This Week In American History

July 5 1921 Chicago White Sox players, including stars Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver and Eddie Cicotte, are accused of throwing the 1919 World Series. The White Sox, who were...

June 28 1953 Workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan, assembled the first Corvette, a two-seater sports car that would become an American icon. The first completed production car...

June 21 1788 New Hampshire became the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land. Beginning...

June 14 1846 Anticipating the outbreak of war with Mexico, American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed the short-lived California Republic, starting the Bear Flag Revolt.. Though nominally...

June 7    1913 Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, led the first successful ascent of Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley), the highest point on the American continent at 20,320...

May 31 1889 The South Fork Dam in Pennsylvania collapsed, causing the Johnstown Flood and killing more than 2,000 people. The dam was once the largest earth dam in the...

May 24 1844 American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse inaugurated the world’s first commercial telegraph line when he dispatched a telegraph message from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a...

May 17   1943 The crew of the Memphis Belle, one of a group of American bombers based in Britain, became one of the first B-17 crews to complete 25...

May 10 1869 The presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their...

May 3 1936 Batting ahead of Lou Gehrig in the lineup, Joe DiMaggio made his major league debut with The Yankees. DiMaggio was a three-time Most Valuable Player Award winner and an...

April 26   1954 The Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving 1.8 million children, began at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. Children in the United States, Canada...

April 19   1775 The American Revolution began when 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, marched into Lexington to find 77...