When police raided New York's Stonewall Inn, a well-known gay bar, in 1969, patrons resisted, leading to 6 nights of protests that would eventually inspire modern Pride celebrations.

Years before the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, patrons at another New York bar staged a protest against an antigay liquor law.

Check out the records stocked in the jukebox at the Stonewall Inn, the bar responsible for modern Pride celebrations.

New York was a hotbed of early revolutionary activity

In the decade before independence, New York City saw Stamp Act riots, liberty pole confrontations, the 1770 Battle of Golden Hill, and defiance of the Quartering Act, and organized efforts to block and destroy taxed British tea.

In July 1979, tens of thousands of people rioted on the Chicago White Sox field during 'Disco Demolition Night,' a promotional event that advertised the public burning of the genre's hit records.

As graffiti grew more popular, New York worked to stop it

In 1972, the NYPD made over 1,500 graffiti-related arrests. By 1973, the city was annually spending $10M to remove and limit graffiti. That same year, a poll conducted by an anti-graffiti task force found that the "vast majority" of residents did not consider graffiti to be art.

Broadway theaters reopened 48 hours after the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the request of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

A fire in NYC that burned a fifth of the city in 1776 may have been started under orders from George Washington.

An overview of New York's iconic stoops

In New York City, stoops are cherished and fundamental aspect of life in many neighborhoods. In a city where yards are a rarity, stairways are places for New Yorkers to socialize and relax. Follow the history of these sites in this video, starting from their Dutch origins to their impact on city life today.

Hear the story of a 1985 police crackdown on a convoy of travelers trying to reach Stonehenge for a festival.

This documentary revisits the 1985 police crackdown on a massive free festival at Stonehenge, when the UK government under Margaret Thatcher blocked access and deployed 1,300 riot police—an event that reshaped public access to the site.

The Times Square New Year's celebration originated as a party for The New York Times

The paper moved to the area, originally called Longacre Square, in 1904 and lobbied the city to rename it after the publication. The paper’s publisher, Alfred Ochs, threw a massive all-day party on New Year’s Eve to celebrate the opening of the paper’s headquarters, establishing the location as a destination for the holiday.

Before modern sanitation, New York City let pigs roam the streets to eat its garbage

In the early 1820s, an estimated 20,000 hogs roamed Manhattan's streets, feeding on trash that the city lacked a system to collect. Pigs were eventually banned at the urging of wealthy residents, who feared they would deter tourists and drive down property values.

SantaCon went from an anarchist protest to a rowdy bar crawl

Now known mainly as a costumed, Christmas-themed bar crawl, SantaCon began in San Francisco in 1994 as an anarchist protest against Christmas overconsumption inspired by a Danish event in 1974. It spread to Portland and Seattle before the event went worldwide and lost its radical roots in the process.

Double rainbow appears in New York City on 9/11 anniversary

On the evening of the 9/11 anniversary in 2023, a double rainbow appeared after a thunderstorm across Manhattan, providing inspiration 22 years after the terrorist attacks there. Peruse several amateur images taken of the phenomenon which were shared on social media, including shots from up high in condos overlooking Central Park and from across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

In the 1930s, New York banned buskers as part of an antinoise campaign

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was hoping to modernize the city and believed that street performers only crowded the streets and added to an annoying cacophony. Residents wrote to the mayor to protest the decision, arguing that buskers were appreciated by the public.

New York City's carriage horses are a holdover from a time when the city was home to hundreds of thousands of horses roaming its streets.

A New York fireworks ban necessitated a new way to ring in the New Year

In 1906, the city banned fireworks displays, forcing the Times Square celebration to find a new centerpiece. The Times commissioned Jacob Starr, a Ukrainian immigrant who worked for Strauss Signs, to develop an ornament. He returned with the now-iconic New Year’s ball.

1970s New York was viewed by many as a city in decline

By 1975, the city owed $5B to $6B in short-term debt; over a million manufacturing jobs had left the city since the end of World War II. Meanwhile, the murder rate was more than double than 10 years earlier. Graffiti was seen as illegal vandalism perpetrated by unsupervised teenagers and was viewed by some as emblematic of the larger societal decline.

The 1973 ‘back to school jam’ was the night hip-hop was born

Hip-hop began in New York’s Bronx borough with the “back to school jam,” an August 1973 dance party hosted by Cindy Campbell and her brother, DJ Kool Herc, in their apartment building’s recreation room.

The documentary 'Style Wars' captured graffiti at its height

The film explored the tension between graffiti's innovation and its illegality, following some of its most popular artists, such as Mare 139 and Futura, as well as its detractors, including Mayor Ed Koch. The documentary first appeared on PBS in 1983, introducing the movement to a national audience. You can watch it in its entirety below.

The oldest restaurants in the US

This list features several establishments that have been around since before the Declaration of Independence, including the White Horse Tavern, in Newport, Rhode Island, and New York's Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington dismissed his troops at the end of the Revolutionary War.

The early Los Angeles punk scene found a home in Chinatown

Acts like Black Flag, X, and Circle Jerks performed in unconventional venues like Madame Wong’s and the Hong Kong Cafe—restaurants in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood that became an integral part of the nascent scene.

New York mayor Ed Koch railed against graffiti in the '70s and '80s

Koch was outspoken in his hatred of the form and, during his three terms, launched an anti-graffiti campaign with the help of several New York celebrities. This 1984 BBC report documents some of the scorn graffiti artists had attracted, including from Grace Glueck, the New York Times' art critic, who said, "I don't consider it an art form on canvas at all."

See how New York City has grown since 1609

Wall Street and the southern tip of Manhattan were the first parts of the island to be developed beyond farmland by Dutch and English settlers. It wasn’t long until New York City resembled the city we know today.

The evolution of New York City

Originally founded as New Amsterdam, this interactive timeline lists out and provides deep dives on the major events that shaped New York City as it became America's foremost cultural and economic hub.

Americans' love of combining freedom and charred meat began in the 1800s

In the 19th century, politicians (particularly in Virginia) hosted large public barbecues to celebrate Independence Day and, of course, boost their own campaigns. When personal grills became common in the 20th century, the tradition moved into backyards and block parties, where it's still going strong today.

New York was once called New Amsterdam

Although New York has a long history, it wasn’t actually called “New York” until the late 1600s, when the English beat out the Dutch for control of the area. In 1664, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered what used to be known as “New Amsterdam” to the English, who renamed it New York after the Duke of York.

The massive gathering that rang in the first Earth Day

Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 and helped inspire a significant nationwide environmental movement. In Philadelphia, the holiday was rung in with a gathering in the city’s Fairmount Park featuring musicians, speakers, and over 10,000 attendees. This video from CBS offers remarkable footage from the day and explains why Philadelphians were especially drawn to the environmental cause.

One prankster started a movement to clothe animals in the mid-20th century

G. Clifford Prout founded the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, saying that animal nudity was rude and immoral. The campaign continued for years until CBS employees realized Prout was actually a comedian named Buck Henry.

'The Chinatown Sting': Unraveling an international drug smuggling ring

In the late 1980s, a group of women connected through the mahjong parlors in Manhattan's Chinatown were caught in a massive undercover drug bust. But this bust was just the beginning of an even bigger case.

Celebrations for America's 150th birthday in 1926 were a poorly organized mess that nearly bankrupted the host city of Philadelphia.

After the World Trade Center attacks, all bridges and tunnels were closed, and civilian ships helped evacuate roughly half a million people from Manhattan.

Interracial and same-sex marriages have both been illegal at certain times during US history

June 12 marks Loving Day, the date when interracial marriage was legalized in 1967. A brave Virginia couple fought back against anti-miscegenation laws, which were finally struck down by the Supreme Court. The Court also ruled for the protection of same-sex marriages in 2015.

Burning Man began as a small gathering on a San Francisco beach

Burning man started in 1986 as a gathering for 20 people. In 2023, more than 74,000 attendees became a part of Black Rock City and got caught in the rain.

The Occupy Wall Street protests lasted 59 days

After the 2008 recession, one of the main slogans of Occupy Wall Street was, “We are the 99%,” alluding to the wealth disparity between America’s wealthiest 1% of all households and the rest of the country.

A NYC church near ground zero became a 24/7 relief center for more than eight months without closing after the attacks, providing meals, beds, and other support to relief workers.

Liza Minnelli was a regular at Studio 54, one of the trendiest nightclubs in the world

In the 1970s, some of the world's biggest stars would flock to the New York City club to dance and socialize during the disco era. See photos of Liza Minnelli accompanied by other celebrities like Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Robert De Niro, and James Spader.

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

More than 5,000 marchers joined the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade on the National Mall

On March 3, 1913—the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration—suffragists marched through Washington, DC. The parade drew large crowds, exposed violent opposition to women's suffrage, and helped galvanize support for the 19th Amendment.

Watch New York City's Tribute in Light to the victims of 9/11

Tribute in Light is a commemorative public art installation first presented six months after 9/11 and then every year thereafter, from dusk to dawn, on the night of September 11. It has become an iconic symbol that both honors those killed and...

In the late 1800s, New York City streets were covered with millions of pounds of horse manure thanks to a widespread horse-driven transportation industry.

Check out information on the over 1,000 protests across the globe since 2017.

New York City's carriage horses are at the center of a long-running debate over whether a centuries-old tradition still belongs in the country's largest city.

Ginsberg's 'Howl' portrayed people outside the American mainstream

The poem’s portraits of people on society's fringes—including vivid descriptions of drug use, psychiatric wards, and homosexuality—led to its seizure by US Customs agents and the arrest of its publisher Ferlinghetti. The American Civil Liberties Union defended both in a landmark trial that ruled the book was not obscene.

The 1974 anarchist protest in Denmark that later inspired SantaCon

An interview with one of the participants explains what the performance art group that planned the event was hoping to achieve. Hordes of Santas walking down the street with a giant goose, attacking buildings with backhoes and pickaxes, handing out “presents” stolen from department stores, and eventually being arrested.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt turned the National Mall into a public memorial in 1987

First displayed on the National Mall, the AIDS Memorial Quilt comprised thousands of handmade panels honoring individuals who had died of AIDS. Its placement on the Mall was intended to force public recognition of the human cost of AIDS amid widespread government inaction.

A timeline of Wall Street's history

Wall Street's historical timeline starts with Wall Street getting its name in the 1600s and ends with details about the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011.

How a crew of hippies and nerdy teens in 1970 launched the global phenomenon of Comic-Con

Brinke Stevens and nearly 50 early organizers recount assembling Comic‑Con in 1970s San Diego—starting with just 300 attendees in a hotel basement—and how that grassroots, inclusive mix of fans sparked an enduring and worldwide pop‑culture movement.

Boston police told renowned conductor Igor Stravinsky that he had 'tampered' with 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at a performance in 1944.

Americans celebrated the end of the Revolutionary War with nationwide toasts

In 1783, citizens celebrated the signing of the Preliminary Articles of Peace with nationwide parties. Across the new country, many made 13 toasts to the 13 states. They also drank to George Washington. One poet in Boston wrote, “Health to his honor I’d freely drink, Had I a glass of wine; And whosoever with me shall think, May mix their toast with mine.”

When the New York Stock Exchange was started in 1792, traders would meet both outside on the street and in coffee shops to do business.