History Notes

On February 6, New Zealanders will mark Waitangi Day on the 180th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Following the treaty, the British Crown claimed sovereignty over the country, citing what it...

<p>On July 9, 1868, the last of the 28 states needed to approve the Fourteenth Amendment acted, and Secretary of State William Henry Seward formally announced the ratification on July 28. It was a momentous event, a...

<p>On July 11, 1804, former TreasurySecretary Alexander Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr faced off in the most infamous duel in American history. Burr fatally wounded Hamilton, who died the next day. Hamilton’s...

<p>In the early 1900s, Mary Mallon, a cook, was unknowingly ahealthy carrier of Typhoid fever.</p><p><br></p><p>Written by Claudia Jansen, Morgan Metz, and Marian MoserJones. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle...

<p>The Battle of Bosworth Field was one of the last majorbattles of the Wars of the Roses, a decades-long conflict between the House of York and the House of Lancaster over claims to the English throne. </p><p>Written...

<p>When a Simi Valley jury announced the “not guilty” verdictsin the case of four police officers charged in the beating of African American motorist Rodney King on April 29, 1992, Los Angeles erupted in a firestorm of...

<p>President James A. Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, byCharles Guiteau, a disgruntled political hopeful. Months later, Garfield died from an infection which ravaged Garfield’s body for two and half months. Who was...

<p>Percival Lowell was a prominent astronomer of the late 19thand early 20th centuries who believed in the existence of a planet beyond Neptune, which he called “Planet X.”</p><p>Written by Kevin Schindler. Narration by...

<p>The World Series has been played annually since 1903 (withtwo exceptions in 1904 and 1994). Here, Origins offers ten 20th Century World Series contests that are landmark moments in baseball’s evolution as a...

<p>Gwangju, a major city in southwestern South Korea, has beenwidely recognized as a center of civil resistance since May 1980, when a brutal military crackdown targeted citizens protesting against dictatorship. </p><p>...

<p>Headquartered at Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, OH, Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force’s investigation into UFOs, ran for 12 years beginning in March of 1952.</p><p>Written by Paul McAllister...

<p>The Battle of Hastings, which took place on October 14, 1066 was a pivotal moment in the invasion from across the English Channel that resulted in the conquest of Anglo-Saxon England by William, the French Duke of...

<p>The War of the Pacific, which pitted Chile against the allied forces of Peru and Bolivia, had a profound, long-lasting impact on the geopolitical balance of South America.</p><p>Written by Candela Marini. Narration...

<p>On the night of 2-3 December 1984, a Union Carbide chemical facility at Bhopal leaked over 27 tons of the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate, poisoning tens of thousands of people in the middle of the night, most of...

<p>June 15, 1215, witnessed the signing of the landmark Magna Carta, the medieval English historic legal document that is seen as the origin of many modern-day legal rights and constitutional principles. At that time...