A Gilded Age moral crusader convinced Congress to pass a law banning "obscene, lewd or lascivious" materials from the mail that's central to today's debate over abortion pills.

American presidents did not travel abroad until Teddy Roosevelt visited the Panama Canal in 1906.

Benjamin Franklin founded America's first lending library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.

Go behind the scenes of a 911 dispatch center.

Hear the story of the first paramedic services, which grew out of a community training program in 1960s Pittsburgh.

Listen to a widely lauded historical fiction podcast about the manhunt and power struggle that gripped the US after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

Mississippi didn't officially ratify the Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery until 2013, nearly 150 years after it passed.

Robert Smalls escaped slavery by piloting a stolen Confederate ship to freedom, then became an influential Black political leader during Reconstruction.

Early US attorneys general worked alone and often kept private law practices.

The Department of Justice spent $44B in 2024.

Explore the biographies and official portraits of every US attorney general since 1789.

Read an annotated 1866 essay by abolitionist Frederick Douglass, where he laid out his vision for reshaping America after the Civil War.

The Civil War introduced many technological advances to both society and warfare.

Abraham Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote in the 1860 election, highlighting the deep divisions in the country on the eve of the Civil War.

Take a virtual tour of the White House's 132 rooms as they looked before the 2025 East Wing ballroom renovation.

Andrew Jackson kept a 1,400-pound block of cheese in the White House and then let members of the public eat at his final party while in office.

Meet Pauline, the White House cow who made national news when she briefly went missing on her way to a dairy show.

According to Confederate leaders, the defense of slavery was the primary reason for secession.

Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860 triggered a cascade of Southern secessions and the formation of the Confederacy, culminating in the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC.

The final shots of the Civil War were fired in the Arctic over 2 months after the South's surrender.

Abraham Lincoln had to sneak into Washington in disguise for his 1861 inauguration after a detective uncovered a plot to assassinate him in Baltimore.

The first newspaper to report the Declaration of Independence was a German-language Philadelphia publication, simply because it was the only one that published on July 5.

Three of America's first five presidents—Jefferson, Adams, and Monroe—died on July 4.

In the early 1900s, Fourth of July celebrations were so dangerous that a reform movement emerged to make them safer.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade brought over 10 million enslaved people to the Americas.

View animated battle maps from every major skirmish of the American Civil War.

Lin-Manuel Miranda was inspired to create 'Hamilton' after reading a biography while on vacation.

Thomas Jefferson displayed a bust of his political rival, Alexander Hamilton, in the entrance hall of Monticello, placed opposite his own likeness.

Since World War II, formal declarations of war and peace treaties have become increasingly rare, replaced by cease-fires, authorizations of force, and "special military operations."

The 1783 peace treaty with Britain formally ended the Revolutionary War and nearly doubled the size of the United States.

The Electoral College is the system the United States uses to elect its president, allocating 538 electors across the states rather than relying on a single national vote.

A single 1803 Supreme Court case, Marbury v. Madison, gave courts the power to strike down acts of Congress.

A court designed to be the least powerful branch of government became one of the most influential institutions in America.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement.

The National Archives protects billions of historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

The 2004 blockbuster National Treasure takes some liberties with history—discover what the movie gets wrong and right about the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.

Congress actually voted to approve independence on July 2, 1776, leading many Founders to believe that would be the date Americans would one day celebrate.

The Declaration of Independence was not only a statement of principles but also an appeal for military allies that the struggling colonists needed to survive.

The Stamp Act of 1765 was a key stepping stone toward the American Revolution, igniting colonial resistance to British taxation.

Since 1776, the Declaration of Independence has served as a model for more than 100 nations and freedom organizations writing their own declarations.

When the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War in 1783, British officials refused to pose for the portrait of the negotiations, leaving the painting partially unfinished.

Americans view the National Park Service more favorably than any other federal agency.

George Washington's Farewell Address, delivered at the end of his presidency, warned that political factions and foreign entanglements were the greatest threats to the American Republic.

Explore the life and presidency of George Washington, whose two terms in office were defined by precedent-setting, restraint, and institution-building.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Electric grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Learn how critical services, infrastructure, and people would be impacted by a US-scale blackout—a nationwide, long-term failure of the electric grid.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

The USPS spent $3.97B in 2024, accounting for .058% of the federal budget.