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When the Young Lords Put Garbage on Display to Demand Change
In 1969, a group of New York City youth known as the Young Lords demanded change in the way the largest city in the United States handled sanitation. The initiative, known as the Garbage Offensive, wasn’t the group’s original plan of action, but it proved highly effective in ...read more
Fog Bowl: The Most Bizarre Game in NFL History
First in a series on iconic NFL games. Foul weather, from ice, snow and below-freezing temperatures to downpours and excessive heat, has adversely affected NFL games since the dawn of the league more than 100 years ago. But no game in NFL history matches the weird weather at the ...read more
How Photos from the Battle of Antietam Revealed the American Civil War’s Horrors
In October 1862, a shocking and unique photo exhibition opened at Mathew B. Brady’s Broadway gallery in New York City. A small placard at the door advertised “The Dead of Antietam,” and, as The New York Times reported on October 20, “crowds of people are constantly going up the ...read more
The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre: How Fearmongering Led to Violence
In the center of downtown Atlanta, a handful of streets intersect, forming what locals know as Five Points. Today, a park, a university, high-rise buildings and throngs of motorists and pedestrians make this a bustling area, belying its history of bloodshed. In 1906, Five Points ...read more
How Portugal's Seafaring Expertise Launched the Age of Exploration
Perched on the southwestern part of the Iberian peninsula, Portugal turned to the boundless Atlantic Ocean as its only outlet to the wider world. As early as 1341, Portuguese sailors had made their first forays into the tempting waters that lay beyond their shores, exploring the ...read more
8 College Football Coaches Who Changed the Game
College football has been a staple of American culture for more than a half-century longer than the NFL. The professional game owes much of its success to the foundation built by the college sport. A range of college coaches transformed the game on and off the field. From Yale's ...read more
5 Iron Age Tools and Innovations
The Iron Age was the period in which the use of iron became widespread in Europe, Asia and parts of Africa. Because the adoption of iron didn’t happen at the same time in every part of the world, there isn’t really one Iron Age, but rather multiple ones across different regions. ...read more
11 Roman Emperors Who Helped Mold the Ancient World
Few periods in history have had a greater impact on humankind than that of ancient Rome. While its influence on western civilization, in particular, has been ubiquitous, its remnants can be found virtually everywhere, from our calendar and political systems to our alphabet. The ...read more
How the South Helped Win the American Revolution
For two years after the American Revolution erupted in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord, the war unfolded primarily on northern battlefields. Following a pivotal defeat at the 1777 Battle of Saratoga and the French entry to the American side the following year, ...read more
A Timeline of US-Cuba Relations
The United States and Cuba share a long, complex history—first as allies and trade partners, and later as bitter ideological enemies. For four centuries after the arrival of Christopher Columbus, Spain ruled Cuba as its main colony in the Caribbean, but the U.S. long coveted the ...read more
When 20-Year-Old Rookie Fernando Valenzuela Captivated LA—and Major League Baseball
In 1981, Fernando Valenzuela woke up from a nap and began pitching, and winning, sparking the phenomenon known as “Fernandomania” and almost singlehandedly repairing a fractured relationship between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the city's Mexican American community. As an encore, ...read more
9 of the Most Valuable Baseball Cards in History
Though introduced to the public in the mid-1860s—not long after the game’s inception and soon after the popularization of photography—baseball cards were not mass-produced until the 1880s. That's when tobacco brands such as Old Judge and Gypsy Queen inserted cards inside their ...read more
7 Hard-Fought Battles That Helped Win the American Revolution
Americans’ struggle for independence required six years of hard combat, and its outcome was far from clear at the beginning. There were many moments along the way when it appeared that the British, with their well-equipped, well-trained army and navy, had the upper hand against ...read more
Why Isn't Puerto Rico a State?
Located about a thousand miles southeast of Florida, Puerto Rico is a Caribbean archipelago with a complex colonial history and political status. As a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million residents are U.S. citizens. However, while subject to U.S. federal ...read more
9/11: How Air Traffic Controllers Managed the Crisis in the Skies
The weather in the northeastern United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, was what air traffic controllers describe as “severe clear.” A high-pressure system had blown the previous day’s storms out to sea; skies were an intense cobalt blue. “A severe clear day ...read more