classrooms at seven Los Angeles schools, garnering national attention. The unprecedented event spotlighted educational inequality, galvanized the Chicano civil rights movement ...read more

Most of what is known as Latin music comes from the melding of cultures that took place during the Spanish and Portuguese colonization of the Americas. Musicians of various races and cultures came into contact with instruments they’d never heard before—the European guitar, ...read more

King George V may have invented the tradition of delivering a Christmas Day message to the subjects of the British monarchy worldwide in 1932, but it was his granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, who first televised the annual event 25 years later. While George’s speeches were ...read more

In the mid 18th century, as British colonists began steadily populating North America’s eastern seaboard, a burgeoning world power was working to establish settlements on the continent’s distant northwest coast: Russia. Ever since its 1721 victory in the Great Northern War ...read more

Queen Elizabeth II, who served as ruler of the United Kingdom and its realms and territories for seven decades, has died at the age of 96. Crowned at Westminster Abbey in June 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was the nation’s longest-serving monarch, surpassing her great-grandmother ...read more

A child’s education was anything but “standardized” during America’s colonial era, which spanned most of the 17th and 18th centuries. The modern institution of the public school—a free, tax-supported education for all children—didn’t get a foothold in America until the mid-19th ...read more

You’ve probably heard of the Cat and the Hat, but you may not have heard of “Bloodthirsty Ann.” Ann, another character created by Ted Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), was a mosquito who transmitted malaria, and she first appeared in a 1943 booklet for American troops during World War II. ...read more

You never know what will turn up when you’re browsing at a flea market, searching through your attic or basement, going through an old barn or even looking through a boarded-up projection booth. Here are eight of the most surprising historical objects that people have ever found ...read more

By early 1942, Adolf Hitler’s dream of destroying the Soviet Union seemed closer to fulfillment. Jackbooted German soldiers had marched victoriously through the streets of the communist nation’s major cities while their comrades laid siege to Leningrad and threatened the capital ...read more