July 30 Two years after inserting “under God” into the pledge of allegiance, president Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a law officially declaring “In God We Trust” to be the Nation’s official motto, to replace E pluribus unum “Out of many, one,” used by the founding fathers – 1956. President Lyndon...
July 23 In the early-morning hours of July 23, 1967, one of the worst riots in U.S. history breaks out on 12th Street in the heart of Detroit’s predominantly African-American inner city. By the time it was quelled four days later by 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops, 43...
July 16 U.S. president George W. Bush announces his plan for strengthening homeland security in the wake of the shocking September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.. Bush launches a massive overhaul of the Nation’s security, intelligence, and emergency-response systems through the creation of the...
John Adams, who was graduated from Harvard College, was the husband of Abigail Smith Adams, and the father of six children, one of whom, John Quincy Adams, became president of the United States and served one term in the 1820s. John Adams was a lawyer, a farmer, and a revolutionary....
July 9 Two trains collide outside of Nashville, Tenn. and kill 101 and injure more than 100. Despite the high death toll, the story was mainly ignored by the national press most likely because the vast majority of the casualties were African Americans. – 1918. July 10 A powerful explosion...
July 2 Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors, kill two crew members, and seize control of the ship, which had been transporting them to a life of slavery on a sugar plantation in Puerto Principe, Cuba. – 1839. U.S. president James A. Garfield, who had...
June 25 Native American forces, led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River. – 1876. Fair Labor Standards Act passes Congress which bans child labor and sets the 40-hour...
June 18 The War of 1812 begins in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seamen into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. – 1812. At Waterloo in Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte...
June 11 The Continental Congress selects Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York to draft a declaration of independence. – 1776. Five days after the D-Day landing, the five Allied landing groups, made up...
June 4 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to guarantee women the right to vote, is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. – 1919. Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, launches a raid on Midway Island with almost...
May 28 A 22-year-old lieutenant colonel of the Virginia militia named George Washington successfully defeats a party of French and Indian scouts in southwest Pennsylvania when Virginia attempts to lay claim to the territory for its settlers. The action snowballed into the Seven Years’ War and began the military career...
May 21 In Washington, D.C., humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters. – 1881. Connecticut becomes the first state to pass a law regulating motor vehicles by limiting their speed to...
May 14 One year after the United States doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition leaves St. Louis, Mo., on a mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. – 1804. In Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims...
May 7 Martinique’s Mount Pele, near the city of Saint Pierre, begins the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century. The city of Saint Pierre was buried within minutes and virtually everyone died instantly. – 1902. The German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional...
April 30 Representatives of the United States and Napoleonic France conclude negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, a massive land sale that doubles the size of the young American republic. What was known as Louisiana Territory comprised most of modern-day United States between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, with the...
By Cailín Cullen National Library Week is April 19-25, and it is one for the history books. Many libraries, including the Aurora Public Library (APL), have closed their physical locations to help stop the spread of COVID-19.The closures have pushed libraries to re-imagine how they engage with their communities and...
April 23 Brian Boru, the high king of Ireland, is assassinated by a group of retreating Norsemen shortly after his Irish forces defeat them. – 1014. Historians believe legendary English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-on-Avon on this day in 1564, the same day he died in...
April 16 Employers lock out 25,000 New York City garment workers in a dispute over hiring practices. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union calls a general strike; after 14 weeks, 60,000 strikers win union recognition and the contractual right to strike. – 1916. Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik...
April 9 At Appomattox, Va., Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War. Forced to abandon the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., blocked from joining the surviving Confederate force in North Carolina, and harassed constantly by Union...
April 2 The U.S. Supreme Court declares unconstitutional a 1918 Washington, D.C. law establishing a minimum wage for women. – 1923. The world’s first anthrax epidemic begins in Ekaterinburg, Russia, now Sverdlosk. By the time it ended six weeks later, 62 individuals were dead. Another 32 survived serious illness. The...
