History Knowledge

Larry Froeber / New York Daily News Archive / Getty Images Six and a half months before Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Madison Square Garden in New York City held a rally to celebrate the rise of Nazism in Germany. Inside, more than 20,000 attendees hailed the Nazis in favor …

Why was the 1920s such a difficult time for American unions? Call it a reaction against their growing strength. After expanding power during the Progressive Era in the first two decades of the 20th century, organized labor grew even stronger during World War I. The U.S. government took a more …

With the rise of suburbs in post-WWII America, the Perfect Lawn has become a powerful symbol of the American dream. Whether it was a vast field of green mown in neat diagonal stripes or a more modest swatch of grass and clover, a lawn expressed the national ideal that with …

On February 16, 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter entered the sealed burial chamber of the former Egyptian ruler, King Tutankhamun. Because the ancient Egyptians regarded their pharaohs as gods, they carefully preserved their bodies after death, burying them in elaborate tombs containing rich treasures to accompany the …

The mention of Cupid usually conjures up images of a baby cherub wielding a bow and arrows, but this was not always the case. Long before the Romans adopted and renamed him – and long before his association with Valentine’s Day – Cupid was known to the Greeks as Eros, …

The future President Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. Lincoln, one of America’s most admired presidents, grew up in a poor family in Kentucky and Indiana. He only attended school for a year, but then read on his own in an ongoing effort to improve …

Where do fortune cookies come from and how did they become so ubiquitous? It is common in many restaurants for diners to receive a little treat with their check: mints, hard candies, sometimes even chocolate. But at many Chinese restaurants in the United States, customers get something a little different …

Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, was released from prison after 27 years on February 11, 1990. In 1944 Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s oldest black political organization, where he became a leader of the Johannesburg youth wing of …

On February 9, 1773, the future President William Henry Harrison was born on the Berkeley Plantation in Virginia. Harrison became the ninth President of the United States for a brief 32-day period in 1841, the shortest term ever. Harrison is also credited with the record for the longest inaugural address …