Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart Taught America to Fly

Amelia Earhart taught America to fly. How Earhart and other women pilots of her day helped overcome Americans’ skepticism about flight.
Smoke billowing over Tulsa, Oklahoma during 1921 race riots

The Devastation of Black Wall Street

Tulsa, Oklahoma. 1921. A wave of racial violence destroys an affluent African-American community, seen as a threat to white-dominated American capitalism.
Fireworks Brooklyn Bridge

When Fireworks Told Stories

In Europe between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, fireworks displays were performances that told a story or symbolized real-world battles.
President Garfield

The Unexpected Impact of James Garfield’s Assassination

On July 2, 1881, less than a year after President James Garfield was elected the 20th president of the United States, he was shot by Charles Guiteau.
Ballooners

Why Hot Air Balloons Never Really (Ahem) Took Off

More than two centuries after the invention of ballooning, Steve Fossett became the first person to solo circumnavigate the world in a balloon.
Franz Ferdinand assassination

Does Political Violence Generate Real Change?

U.S. law prohibits American leaders from assassinating their counterparts in other nations. But targeted assassination has long been a part of history.
Fishing Victorian

How the Victorians Went Camping

If you’re going camping this summer, will you rough it on a wilderness hike, or relax in a ...
Trafalgar Square

London Has Always Been Multicultural

The conventional story is that "black Britain" came about after World War II, but London has been a multicultural capital for centuries.
Stonewall Inn

Why Stonewall?

The Stonewall riot in June, 1969 is generally remembered as be the beginning of the gay liberation movement. But there was precedent for the event.
Chelsea Manning

How The Espionage Act Became a Tool of Repression

The Espionage Act of 1917 marked the beginning of the one of the most repressive periods in American history, with 2000 dissenters prosecuted.