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.

Many plead for mercy, but Mary Surratt and three other conspirators hang on July 7, 1865.

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gives President Johnson more power concerning the situation in Vietnam.

The US threatens a shipping quarantine, while Russia will not allow US inspectors to board their ships.

JFK's autopsy states that he died "from gunshot wounds at Dallas, Texas."

FDR wants the Supreme Court to agree with all his social policies, so he proposes increasing the number of Justices. Cartoonists bring this court-pack...

A split Electoral College vote delays Jefferson from being named president, allowing John Adams to appoint many judges in the last hours of his Presid...

Bundy and McNamara insist that America go in fighting; the Vietnamese only want peace, but cannot defeat Viet Cong without American help.

John Wilkes Booth, an actor, enters the Ford Theater Presidential box carrying his gun and a knife.

Taking off from Pakistan, en route to Norway, Francis Gary Powers flies his U-2 recon airplace over Soviet territory where he is shot-down by a Soviet...

Mary is tried and sentenced to hang.

John Quincy Adams wins the Amistad case for the captives, but there is no money to pay for the Africans' passage back to their homes.

Within two months of the Treaty of Paris, Washington resigns as Commander-in-Chief of America's military.

Show tooltips