Apollo 17: Inside NASA’s Final Moon Landing Mission

Apollo 17: Inside NASA’s Final Moon Landing Mission

Just over three years after Neil Armstrong took mankind’s first steps on the moon, Apollo 17 astronauts left the last footprints on the lunar surface in December 1972. Described by NASA as ” the last, longest and most successful” of the manned astronaut lunar landing missions, Apollo 17 yielded significant …

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8 Essential Gadgets From the 1980s That Are Now Obsolete

8 Essential Gadgets From the 1980s That Are Now Obsolete

Over the decades, the 1980s had more than its fair share of iconic technology, from walkmans to VCRs to pagers. Many of the innovative Reagan-era gadgets and entertainment devices have since become obsolete, but they paved the way for a new generation of 21stitems from the last century such as …

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How Activists Fought for Patients’ Rights During the AIDS Crisis

How Activists Fought for Patients' Rights During the AIDS Crisis

By 1987, the AIDS epidemic had reached grim proportions. The disease had killed nearly 60,000 people worldwide and more than 40,000 were HIV-positive in the United States alone. The majority of those ravaged by the disease were homosexuals. Despite rising cases and deaths, President Ronald Reagan did not utter the …

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How the Underground Railroad Worked: 6 Strategies to Freedom

How the Underground Railroad Worked: 6 Strategies to Freedom

Despite the horrors of slavery, the decision to flee was not easy. Escaping often involved leaving family behind and heading into the complete unknown, where harsh weather and a lack of food might await them. Then there was the constant threat of capture. So-called slave catchers and their hounds scoured …

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Black Civil War Soldiers – Facts, Death Toll & Enlistment

Black Civil War Soldiers - Facts, Death Toll & Enlistment

Contents A “white man’s war”? The Second Confiscation and Militia Act (1862) The 54th Massachusetts Confederate threats The fight for equal pay On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation: “All persons held as slaves in any State … in rebellion against the United States,” it declared, …

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14 Popular Dolls From 20th-Century America

14 Popular Dolls From 20th-Century America

Throughout human history, children have played with and cared for dolls. Miniature facsimiles of human beings have been found around the globe from all periods of history, using all kinds of materials. They range from carved wooden paddle dolls discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs to scarily realistic soft vinyl dolls …

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Who Was Squanto and What Was His Role in the First Thanksgiving?

Who Was Squanto and What Was His Role in the First Thanksgiving?

For generations, the mainstream cultural narrative of Thanksgiving in America has told how a Native American named Squanto showed Pilgrims how to obtain food after they arrived on the Mayflower in Massachusetts in 1620. Having fled their native England, the new emigrants endured hardships and hardships both in their journey …

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