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."

Peter Minuit was 46 years old when he arrived in "New Netherland" on the 4th of May, 1626. He was the colony's first official director general and "p...

After President Lincoln was shot in the head, people at Ford's Theater tried to assist him.

During the late spring of 1776, Tom Jefferson traveled to Philadelphia as a Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

A deadly train derailment, in 1943, occurred at nearly the same place as the May 2015 Philadelphia train disaster.

Phosphate mining, in South Carolina, was once the most-dominant in the world. This twenty-year position of prominence ended due to a variety of factor...

Leopold and Loeb together with the prosecutors (who would soon seek the death penalty against them) at the time of their confession to the crimes of k...

It's July 3, 1863 and "Pickett's Charge" is about to begin. It ends in disaster for the Confederacy on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

In this clip, from "Gettysburg," General Longstreet instructs Colonel Alexander and General Pettigrew on the details for an attack which has since bee...

This painting, by Dr. Mike Haywood, recreates the moment of the Pilgrim's first landing in America. This is not the landing at Plymouth (Plimoth) whi...

William Brewster, one of the Pilgrim leaders, has previously visited Leiden (in The Netherlands) when he meets with the town secretary, Jan van Hout. ...

A pillory was a place where individuals who were punished for various crimes could be at risk for more than public humiliation.

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