American Presidents Chapters

U.S. Presidents have varying backgrounds and political persuasions. Only one was unanimously elected. They can have little or lasting influence. These stories are about individuals with the power to make a difference at home and abroad.

Does the United States know about the assassination of South Korea's President Diem before it happens?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the first major civil rights law since Reconstruction

When Abraham Lincoln becomes America's 16th President, Southerners viewed the event as a showdown. South Carolina became the first state to leave the ...

Neither the Russians nor the US will budge on their positions about Cuba and the missiles.

Russians are installing medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba with enough power to kill 80 million Americans.

The original Emancipation Proclamation resides at the National Archives; Lincoln's copy burns in the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871.

As the North Vietnamese arrive in Saigon, refugees flee. Vets arrive home to scorn; finally honor comes via The Wall filled with names of the dead.

The weapon that strikes the Black Hawks comes from Afghanistan; the Soviet Union gave them weapons. An associate of Osama Bin Laden trains the Somalis...

Africans lose the first trial, but abolitionists want them to be set free.

The US fleet at Pearl Harbor is crucial to American and Britain's war interests; the military believes the fleet is safe.

An integrated group of whites and blacks, men and women traveled by bus throughout the south to test compliance with the ruling in Boynton v Virginia

If all governments with nuclear power act responsibly, someday there could be enough power for everyone.

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