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90,945 items

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The Western Sanitary Commission reports on suffering in the Mississippi Valley, 1863

Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9

In 1863 in the war-torn South, thousands were homeless and starving. Some of those most in need of aid were newly liberated enslaved people. The Western Sanitary Commission was organized on September 5, 1861, by General John C....

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Sharecropper contract, 1867

Economics, Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Immediately after the Civil War, many former slaves established subsistence farms on land that had been abandoned by fleeing white Southerners. President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat and a former slaveholder, soon restored this land to...

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A perspective on the San Francisco earthquake, 1906

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a great earthquake broke loose, with an epicenter near San Francisco. Violent shocks punctuated the shaking, which lasted some 45 to 60 seconds. The earthquake was felt from southern Oregon to south of...

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Eyewitness account of the sinking of the Titanic, 1912

Geography, World History

6, 7, 8, 9

Shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg roughly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Two and a half hours later, at 2:20 a.m., the ship sank with approximately 1500 people still on board. This...

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Herbert Hoover on the Great Depression and New Deal, 1931–1933

Foreign Languages

The stock market crashed on Thursday, October 24, 1929, less than eight months into Herbert Hoover’s presidency. Most experts, including Hoover, thought the crash was part of a passing recession. By July 1931, when the President wrote...

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Japan declares war, 1941

World History

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On December 7, 1941, two hours after the Japanese attack on American military installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Japan declared war on the United States and Great Britain, marking America’s entry into World War II. The Japanese...

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FDR on racial discrimination, 1942

Government and Civics

On June 25, 1941, almost six months before the United States’ entry into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law Executive Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination by government defense contractors. The...

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Physicists predict a nuclear arms race, 1945

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

This declaration of concern, written after the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, offers insight into the Manhattan Project, an atomic development program led by the United States. The "Preliminary Statement of the...

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Victory Order of the Day, 1945

World History

In March 1945 American and British forces moved eastward into Germany in large numbers, stopping at the Elbe River in mid-April in accordance with pre-negotiated agreements with the Soviet Union. The Red Army, meanwhile, had moved...

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President Truman’s Farewell Address, 1953

Government and Civics, World History

5, 6, 7, 8, 9

It has none of the catch phrases or warnings of other, more famous presidential inaugural or farewell addresses, no cautions against permanent alliances or military-industrial complexes, no appeals to better angels or declarations...

Site Search

90,945 items

The Western Sanitary Commission reports on suffering in the Mississippi Valley, 1863

Sharecropper contract, 1867

A perspective on the San Francisco earthquake, 1906

Eyewitness account of the sinking of the Titanic, 1912

Herbert Hoover on the Great Depression and New Deal, 1931–1933

Japan declares war, 1941

FDR on racial discrimination, 1942

Physicists predict a nuclear arms race, 1945

Victory Order of the Day, 1945

President Truman’s Farewell Address, 1953

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