American history

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Want a Lighthouse? Feds Giving Them Away

100 sold in 14 years, unknown number still available

(Newser) - Ever wish your man cave or summer retreat was in a lighthouse? You may be in luck, now that the federal government is selling or giving away dozens of them, the AP reports. They've shed 100 obsolete or unneeded lighthouses in 14 years, 68 of them freebies handed off...

Buffett's Son Buys Rosa Parks Items, Will Donate Them

Collection includes hat she may have worn on famous bus ride

(Newser) - One lucky museum will be getting a treasure trove in the form of hundreds of items belonging to civil rights icon Rosa Parks. A foundation run by Howard Buffett, son of Warren, has purchased the items—including a postcard from Martin Luther King Jr. and a hat Parks may have...

TB&#39;s Arrival in New World: Blame Seals
 TB's Arrival 
 in New World: 
 Blame Seals 
STUDY SAYS
Aug 21, 2014 1:01 PM CDT

TB's Arrival in New World: Blame Seals

New study also suggests TB is only 6K years old

(Newser) - Tuberculosis may have reached the New World long before Christopher Columbus ever sailed the ocean blue, a new study suggests. Scientists have examined 1,000-year-old Peruvian bones mysteriously infected with TB—500 years before the arrival of Spaniards, who are historically blamed for bringing TB to the New World, Nature ...

Tree Rings Solve Mystery of Old World Trade Center Ship

Study shows it got built in Philadelphia about 1773

(Newser) - A mystery ship unearthed during construction of the new World Trade Center site isn't so much of a mystery anymore. A new study based on analysis of tree rings in its wood reveals that the ship likely got built in 1773 in Philadelphia—and with the same white oak...

Declaration of Independence Transcript May Hold Error

In the form of a period, says Danielle Allen

(Newser) - It's being hailed as "the battle of the period." Is a small spec of ink that appears on the Declaration of Independence a period or not? In a draft paper that one historian calls "a remarkably convincing piece of detective work," Danielle Allen argues that...

How WWII Researchers Starved Men in Minnesota

Scientists wanted to see effects of limited food

(Newser) - With those in occupied territories during World War II facing the threat of starvation, American researchers sought to learn more about the effects of limited food—by starving their own subjects. "Will you starve that they be better fed?" asked a volunteer-seeking brochure showing children on its cover. Hundreds...

Is Your Beard Racist?

 Is Your 
 Beard 
 Racist? 
in case you missed it
Jan 25, 2014 12:11 PM CST

Is Your Beard Racist?

Style's history is pretty tangled, writes Sean Trainor

(Newser) - These days, beards are big, in all senses of the word. But most of those wearing them probably have little idea of their troubled history in the US—one that is inextricably linked with racism and sexism, writes Sean Trainor in the Atlantic . For free black men in the early...

Attic Find: 'One-of-a-Kind' 1775 Revolution Letter

A Continental Congress plea to the British people for reconciliation

(Newser) - A "one-of-a-kind document" James Madison once raved about has been discovered in the attic of George Washington's headquarters during the Revolutionary War. Emilie Gruchow of Manhattan's Morris-Jumel Mansion stumbled upon the yellowed, 12-page plea from the Continental Congress to the British people for reconciliation last summer in...

Historians Closer to Learning Lost Colony&#39;s Fate
Historians Closer to
Learning Lost Colony's Fate
in case you missed it
Dec 14, 2013 5:15 PM CST

Historians Closer to Learning Lost Colony's Fate

Ground-penetrating radar may help solve mystery of Roanoke Island

(Newser) - New research has shed a little more light on one of America's longstanding mysteries: the disappearance of more than 100 colonists on North Carolina's Roanoke Island. The British settlers disappeared in 1590, three years after their arrival. Two hints persisted as to their fates: The word "Croatoan"...

$3 Estate Sale Find Gives Up a Treasure Trove

...but New Jersey stakes claim on rare documents

(Newser) - A Toronto woman spotted a $3 box of documents at a Buffalo estate sale; at the time, "I had no sense of their history or value," she says. Turns out they were worth a heck of a lot more: One was signed by Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son,...

When Has Congress Declared War?

Hill hasn't formally declared war since 1942

(Newser) - With President Obama turning to Congress for a decision on Syria, BuzzFeed offers a quick Hill history lesson. Congress hasn't formally declared war since 1942, the site notes. But before that, it wasn't such a rare move:
  1. Congress backed war against Britain in 1812, by way of a
...

Did Washington Name Our Country?

Aide's 1776 letter calls it 'United States of America'

(Newser) - It makes sense that the father of our country would have named it, too—and new evidence suggests that may just be the case. History hasn't quite settled on who coined the term "the United States of America," though in 1998, experts announced that it was Thomas...

Sonar Image May Show Earhart's Plane

Off island of Nikumaroro

(Newser) - A team of experts that has been chasing Amelia Earhart's elusive trail for years may be closer than ever to solving the mystery of her 1937 disappearance. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) had more than a decade ago pinpointed the Pacific island of Nikumaroro as the...

Ben Franklin Tried to Change Our Alphabet

His phonetic approach never took off

(Newser) - If Benjamin Franklin were alive today, he'd probably be a dynamite texter. As Smithsonian explains, Franklin once designed a phonetic alphabet for the nation because he thought the one in place was too unwieldy. Alas, it never caught on. Some highlights of his "A Reformed Mode of Spelling,...

Secrets of 1780s POW Camp Buried in Pennsylvania

English, Scottish, and Canadian soldiers were imprisoned at Camp Security

(Newser) - The mud of a south-central Pennsylvania cornfield may soon produce answers about the fate of British prisoners of war—and the newly independent Americans who guarded them—during the waning years of the American Revolution. A few miles east of York, the city that briefly served as the fledgling nation'...

Obama Now Faces the '2nd-Term Curse'

Ever since George Washington, it's been a tough 4 years

(Newser) - The election is in the bag, but the fight isn't over for President Obama. Now he must fend off the so-called "second-term curse" that has dogged presidents from George Washington to George W, writes Adam Clymer in the New York Times . Washington faced protests over a post-Revolutionary War...

Mag Posts &#39;Conservative Version&#39; of History
 Mag Posts 'Conservative 
 Version' of History 
new yorker
Sep 22, 2012 4:43 PM CDT

Mag Posts 'Conservative Version' of History

'The New Yorker' assembles history using quotes from conservatives

(Newser) - A "liberal version" of history might also make for good reading, but the New Yorker has beaten conservatives to the punch by posting "A Conservative History of the United States." Here are a few key moments, each inspired by a rather inventive quotation:

Hitler's Nephew to FDR: Can I Fight for US?

William Patrick Hitler's letter published online

(Newser) - Adolf Hitler's nephew was determined to fight in World War II—against his uncle. William Patrick Hitler fled Germany for New York in 1939, and in 1942 sought Franklin D. Roosevelt's permission to join the US military; he wrote that his "difficult and singular situation" could be...

Civil War Death Toll Boosted 20%

 Civil War Death Toll 
 Boosted 20% 
new census study
Apr 3, 2012 5:00 AM CDT

Civil War Death Toll Boosted 20%

War claimed close to 750K lives: historian

(Newser) - The deadliest war in American history was even more devastating than long believed, especially for the South, according to a historian. The Civil War death toll of 618,222—360,222 from the North and 258,000 Southerners—has been in history books for more than a century. But J....

Santorum: Calif. Schools Don't Teach US History

Republican candidate slams California universities

(Newser) - Rick Santorum continued his verbal assault on higher education today by accusing California universities of failing to "even teach an American history course." The GOP candidate slammed UC universities during a speech in Wisconsin, Mediaite reports, saying that "I think it's seven or eight" schools that...

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