This Week In American History

October 5 1947 President Harry Truman made the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans....

September 28 1781 General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles...

September 21 1780 During the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold met with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for the...

September 14 1814 Francis Scott Key penned the poem, “The Defence of Fort M'Henry,” after he witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. Key was...

August 31 1886 A 7.6 magnitude earthquake, the largest in southeastern US, hits Charleston, South Carolina, leaving more than 100 people dead and hundreds of buildings destroyed. The initial shock...

August 24 1873 William Henry Jackson became the first person to photograph Colorado’s elusive Mount of the Holy Cross, a natural cross of snow that lay hidden high in the...

August 17   1978 The Double Eagle II completed the first transatlantic balloon flight when it lands in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours after lifting off from Presque...

August 10 1945 Just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submitted its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman ordered a...

August 3 1949 After a damaging three-year battle to win both players and fans, the rival Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merge to form the...

July 27    1981 Adam John Walsh, age 6, was abducted from a mall in Hollywood, Florida, and later found murdered. In the aftermath of the crime, Adam’s father, John Walsh...

July 20 1881 Five years after Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's infamous defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S....

July 13 1923 The Hollywood Sign was officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles. Harvey and Daeida Wilcox founded Hollywood in 1887 as a community for likeminded followers...