American History Story Briefs

America - still a young country by world standards - began as an experiment in self-government. This collection includes stories of America's people as they follow a path of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Benjamin Franklin uses this political cartoon in 1754, urging American Colonials to band together against threats posed by the French and by Native Am...

NASA's Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) had to be redesigned, after its design flaws caused the loss of Challenger and its seven astronauts.

Dr. Jonas Salkgave a lengthy interview toEdward R. Murrowto explain how his polio vaccine would work.

In 1938, Joseph Patrick Kennedy is appointed Ambassador to Great Britain - a position for which he'd heavily lobbied. He takes his wife, and five of ...

Justice Joseph Story was one of America's most-famous jurists during his lifetime. He authored the decision freeing the Amistad captives.

How did his contemporaries view the job performed by Judge Isaac Parker (sometimes known as "The Haning Judge" of Ft. Smith, Arkansas? Take a look at ...

Julia Howe (1819-1910) was feeling discouraged when she visited the city of Washington, D.

Julie More, portrayed in "We Were Soldiers" by Madeline Stowe, changed the way family members were notified about the deaths of fallen Army soldiers d...

Jumbo the Elephantis the star of P.T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth" where, it is said, he brings in the largest crowds in the history of the circu...

The story of America's first-published African-American poet takes us to Long Island during a time of slavery.

Justice Felix Frankfurter, an immigrant from Austria, became a Supreme Court Justice who fought against racial discrimination in schools.

In the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks - on December 7, 1941 - the U.S. government used the smallisland of Kahoolawe-off the shore of ...

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