American Presidents Story Briefs

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.

Samuel A. Mudd was a young doctor with several children when he met John Wilkes Booth in the fall of 1864.

President Lincoln was sitting in a red rocking chair when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. This image depicts that rocking chair.

FDR wrote this secret message to Churchill in June of 1940.

Throughout his presidency, Abraham Lincoln spent time at a retreat known as "Soldiers' Home.

In addition to his Warren-Commission testimony, Special Agent Clinton Hill prepared a written statement regarding the assassination of President Kenne...

As the day of the parade draws closer, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns meet Inez Milholland.

A Brooklyn penny-candy-store owner (named Morris Michtom) was so intrigued by a 1902 political cartoon (featuring Theodore Roosevelt with a bear cub) ...

Theodore Roosevelt, visiting son Kermit, along with Brazilian explorer Candido Rondon, took a harrowing trip down the Rio da Duvida ("River of Doubt")...

In the United States, Thanksgiving was not always celebrated on the last Thursday in November.

Abraham Lincoln originated America's annual Thanksgiving Day when he issued a proclamation, in 1863, declaring the last Thursday of November as a nati...

Who were the men who sent America to war in Vietnam?

Major Henry Reed Rathbone and his fiancé, Clara Harris, attended a play with Abraham and Mary Lincoln on the night the President was shot. Booth lung...

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