The Duchess of Windsor
On December 11, 1936, the people of Great Britain were stunned by an announcement from their popular, 42-year-old king, Edward VIII. He was giving up his throne because he could…
The Repeal of Prohibition
On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution ended what had been called America’s “noble experiment.” The experiment was Prohibition – a nationwide ban on the manufacture and…
New England Town Meetings
“Hear ye, hear ye!” A gavel slams and a New England town meeting beings. Town meetings have been a New England institution since the seventeenth century. At these meetings, voters…
Lemonade Lucy Hayes
The press jokingly called her “Lemonade Lucy,” because no alcoholic beverages were served in the White House while she was First Lady. But Lucy Hayes, wife of the 19th President,…
The Cabeza de Vaca Expedition
Cities of Gold! Early Spanish explorers believed that North America contained fabulous riches. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was one of those who spread stories of this wealth – but…
The Founding of St. Augustine
Some Americans believe that the first permanent European settlement in the present-day United States was the English village at Jamestown, Virginia. But 42 years before the founding of Jamestown, the…
P.T. Barnum
If you wanted to see a mermaid, a giant, or a bearded lady, P.T. Barnum would gladly grant your wish. During the 1800s, Barnum was one of America’s best-known showmen.…
Board Games
Whether they are set up on the kitchen table or spread out on the living-room floor, board games bring friends and families together. Although games like chess and checkers go…
The Miss America Pageant
It began in 1921 as a gimmick to attract tourists to Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the end of the summer season. Today, it is a national institution. Millions watch…
Coal Miners
“In addition to isolation and darkness, the miner sometimes works in mud and water, sometimes stripped to the waist because of the heat, sometimes in suffocating gas and smoke.” Those…
Johnny Appleseed
When Americans bite into crisp, fresh-picked apples or slices of apple pie, they should thank John Chapman. No one did more to encourage the cultivation of apple orchards during America’s…
Charlie Chaplin
Baggy pants, a tight coat, and huge shoes covered his small, agile body. He wore a toothbrush mustache on his upper lip. A derby hat perched jauntily atop his head,…
The Founding of the Boy Scouts
On a visit to London in 1909, Chicago publisher William D. Boyce became lost in a heavy fog. An English Boy Scout helped him to find his way. The Scout…
Great White Fleet
On December 16, 1907, thousands of cheering spectators jammed the shoreline of Hampton Roads, Virginia. They had come out to watch 16 snow-white battleships set sail on a historic around-the-world…
The Cubans in America
Before Fidel Castro’s Communist regime took power in Cuba in 1959, only 50,000 Cubans lived in the U.S.Since then, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have fled the repression and economic…
Quilts
On the American frontier, quilt making was both a necessity and an art. The pioneer women who made quilts used their creativity and imagination while assuring that their families would…
Squaredancing
“Do-si-do!” Swing your partner!” “Promenade!” The caller sings out instructions. The fiddler plays a lively tune. Women in swirling skirts and men in bright Western shirts link hands and move…
The Constitutional Convention
On May 25, 1787, representatives of 12 American states met at Philadelphia. Only five years earlier, these states had defeated the British and had become independent. They then banded together…
John James Audubon
In long hair and buckskin clothes, John James Audubon looked like other men on the American frontier in the early 1800s. But Audubon had a unique occupation. His work was…
Barbara Jordan
“My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, and it is total,” Congresswoman Barbara Jordan told a national television audience on July 25, 1974. She was not about…