In just under 250 years, the U.S. has grown from someone else's fledgling colony into its own world power. These resources will help you better understand its storied past and give context to current events.
Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, wrote his famed Gettysburg Address on a train car. Actually, he had a version of it ready a few days before. Well, really, he came up with it on the spot. Rumors about the speech's creation abound. This 1909 article walks readers through evidence Lincoln's speech was carefully planned and written in Washington, DC (in pencil).
In 1964, Austrian journalist Gerhard Pistor went to a travel agency and asked for a flight to the moon. Two weeks later, airliner Pan Am accepted his request and replied with an expected departure date of the year 2000. Take a look at an actual “First Moon Flights” club card, issued by Pan Am—bankrupt since 1991—to more than 93,000 people in the late 1960s.
The national anthem features a number of specific references (and outdated sentiments) that might be lost on modern listeners. This resource allows you to decode some of Key’s more complicated lines by reading accompanying notes from three specialists.
In 2011, Congress expressed regrets about discriminatory laws that targeted Asian immigrants, such as the 1875 Page Act. Click here to read one of the twin bills and learn more about the laws in question.
In the 17th century, Native Americans cultivated a three-plant combination of corn, beans, and squash—a symbiotic tradition dating back hundreds of years. The corn allowed the beans to climb, the beans fertilized the plants by extracting nitrogen from the air, and the squash leaves protected the soil and preserved moisture. Learn more about the tradition here.
Like the majority of Americans, Francis Scott Key was opposed to the US declaring war on Great Britain, calling the move “abominable.” His feelings began to change after the British raided Washington, D.C. He joined the Georgetown Artillery shortly after.
First published in 1926, the US Code is the official codification of federal statutes in the US. Title 26 of the US Code, for instance, lists all of the federal tax laws of the United States. A new edition is published every six years. Learn why the United States Code matters with this explainer.
Originally taking a position of neutrality during the course of World War I, the United States of America eventually relented. Entering the war in 1917, support for the British and French had risen and Americans were incensed by Germany's overtures to Mexico and U-boat attacks that sank ships and ended American lives. See how and why the US entered WWI in this article.
And what impact did these schools have on the Native American community? Listen to these firsthand accounts to learn more.
Within a decade of LSD's discovery, the US government had launched a secret initiative involving hypnosis and hallucinogens. LSD researcher Louis Jolyon West conducted experiments for the CIA's MKUltra project, which focused on the potential of mind control. He later took part in a criminal trial that hinged on testimony whose sourcing was seemingly inspired by MKUltra experiments. This article explores light shed by West's personal archive.
Weave together the many narratives of world history with our highly curated and expanding selection of diverse, fascinating resources designed to showcase the breadth and richness of Earth's story, from the earliest traces of human civilization to the dramatic developments of contemporary cultures.