This Week In American History

June 25 1876 Native American forces led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeated the U.S. Army troops of General George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn near southern Montana’s...

June 18 1812 The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signed the declaration into law—and the War...

When the American Revolution broke out in 1775, the colonists weren’t fighting united under a single flag. Instead, most regiments participating in the war for independence against the British fought under...

June 11 1949 Hank Williams made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry. The then-25-year-old performed "Lovesick Blues," his first No.1 hit, as well as his self-penned single "Mind Your...

On May 19, 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S President Franklin Roosevelt set the initial date for the cross-Channel landing that would become D-Day—May 1, 1944. At this...

June 4 1919 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote, is passed by Congress. By the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in...

Three years after the end of the Civil War, on May 5, 1868, Major General John A. Logan, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army...

May 28 1935 John Steinbeck published his first successful novel, Tortilla Flat. A native Californian, Steinbeck studied writing intermittently at Stanford between 1920 and 1925, but never graduated. He moved...

May 21 1881 Humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters. Barton worked with...

May 14   1804 One year after the United States doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition left St. Louis, Missouri, on a mission to...

Celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the and Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest...

May 7   1789 George Washington attended a ball a week after being sworn in as the first U.S. president. Him and Martha danced a minuet, captured in a drawing...