This Week In American History

March 19   1931 In an attempt to lift the state out of the hard times of the Great Depression, the Nevada state legislature voted to legalize gambling. At the...

March 12   1894 Coca-Cola was sold in glass bottles for the first time by Joseph A. Biedenharn, owner of a candy store in Vicksburg, Mississippi. While only a fountain...

March 5 1770 A mob of American colonists gathered at the Customs House in Boston and began taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots,...

February 26  1929 In a controversial move that inspired charges of eastern domination of the West, Congress established Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Today, Grand Teton National Park encompasses...

The story of Presidents' Day date begins in 1800. Following the death of George Washington in 1799, his February 22 birthday became a perennial day of remembrance. At the time,...

Valentine's Day was named after its patron saint, St. Valentine, but there's actually at least two men named Valentine that could've inspired the holiday, including one Valentine who was a...

February 19   1807 Aaron Burr, a former U.S. vice president, was arrested in Alabama on charges of plotting to annex Spanish territory in Louisiana and Mexico to be used...

February 12 1909 A group that included African American leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett announced the formation of a new organization. Called the National Association...

February 5    1631 Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and an important American religious leader, arrived in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England. A Puritan, he...

January 29 1845 Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven,” beginning “Once upon a midnight dreary,” was published in the New York Evening Mirror. Equally praised and panned by critics...

January 22      1968 "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin released her twelfth studio album, Lady Soul. The masterpiece includes some of her biggest hit singles: "Chain of Fools", (You...

January 15    1929 Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of a Baptist minister. King received a doctorate degree in theology and in 1955 helped...