This Week In American History

April 12 1861 The bloodiest four years in American history began when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor....

April 5 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), an innovative federally funded organization that put tens of thousands of Americans to work during the Great...

March 29     1929 President Herbert Hoover had a phone installed at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House. It took a while to get the...

March 22 1765 The British government passed the Stamp Act in an effort to raise funds to pay off debts and defend the vast new American territories won from the...

March 15 1820 As part of the Missouri Compromise between the North and the South, Maine was admitted into the Union as the 23rd state. Administered as a province of...

March 8 1982 Speaking to a convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Florida, President Reagan publicly referred to the Soviet Union as an evil empire for the second...

March 1 1932 In a crime that captured the attention of the entire nation, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family’s...

February 22 1819 After years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams achieved a diplomatic coup when he and the Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis signed the Florida...

February 15 1898 A massive explosion sank the USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard. One of the first American...

February 8 1943 Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal, leaving the island in Allied possession after a prolonged campaign. The American victory paved the way for other Allied wins in the Solomon...

February 1 1790 In the Royal Exchange Building on New York City’s Broad Street, the Supreme Court of the United States met for the first time, with Chief Justice John...

January 25    1949 The first Emmy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Athletic Club. The awards recognize excellence in television (which in the 1940s was a novel medium)....