Erin Blakemore

When FDR found out how beholden New York politicians were to mobsters, he ordered the Seabury commission to investigate.

Born in the ashes of World War II, the currency used by 19 European countries went into effect on January 1, 1999.

A proclamation by King George III set the stage for Native American rights—and the eventual loss of most tribal lands.

Fleming Begaye, Sr. was deployed to the Pacific Theater.

Richard Hornberger was famous for his wisecracking characters, but his real accomplishments were as a surgeon.

Prisoner exchanges were critical to a ceasefire in the Korean War—but a peace treaty was never signed.

The star of the Thanksgiving table was revered by the Maya.

At first, colonists used trees as meeting places to protest and plan resistance. Then their significance grew.

The third president declined to participate in the tradition.

Between 1932 and 1945, Japan forced women from Korea, China and other occupied countries to become military sex slaves.

Between 1910 and 1945, Japan worked to wipe out Korean culture, language and history.

Napoleon was eager to sell—but the purchase would end up expanding slavery in the U.S.

U.S. women served their country bravely during multiple wars. But once the fighting stopped, they were expected to step down.

In 1871, the Wisconsin town of Peshtigo burned to the ground, killing up to 2,500 people. But it was overshadowed by another fire.

The iconic music festival faced massive resistance from local residents who feared an invasion of long-haired druggies in August of 1969.

In marriage and divorce, the strong-willed princess helped modernize royal love.

The French emperor escaped his island prison in plain sight.

The casket letters were scandalous. But were they really written by Mary Stuart?

The royal family's distaste for divorce goes back to Henry VIII.

Desperation drove ingenuity among East Germans determined to reach West Berlin.

The FBI documented Old Blue Eyes’ every move for 40 years.

Right-wing paramilitary groups killed political foes with no repercussions in Weimar Germany.

In the winter of 1945, the Nazis tried to destroy the evidence of the Holocaust.

While some had been driven from the camp, thousands of emaciated prisoners had been left behind to die.

The Treblinka uprising put a stop to the Holocaust’s second deadliest camp.

When Helmuth Hübener learned the truth about Nazi Germany, he spread the word—and paid the ultimate price.

The more than 900 passengers of the M.S. St. Louis were denied entry by immigration authorities in multiple countries in the lead-up to the Holocaust.

Ernst vom Rath’s murder triggered a two-day pogrom against German Jews.

The desperate parents of Kindertransport refugees paid a terrible price for their lives.

Mobs attacked 7,500 Jewish-owned stores and businesses and killed 96 people.

The 1938 pogrom sparked harsh criticism, but not much action.

Horrifying medical experiments on twins helped Nazis justify the Holocaust.

The new material reveals a different side of the murdered teenage author.

Johan van Hulst saved hundreds of lives—but was haunted by his inability to do more.

Carl Lutz managed to save half of Budapest's Jewish population by exploiting the Nazi's respect for paperwork.

The controversial pope stayed silent on the fate of Jews during the Holocaust.

Publishers were initially reluctant to publish the teenage author’s chronicle of life during the Holocaust. They thought readers were not ready to confront the horrors of World War II.

The widely circulated image of the enslaved man's wounds helped turn white Northerners against slavery.

Romualdo Pacheco was adroit at politics (and bear hunting), but in 1877 he faced a rocky road to the House of Representatives.

Eugenics and unethical clinical trials are part of the pill’s legacy.

Fifty years later, Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill admits the police department enforced discriminatory laws.

Maya Lin won a design competition—and sparked a national controversy.

'Petting parties' added some steam to Jazz Age soirees.

Nisei members of the Military Intelligence Service were discriminated against by their own country—even as they worked to protect it.

'Freedom Day' didn’t succeed, but it made de facto school segregation the talk of Chicago.

In the 1950s, the beach wasn’t open to everyone.

Did it help or hurt the civil rights movement?

They cried. They reminisced. The master told Douglass he would have run away, too.

Deceptively simple doll tests helped convince the Supreme Court to strike down school segregation.

It took 15 years of persistent lobbying for MLK Day to be declared a national holiday.

The swift, often comfortable ride on the Transcontinental Railroad opened up the American West to new settlement.

NASA worried the Christian ceremony might draw unwanted scrutiny.

A look back at America's long-simmering conflict with Iran.

John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown flew across the Atlantic with the help of a sextant, whisky and coffee in 1919—eight years before Charles Lindbergh's flight.

With millions of Americans unable to find employment, working wives became scapegoats.

For decades, the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have demanded answers.

In 2019, the island nation long ruled by dictator Fidel Castro and his family, got a new leader: Miguel Díaz-Canel.

It was at this small gathering where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others let the discontent of their lives boil over—and decided to do something about it.

The midcentury TV show  traded big prizes for women’s sob stories—and predicted the reality shows of today.

Television brought film into people’s homes—but flattened Hollywood.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that marriage isn’t always in the cards.

A years-long hunt ended in disappointment—and Nefertiti’s tomb remains elusive.

Milo of Croton reportedly ate 20 pounds of meat and drank 18 pints of wine a day to maintain his muscular physique.

On April 2, 1993, the stock price of Phillip Morris dropped a whopping 26 percent, the largest price drop of any company―until Facebook's July 2018 tumble.

Caroll Spinney—the puppeteer in the yellow suit—was in talks to go to space.

In the early 1980s, the U.S. government distributed some 300 million pounds of pungent-smelling processed cheese that had been produced with federal funds.

Chilling audiotapes tell the story of the Jonestown massacre.

The protestors helped themselves to the editor's cigars and would not budge from his office.

Panic set in after the partial nuclear meltdown as the public tried to decide which story to trust—and whether to evacuate.

Passage of the ERA seemed like a sure thing. So why did it fail to become law?

After Michael Donald’s brutal murder, his mother, Beulah Mae, fought for justice beyond the conviction of his killers.

It didn't end when Central High School was integrated.

Long after the Mississippi justice system gave up on the murder prosecution, Myrlie Evers kept the case alive.

The Panthers’ popular breakfast programs put pressure on political leaders to feed children before school.

There were multiple memorials and tributes to the fallen civil rights leader.

Law enforcement knew who killed Harry and Harriette Moore on Christmas in 1951. So why wasn’t justice served?

The humiliating abuse of African dignitaries under Jim Crow laws helped pressure the government to finally throw its weight behind civil rights legislation.

It took a scandal—and a grand jury investigation—to usher in a more honest era of TV game shows.

More than fifty years later, one of the only reporters allowed inside recalls the iconic concert.

Riots broke out in over 100 American cities after King’s murder.

When Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in protest at the 1968 Summer Games, Australian runner Peter Norman stood by them. It lost him his career.

The parties swept the nation during the 1950s and 1960s—and were more than they seemed.

Bild-Lilli was risqué—and just what Barbie inventor Ruth Handler was looking for.

Nearly 500 patrons perished in the 1942 inferno at Boston’s Cocoanut Grove.

Carry Nation had a bad history with alcohol—and she went to extremes to try and get it banned.

While the fears may be overblown, Halloween crimes involving poison have occurred.

As a divided nation fought, the holiday became more important than ever.

Robert Propst’s invention was designed to improve life for workers.

Whether to inspire, console—or defend themselves—presidents have turned to the television cameras.

The 1970 postal strike brought the nation to its knees.

The Tenure of Office Act was designed to rein in Andrew Johnson—but it sparked a years-long debate on executive power.

After a mishandling during birth and a brutally botched medical procedure, Rosemary Kennedy was compromised for life—but that would inspire her sister to make a difference.

The attack ad demonized prison furloughs. But did it motivate voters in the 1988 presidential campaign between George Bush and Michael Dukakis?

After serving in the military, the future 35th president worked as a foreign correspondent.

Eichmann, a chief mastermind of the Holocaust, escaped to South America after World War II. Israel's secret service was determined to root him out—and make him pay.

The third president had a secret: his carefully edited version of the New Testament.

From rum to cakes to rowdy parades, election day was a time for gathering and celebration.

Every TV and radio station in America was interrupted with an emergency message indicating nuclear war was imminent.

The archives’ treasures are the stuff of legend—but their existence is absolutely real.

Annoyed at a sit-in by workers, Hershey’s orchestrated a riot.