219 Fun Facts About U.S. History

Which 1773 Boston protest saw colonists, some disguised as Mohawk warriors, destroy East India Company cargo?

The Boston Tea Party sent the tea into the harbor; Parliament answered with the Boston Port Act, shutting the port until the East India Company was repaid.

The 1846 Oregon Treaty set the US–British boundary along which parallel?

The 49th parallel: the 1846 Oregon Treaty extended to the Pacific the line already used east of the Rockies since 1818, though expansionists had demanded everything up to 54°40′.

What was the main purpose of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?

To explore land newly bought from France; the president also hoped for an all-water trade route to the Pacific, but the explorers found none.

Which amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery?

The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

Who shot the president at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on 14 April 1865?

John Wilkes Booth, a well-known stage actor, fled on horseback into Southern Maryland; twelve days later Union soldiers cornered him in a Virginia barn, where one shot him dead.

What was the name of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth in 1620?

The Mayflower was meant to cross with the Speedwell, but the Speedwell leaked so badly that both ships turned back, and the Mayflower sailed alone with 102 passengers.

Which battle is considered the turning point of the Civil War?

The Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 was the war's bloodiest, and the defeat ended the Confederacy's second invasion of the North.

Which 1836 siege ended with the deaths of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie?

The Alamo fell on March 6, 1836; weeks later, Texians crying 'Remember the Alamo!' routed Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto.

Which disease did William Gorgas defeat so the Panama Canal could be built?

Yellow fever had helped sink France's 1880s canal attempt; Gorgas's crews fumigated homes and cleared standing water where mosquitoes bred.

Which July 1861 clash near Manassas, Virginia, was the first major battle of the Civil War?

At Bull Run, Thomas Jackson earned the nickname 'Stonewall', and spectators who had driven out from the capital to watch were caught in the Union retreat.

Which Soviet satellite's 1957 launch spurred the creation of NASA?

Sputnik's launch rocket could also carry nuclear warheads, so Americans feared the Soviets could now strike U.S. shores.

Which gospel singer urged Martin Luther King Jr. to 'tell them about the dream' at the March on Washington?

Mahalia Jackson called out mid-speech, and King set aside his prepared text for the 'I have a dream' passage, which wasn't in the written speech.

Where did General Cornwallis surrender his army to Washington in October 1781?

Yorktown: Washington denied the British the customary honors of war, repaying them for refusing those honors to the Americans who surrendered at Charleston in 1780.

At which 1876 battle were Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and five companies of the 7th Cavalry wiped out?

Little Bighorn is the Battle of the Greasy Grass to the Lakota; Custer's widow, Libbie, spent decades writing best-sellers that kept his heroic legend alive.

Which Native American woman interpreted for the Lewis and Clark Expedition?

Sacagawea carried her infant son on the journey, and Clark wrote that a woman with a party of men was a token of peace.

What was a leading cause of the War of 1812 with Britain?

British impressment of American sailors was a chief U.S. grievance, yet the 1814 Treaty of Ghent that ended the war never mentioned it.

Who was President of the United States in October 1962?

John F. Kennedy had vowed at Rice University that September that America would go to the Moon 'not because they are easy, but because they are hard'.

What term names the early-1950s campaign of anti-communist accusations led by a Wisconsin senator?

McCarthyism faded after the 1954 televised hearings where lawyer Joseph Welch asked McCarthy, 'Have you no sense of decency?'; the Senate censured him that December.

Which state was admitted to the Union as the 50th state?

Hawaii became the 50th state in August 1959, and President Eisenhower ordered a 50-star flag that became official on July 4, 1960.

Which 1803 Supreme Court case established the principle of judicial review?

Marbury v. Madison: Chief Justice John Marshall ruled Marbury was owed his commission, yet struck down the law that let the Court order its delivery.

For how many days were 52 Americans held hostage in Iran after the 1979 embassy takeover?

The 52 were held 444 days; an April 1980 rescue attempt ended with eight U.S. servicemen dead after a helicopter hit a transport plane in the desert.

What was the Underground Railroad?

A secret network of escape routes for enslaved people: its guides were called 'conductors' and its hiding places 'stations', borrowing railroad slang.

Who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia from 1862 until its surrender in 1865?

Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in April 1865, only months after being named general-in-chief of all Confederate forces.

What was the Homestead Act of 1862?

A law granting free land to settlers willing to farm it: Southern Democrats had blocked such bills, and it passed only after secession removed them from Congress.

Which president, the first ever impeached, was in office when the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia?

Andrew Johnson's administration paid $7.2 million, and Russia sold partly because it feared Britain could seize the hard-to-defend colony in a future war.

The 1925 Scopes 'Monkey' trial over the teaching of evolution took place in which state?

Dayton, Tennessee: local boosters staged the case to put the small town on the map, and it drew Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan to opposite sides of the courtroom.

Which November 1863 speech dedicated a national cemetery for Union soldiers?

The Gettysburg Address lasted only about two minutes and followed a two-hour oration by Edward Everett, the day's featured speaker.

What kind of economic activity dominated the antebellum South?

Plantation agriculture: Southern leaders bet that Britain's need for their cotton would force it to back the Confederacy, but Britain had stockpiles and other suppliers.

Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?

Amelia Earhart aimed for Paris from Newfoundland in 1932, but strong winds, icy conditions and mechanical trouble forced her down in a Northern Ireland pasture.

Which 1930s domestic program was launched to pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression?

The New Deal took its name from the 1932 nomination acceptance speech: 'I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.'

Which American inventor is credited with developing the first practical electric light bulb?

Thomas Edison didn't make the first electric bulb; earlier inventors had, but his carbonized bamboo filament made a bulb that lasted long enough to sell.

Where did the Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained powered flight on December 17, 1903?

The Wright Flyer took off four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, at what is now Kill Devil Hills; the first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.

Which president was impeached by the House in December 1998 and acquitted by the Senate?

Bill Clinton was impeached even though House Republicans had just lost five seats in the 1998 midterms, an early sign the effort would fail.

Before winning the White House in 2008, Barack Obama represented which state in the U.S. Senate?

Illinois: Obama had lost a 2000 primary for a U.S. House seat to an incumbent congressman, four years before winning his Senate seat.

What was the significance of the 1848 gathering at Seneca Falls, New York?

It was the first women's rights convention, and its resolution demanding the vote was the only one that did not pass unanimously.

Which World War I president signed the 1916 act creating the National Park Service?

Woodrow Wilson signed it in August 1916; until then, U.S. Army cavalry troops had guarded Yellowstone for some three decades.

Which abolitionist led an 1859 raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, hoping to spark a slave revolt?

John Brown was hanged for treason against Virginia, and Union soldiers later marched to the song 'John Brown's Body'.

Which Prohibition-era Chicago gangster was convicted of income tax evasion in 1931?

Al Capone could be charged because the Supreme Court had ruled in 1927 that income from illegal activities was taxable; he got 11 years.

The 1814 bombardment of which fort inspired the words of 'The Star-Spangled Banner'?

Fort McHenry's defenders raised a huge American flag at dawn after the shelling, and Francis Scott Key's poem about it became the national anthem only in 1931.

What pen name signed all 85 essays of the Federalist Papers?

Publius honored Publius Valerius, a founder of the Roman Republic, and let the three authors keep their identities secret.

What was the Gilded Age in American history?

The late-1800s boom marked by inequality got its name from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's 1873 satirical novel, The Gilded Age.

Which president signed the 1988 Civil Liberties Act granting redress to interned Japanese Americans?

Ronald Reagan signed it in 1988; each surviving internee received $20,000 and a formal apology for the wartime incarceration.

In which city did President Eisenhower send Army troops in 1957 to escort nine Black students into Central High School?

Little Rock: Governor Orval Faubus had used the Arkansas National Guard to keep the students out, so Eisenhower federalized the Guard and sent the 101st Airborne.

Which Federalist Papers co-author became the first Chief Justice of the United States?

John Jay negotiated a 1794 treaty with Britain while still Chief Justice, then resigned from the Court in 1795 to become governor of New York.

What was the primary purpose of the Monroe Doctrine?

To oppose European interference in the Americas: the U.S. lacked the navy to enforce it, and Europe's powers largely ignored it until U.S. power grew in the late 1800s.

Which famous American industrialist founded Standard Oil?

John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil grew so dominant that the Supreme Court ordered it broken into more than 30 companies in 1911.

Which name is given to 29 October 1929, the climax of the Wall Street Crash?

Black Tuesday came days after leading bankers bought huge blocks of stock to calm the panic, a rescue that steadied prices only briefly.

Which colony was founded in 1607, making it the first permanent English settlement in North America?

Jamestown nearly failed: after the 1609–10 'Starving Time', survivors were abandoning it when a relief fleet under Lord De La Warr arrived.

Which cash crop, introduced by John Rolfe around 1612, rescued the Virginia colony from economic failure?

Tobacco: Rolfe brought a sweeter strain from Trinidad, and by the late 1610s it was the Virginia colony's first profitable export.

Who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson's draft condemned King George III for the slave trade, but Congress struck that passage after slaveholding delegates objected.

Which 1777 battle is the Revolution's turning point because it secured French support?

At Saratoga, British General John Burgoyne surrendered his entire army of about 6,000 men on 17 October 1777, and a formal Franco-American alliance followed in February 1778.

Which frontiersman blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky in 1775?

Daniel Boone later lost all his Kentucky land to lawsuits and debts, and he moved his family west to Spanish territory.

Which amendment in the Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech and religion?

The First Amendment was actually third on the list of twelve Congress sent the states in 1789; the first two weren't ratified then.

Who served as the first Secretary of the Treasury and established the national banking system?

Alexander Hamilton got the federal government to take on the states' war debts by agreeing to put the national capital on the Potomac River.

What 1803 land deal doubled the size of the United States for approximately $15 million?

The Louisiana Purchase came after Napoleon's army failed to crush the slave revolt in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, ending his dream of an empire in North America.

Which 1846-48 war gave the US California, Nevada, Utah and parts of other states?

Opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War, Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax, spent a night in jail and wrote 'Civil Disobedience'.

Which 1857 Supreme Court ruling held that African Americans could not be citizens?

Dred Scott v. Sandford: Scott sued for freedom after living where slavery was banned, but Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled Black Americans could not be citizens.

Which fort's April 1861 bombardment by Confederate batteries opened the Civil War?

Fort Sumter's bombardment killed no one, but during the garrison's 100-gun salute after surrendering, a spark set off cartridges and killed a private.

Which South Dakota landmark did sculptor Gutzon Borglum's crews carve between 1927 and 1941?

Mount Rushmore's sculptor died in March 1941, months before carving ended that October, and his son took over the final work.

What was the 1865-1877 era after the Civil War called?

Reconstruction sent Black Americans such as Hiram Revels to Congress, but white supremacist violence helped roll back those gains.

Which 1948-49 operation flew food and coal into a city the Soviets had cut off by road and rail?

The Berlin Airlift kept West Berlin supplied for nearly eleven months, until the Soviets lifted the blockade and reopened the roads, canals and railways in May 1949.

Which industrialist dominated the American steel industry in the late 1800s?

Andrew Carnegie sold his steel empire to J.P. Morgan in 1901, then gave away most of his fortune, funding thousands of public libraries.

Which New York Harbor island processed millions of immigrants from 1892 to 1954?

Ellis Island's doctors gave each arrival only a quick look on 'the Line', and most immigrants were cleared within a few hours.

Which president is known for "Trust Busting" corporate monopolies during the Progressive Era?

Theodore Roosevelt earned the trust-buster label, yet his successor, William Howard Taft, brought more antitrust cases in a single term.

What was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869 with a ceremonial golden spike?

The first transcontinental railroad connected the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines, reducing cross-country travel from months to about a week.

Which conflict resulted in the U.S. acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines?

The Spanish-American War lasted only months, yet the United States emerged from it as a world power with a new stake in global affairs.

What intercepted 1917 German message helped push the US into World War I?

The Zimmermann Telegram: Germany offered Mexico help recovering Texas, Arizona and New Mexico if it joined a war against the United States; Congress declared war on 6 April 1917.

Which constitutional amendment, ratified in 1920, guaranteed U.S. women the right to vote?

The 19th Amendment won its 36th state by one legislator's vote: 24-year-old Harry Burn switched to yes after a letter from his mother.

Which constitutional amendment banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol in the U.S.?

The 18th Amendment took effect in January 1920 and was enforced by the Volstead Act, though it never outlawed possessing or drinking alcohol.

Which U.S. city was devastated in 1906 by an earthquake and the fires that burned for days afterward?

San Francisco's fires did far more damage than the shaking, because the quake broke the water mains that firefighters needed.

Which president signed the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798?

John Adams signed the acts amid the undeclared Quasi-War with France; the Naturalization Act among them raised the residency requirement for citizenship from five years to fourteen.

Which Japanese admiral planned the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor?

Isoroku Yamamoto doubted Japan could win a long war, and in 1943 U.S. codebreakers read his flight plans so fighters could shoot down his plane.

What was the code name for the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944?

Operation Overlord's landings were postponed a day by bad weather, then launched on June 6 after meteorologists forecast a brief break.

Which secret U.S. project developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

The Manhattan Project was guarded by strict secrecy, yet Soviet spies such as Klaus Fuchs still passed its bomb designs to Moscow.

Which nickname came to stand for the American women who took factory and shipyard jobs during World War II?

Rosie the Riveter got her name from a hit wartime song, while the famous 'We Can Do It!' poster was seen only briefly at Westinghouse and tied to her decades later.

Which B-29 bomber dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945?

Enola Gay took its name from the mother of its pilot, Paul Tibbets, who flew the Hiroshima mission himself.

Which US Cold War doctrine pledged to contain the spread of communism worldwide?

The Truman Doctrine began with $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey, after Britain said it could no longer support the Greek government.

Which 1954 Supreme Court case declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional?

Brown v. Board of Education was unanimous, 9–0; Chief Justice Earl Warren worked behind the scenes so no justice would dissent.

Which space shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after launch in January 1986, killing teacher Christa McAuliffe?

Challenger's rubber O-ring seals failed in freezing weather, and engineers had warned NASA the night before that the cold could make them fail.

Which 1962 standoff over Soviet nuclear weapons brought the superpowers to the brink of war?

The Cuban Missile Crisis ended with a public U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba and a secret promise to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.

In front of which monument was the 'I Have a Dream' speech delivered in August 1963?

King spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of more than 250,000 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on 28 August 1963.

Which 1964 law prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin?

The Civil Rights Act's ban on sex discrimination in jobs was added by segregationist Howard Smith, whose motives are still debated; the bill passed anyway.

Which president escalated U.S. military involvement in Vietnam by committing combat troops in 1965?

Lyndon B. Johnson's escalation left the war a bloody stalemate, and in March 1968 he announced he would not seek another term.

Which Apollo 11 astronaut stayed in lunar orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon?

Michael Collins lost all radio contact with Earth each time his command module passed behind the Moon.

What nickname did the Washington Post give its secret Watergate source?

Deep Throat was FBI official Mark Felt, whom Nixon had passed over for director after J. Edgar Hoover's death, naming L. Patrick Gray instead.

Which 1965 act banned discriminatory practices such as literacy tests that disenfranchised African Americans?

The Voting Rights Act followed an attack by state troopers on peaceful voting-rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, which drew national outrage as 'Bloody Sunday.'

Which president signed the Camp David Accords in 1978, brokering peace between Egypt and Israel?

Jimmy Carter kept Sadat and Begin talking at Camp David for 13 days; the two leaders shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize, while Carter's own came only in 2002.

Which terrorist organization carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States?

Al-Qaeda's 19 hijackers seized four airliners; two hit the World Trade Center, one hit the Pentagon, and passengers fought back on the fourth, which crashed in a field.

Which state was the first to ratify the U.S. Constitution, on December 7, 1787?

Delaware ratified unanimously, though months earlier its delegate Gunning Bedford had warned that small states might side with a foreign country unless their interests were protected.

Which European power ruled New Orleans during the American Revolution?

Spain had held New Orleans since France handed it over in 1762, and its governor Bernardo de Gálvez smuggled gunpowder up the Mississippi to the American rebels.

Which Continental Army general plotted in 1780 to surrender the fort at West Point to the British?

Benedict Arnold escaped when his British contact, Major John André, was caught carrying papers that exposed the plot; Arnold then led British raids against Americans.

Which 1820 compromise admitted Maine as a free state and banned slavery north of 36°30′?

The Missouri Compromise paired slave-state Missouri with free Maine, so the balance of free and slave states in the Senate held.

Which US program, launched in 1948, gave over $12 billion to rebuild Western European economies after WWII?

The Marshall Plan was offered to the Soviet Union and its satellites too, but Moscow refused the aid, and so did its Eastern Bloc satellites.

Which 1906 novel exposed filthy conditions in Chicago's meatpacking plants?

The Jungle shocked readers so badly that Congress passed a meat inspection law and the Food and Drugs Act that same year.

What was the XYZ Affair of 1797-1798?

French agents demanded bribes from US envoys before any talks; when the dispatches were published, the outrage fed the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war with France.

What was the purpose of the Freedmen's Bureau, established in 1865?

The Freedmen's Bureau existed to aid formerly enslaved people and refugees, and it oversaw labor contracts for freed workers and helped set up schools.

What did Rutherford B. Hayes do under the Compromise of 1877?

Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the South, pulling the guards from two statehouses, and Democrats quickly took control of both states' governments.

What was the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?

Congress's approval of force in Vietnam passed with just two senators opposed, after reported attacks on U.S. destroyers, though the second attack most likely never happened.

What were the Espionage and Sedition Acts meant to do?

The acts were used to suppress dissent and criticism during World War I; Socialist Eugene V. Debs got ten years for an antiwar speech and ran for president from prison.

What was the Lend-Lease Act of 1941?

Supplying Allied nations with materiel before US entry was, the president argued, like lending a neighbor your garden hose while his house was on fire.

Which 1819 Supreme Court case affirmed Congress's implied power to charter a national bank?

McCulloch v. Maryland also stopped Maryland from taxing the national bank, with John Marshall warning that 'the power to tax involves the power to destroy.'

What was the Dawes Act of 1887?

The Dawes Act was a law splitting tribal lands into individual allotments, and land declared 'surplus' was sold to non-Native settlers, costing tribes vast territory.

What was the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s?

Interior Secretary Albert Fall took bribes for secret leases of federal oil reserves, awarded without bidding, and became the first Cabinet officer jailed for crimes in office.

What was the significance of Shays' Rebellion?

Shays' Rebellion exposed the Articles of Confederation's weakness: with no federal army to call on, Massachusetts had Boston merchants pay for the militia that crushed it.

E.D. Nixon, who planned to make Rosa Parks's arrest a test case, had led Montgomery's chapter of which group?

The NAACP's former Montgomery chief bailed Parks out of jail and judged her an ideal test case because no one could fault her character.

Which colony did James Oglethorpe found as a fresh start for England's poor?

Georgia is often called a debtors' colony, but its trustees chose the 'deserving poor' as settlers instead of the freed debtors Oglethorpe first had in mind.

Which Boston silversmith rode to Lexington on 18 April 1775 to warn of British troops?

Paul Revere warned that 'the regulars are coming out,' not 'the British are coming,' and a British patrol caught him before he reached Concord.

Which European volunteer, a former aide to Frederick the Great, drilled the Continental Army at Valley Forge?

Baron von Steuben spoke little English, so he wrote his drills in French and trained a model company of about 120 men, who then taught the rest of the army.

Which general presided over Japan's formal surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri in September 1945?

Douglas MacArthur signed with six pens and gave two to Allied generals who had just been freed from Japanese prison camps.

Which Civil War nurse founded the American Red Cross?

Clara Barton also set up a Missing Soldiers Office as the war ended, answering families' letters and tracing men who never came home.

Which Revolutionary War spy is credited with regretting that he had 'but one life to lose for my country'?

Nathan Hale was hanged the day after his capture, at 21, and no official record of his final speech exists, so historians doubt the famous line.

Which 1919 treaty ending World War I did the U.S. Senate refuse to ratify?

The Treaty of Versailles carried the League of Nations covenant, which senators balked at, so the United States never joined the League its own president had championed.

Who became the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1981?

Sandra Day O'Connor could not find a law firm willing to hire her as a lawyer after law school, because she was a woman.

Which president pardoned Richard Nixon in September 1974?

Gerald Ford's pardon was widely condemned and may have cost him the 1976 election, yet in 2001 it earned him a Profile in Courage Award.

Which military alliance did the United States help found in April 1949?

NATO was built to deter a Soviet attack on Western Europe, yet its mutual-defense pledge, Article 5, was first invoked after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

In which city was a U.S. president assassinated on 22 November 1963?

Dallas police arrested the accused gunman within hours, but two days later a nightclub owner shot him dead inside police headquarters on live TV.

Which 1807 law, meant to pressure Britain and France, left New England's merchant ships idle in port?

The Embargo Act sent American exports plunging, so Congress replaced it with a narrower ban on trade with Britain and France just before Jefferson left office.

Where did the first U.S. president take the oath of office in April 1789?

New York City hosted the oath because it was the nation's first capital under the Constitution, home to the first Congress and Supreme Court.

At which Ohio university did National Guard troops kill four students during a May 1970 antiwar protest?

Kent State University's protest followed Nixon's announcement that U.S. troops had invaded Cambodia, and the shootings set off a nationwide student strike that closed hundreds of campuses.

Which 1966 Supreme Court case requires police to inform suspects of their rights before questioning?

Miranda v. Arizona threw out Ernesto Miranda's confession, yet at his retrial without it, his former girlfriend's testimony convicted him again.

On which Pacific island did Joe Rosenthal photograph the famous 1945 flag-raising?

Iwo Jima's famous photo actually shows the second flag-raising on Mount Suribachi that day, when Marines put up a larger flag in place of the first.

Who served as president of the Confederacy during the Civil War?

Jefferson Davis was captured in May 1865 and held two years at Fort Monroe, but he was never tried for treason and went free on bail in 1867.

Who was the President of the United States during most of World War II?

Franklin D. Roosevelt collapsed while sitting for a portrait in April 1945 and died of a stroke, weeks before Germany surrendered.

Which Founding Father is known as the 'Father of the Constitution'?

James Madison first thought a bill of rights unnecessary, then drafted the amendments that became the Bill of Rights once ratification seemed to depend on it.

What do the stripes on the U.S. flag stand for?

The original colonies: after Vermont and Kentucky joined, the flag grew to 15 stripes, until an 1818 law went back to 13 and let stars count the states.

Who wrote the 1776 pamphlet Common Sense urging independence from Britain?

Thomas Paine meant to give his share of Common Sense's profits to the American cause, but he never collected it from his printer, Robert Bell.

Which amendment, ratified in 1868, guaranteed equal protection of the laws?

The 14th Amendment had to be ratified by former Confederate states before they could regain their representation in Congress.

Which river did Washington cross on 25 December 1776 to attack Trenton?

The Delaware River crossing ran hours late in sleet, yet Washington's troops still captured most of the Hessian garrison at Trenton with very few American losses.

What was the name of George Washington's plantation home on the Potomac River?

Mount Vernon was named by George Washington's half-brother Lawrence, after Admiral Edward Vernon, the British naval officer he had served under.

Whose famously large signature appears first on the Declaration of Independence?

John Hancock signed first as president of Congress, but the tale that he wrote big so King George could read it without spectacles is likely a later legend.

Who made the first solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927?

Charles Lindbergh had no front window: a big fuel tank sat ahead of the cockpit for safety, so he looked forward through a periscope.

Which city served as the Confederate capital for most of the Civil War?

Richmond burned as the Confederates pulled out in April 1865: they set fire to warehouses, and the wind spread the flames through the city.

Which river became the official border between Texas and Mexico in 1848?

The Rio Grande won out over the Nueces River farther north, which Mexico had long insisted was the true Texas border.

Which 1963 Supreme Court case required states to provide lawyers for poor felony defendants?

Gideon v. Wainwright began with a petition Clarence Earl Gideon wrote by hand from prison, and the justices sided with him unanimously.

Which state was the first to secede from the Union, in December 1860?

South Carolina's convention voted 169–0 to leave the Union, and Charleston erupted in bonfires, parades and ringing church bells.

Who founded the Hull House settlement in Chicago in 1889?

Jane Addams, who co-founded Hull House with Ellen Gates Starr, was attacked as unpatriotic for opposing World War I, yet in 1931 she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Which April 1889 race began at the stroke of noon, as tens of thousands of settlers dashed to stake claims?

The Oklahoma Land Rush drew an estimated 50,000 people, and settlers who sneaked in early to grab the best claims were called 'Sooners.'

Which U.S. battleship exploded in Havana harbor in February 1898, killing more than 260 sailors?

The USS Maine's explosion was blamed on an enemy mine at the time, but later investigations disagreed on what really caused it.

Which 1832–33 standoff saw President Jackson threaten force against a state that defied federal tariff laws?

The Nullification Crisis ended when Congress paired a lower tariff with a bill authorizing force, and both sides claimed victory.

What nickname did Andrew Jackson's troops give him for his toughness?

Old Hickory came from an 1813 march: ordered to dismiss his volunteers far from home, Jackson refused and led them back himself, sharing their hardships.

Which 1930s program put young men to work planting trees and building parks?

The Civilian Conservation Corps paid enrollees $30 a month but required most of it, $22 to $25, to be sent home to their families.

The Erie Canal linked Lake Erie with which river at Albany?

The Hudson met the canal at Albany, and critics who had mocked the project as 'Clinton's Ditch' watched it slash freight costs.

Which 1890 law, named for an Ohio senator, prohibits anticompetitive agreements and monopolies?

The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sponsored by Ohio senator John Sherman, bans anticompetitive agreements and any conduct that monopolises or attempts to monopolise a market; Standard Oil was broken up under it in 1911.

Which 1935 act created federal old-age pensions funded by payroll taxes?

Congress left farmworkers and domestic workers out of the Social Security Act's pensions, so those workers had no coverage at first.

Which Chicago labor protest on May 4, 1886 ended with a bomb explosion?

In the Haymarket Affair the bomber was never identified, yet eight anarchists were convicted after a trial widely criticized as unfair.

Which 1794 tax revolt collapsed as a militia army of nearly 13,000 marched west?

The Whiskey Rebellion ended without a battle, and President Washington pardoned the only two men convicted of treason.

Which June 1942 U.S. naval victory sank four Japanese fleet carriers and is called a turning point of the Pacific war?

At Midway, U.S. codebreakers had learned Japan's plan weeks ahead, so American carriers lay in wait and sank all four Japanese carriers.

Which president signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990?

George H. W. Bush signed the law four months after activists left their wheelchairs and crawled up the Capitol steps to demand its passage.

Which Compromise of 1850 law forced officials and citizens of free states to cooperate with slaveholders?

Under the Fugitive Slave Act, anyone who fed or sheltered a person escaping slavery risked six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Which September 1862 battle was the bloodiest single day in American military history?

Antietam, fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on 17 September 1862, left about 23,000 casualties in one day; the Union's strategic win let Lincoln issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Which suffragist was arrested for voting in the 1872 presidential election and then fined $100?

Susan B. Anthony never paid the fine, and because the judge declined to jail her, she could not appeal her case to the Supreme Court.

Which 1872 scandal exposed Union Pacific insiders giving congressmen shares in a railroad construction company?

The Crédit Mobilier scandal let Union Pacific insiders bill the government millions more than the railroad cost to build.

What was the code name of the first nuclear weapons test, conducted on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico?

Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer picked the name, apparently from John Donne's poetry, though he later admitted he wasn't sure why.

Which 1973 law requires a U.S. president to withdraw troops within 60 days without congressional approval?

The War Powers Resolution became law only after Congress overrode Nixon's veto; he had called it 'unconstitutional and dangerous.'

Which 1783 agreement ended the Revolutionary War and recognized the independence of the United States?

The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, stretched the new nation's territory west all the way to the Mississippi River.

Which U.S. president served two non-consecutive terms as the 22nd and 24th president?

Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd president (1885-1889) and the 24th (1893-1897), the first to serve non-consecutive terms. He lost to Benjamin Harrison in 1888 despite winning the popular vote, then beat him in 1892.

Which 1854 law let settlers in two new territories decide the slavery question by popular sovereignty?

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, championed by Senator Stephen Douglas, stoked national tensions over slavery and led to the armed clashes known as 'Bleeding Kansas'.

What was the purpose of the Federalist Papers?

To promote ratification of the Constitution, the 85 essays ran serially in New York newspapers to win over that state's voters.

Which 1794 victory by Anthony Wayne ended the Northwest Indian War in Ohio?

Fallen Timbers led to the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, in which Native nations gave up their claims to most of present-day Ohio.

Which 1944 law paid returning World War II veterans' college tuition?

The GI Bill also paid living costs, and veterans flooded college campuses in the years after the war.

Which future president, assassinated just months into his term, published his own proof of the Pythagorean theorem?

James Garfield was shot four months into his term, but infection, not the bullet itself, killed him that September.

Which U.S. president fathered the most children, with 15 across two marriages?

John Tyler later sided with the South and won a seat in the Confederate Congress, so when he died in 1862 the North denounced him as a traitor.

Which amendment, ratified in 1913, let Congress levy a federal income tax?

The 16th Amendment, ratified in February 1913, gave Congress power to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states, overturning an 1895 Supreme Court ruling.

Which carpenter building John Sutter's sawmill found the gold that set off the 1848 California gold rush?

James W. Marshall and John Sutter first tried to keep the discovery quiet, fearing what a rush would do, but the news soon got out.

Which elderly Salem man, accused of witchcraft in 1692, was pressed to death for refusing to plead?

Giles Corey was 81 when the sheriff had heavy stones piled on him, and he still refused to enter a plea.

Which 1676 Virginia uprising saw colonists burn their own capital in a revolt against Governor William Berkeley?

Bacon's Rebellion fell apart soon after its leader, Nathaniel Bacon, died of dysentery in October 1676.

What 1861 innovation made the Pony Express obsolete after only about 18 months of service?

The transcontinental telegraph reached California in October 1861; Pony Express riders had cut coast-to-coast message time to about 10 days, but the company folded within days of the wire's completion.

Which 1911 fire spurred new workplace safety laws?

The Triangle Shirtwaist fire killed 146 people, yet its owners were acquitted of manslaughter, and some families got just $75 in compensation.

Which Steinbeck novel follows the Joad family fleeing the Dust Bowl?

The Grapes of Wrath came out in 1939, and that same year it was banned and even burned in some places.

Which French engineer was hired in 1881 to design the hidden frame that holds up the Statue of Liberty?

Gustave Eiffel took over after the first engineer died in 1879, designing a four-legged pylon to carry the statue's copper skin.

Which famous American building did British troops set ablaze in August 1814 after eating the dinner laid out inside?

The White House fire was put out within a day by a sudden, violent thunderstorm, and the British occupation of the capital lasted only about 26 hours.

Which sitting vice president fatally shot a former Treasury secretary in an 1804 duel at Weehawken, New Jersey?

Aaron Burr was charged with murder in both New York and New Jersey, but neither charge ever reached trial.

Which American icon was given its famous name in the 1830s by abolitionists who adopted it as their symbol?

The Liberty Bell was ordered in 1751 as the plain bell of the Pennsylvania State House, and its rim cracked at the very first test strike.

Which Native American nation's language did U.S. Marines turn into a Pacific battlefield code that was never broken?

Navajo had no word for submarine, so the Marine code talkers radioed the words for iron fish instead.

Which president's name was given to the shantytowns that homeless Americans built during the Great Depression?

Herbert Hoover also lent his name to 'Hoover blankets', the old newspapers people slept under, and 'Hoover flags', empty pockets turned inside out.

Which woman, nicknamed 'Moses', escaped slavery in Maryland and made about 13 trips back to rescue some 70 others?

Harriet Tubman later guided a Union Army raid at Combahee Ferry that freed more than 700 enslaved people.

Which city served as the temporary U.S. capital for ten years while a permanent one was built on the Potomac River?

Philadelphia got the role under the Residence Act of 1790, which gave the builders until December 1800 to have the new capital ready.

Which Mercury astronaut became the first American to orbit Earth in 1962 and later spent 24 years as an Ohio senator?

John Glenn went back into space in 1998 aboard the shuttle Discovery at the age of 77, while still a sitting senator.

Which Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman broke Major League Baseball's color line on April 15, 1947?

Jackie Robinson's number 42 was retired by every major league team in 1997, the first time any professional athlete had been honored that way.

Which park, protected by an act of Congress in 1872, is widely regarded as the world's first national park?

Yellowstone had no park service to protect it at first, so the Army was sent in from 1886 and ran the park for some three decades.

Which Massachusetts-born inventor built the cotton gin in 1793, after which U.S. cotton exports boomed?

Eli Whitney saw little of the money, because lawsuits over patent infringement ate the profits and his gin company went out of business in 1797.

Which 1969 music festival drew more than 460,000 people to Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York?

Woodstock took its name from a town it never took place in, and Bethel's officials had been assured that no more than 50,000 people would turn up.

Which English colony, settled in 1587, was found abandoned three years later with 'CROATOAN' carved into its palisade?

Roanoke was also the birthplace of Virginia Dare, the first English child born on what would become U.S. soil, who vanished with the rest of the settlers.

Which holiday marks the day in 1865 when a Union general reached Galveston to enforce the end of slavery there?

Juneteenth blends the words June and nineteenth, and the day it marks came 900 days after the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect.

Which physicist became the first American woman in space on a shuttle flight in June 1983?

Sally Ride was the third woman in space overall, and she went up again the following year to become the first American woman to fly twice.

In which Virginia village did Ulysses S. Grant accept the surrender of the main Confederate army in April 1865?

Appomattox Court House saw the papers signed in the parlor of Wilmer McLean, who had moved there to escape the war after an 1861 battle was fought around his old home.

Which Shawnee leader united tribes against U.S. expansion and was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813?

Tecumseh died fighting alongside British troops in Canada, and the multi-tribal confederacy he had built collapsed with him.

Which nickname did 17,000 World War I veterans earn in 1932 by camping in the capital to demand early pay?

The Bonus Army held certificates that could not be redeemed until 1945, and instead of cash the marchers met infantry, cavalry and tanks sent to clear their camps.

Which abolitionist wrote a bestselling 1845 memoir of his years in slavery and founded the newspaper The North Star?

Frederick Douglass became the most photographed American of the 19th century, sitting for portraits on purpose to advance his political views.

Which British ocean liner was torpedoed by a German U-boat in May 1915, killing about 128 Americans?

RMS Lusitania went down in only 18 minutes after a single torpedo strike, taking nearly 1,200 of the roughly 1,960 people aboard with her.

Which volunteer cavalry regiment, led by a future president, helped storm Kettle Hill on July 1, 1898?

The Rough Riders were cavalry in name only by then: their horses had not been shipped with them, so they fought on foot as light infantry.

Which peace program, laid before Congress in January 1918, ended with a call for a general association of nations?

The Fourteen Points drew a famous jab from French premier Georges Clemenceau, who is said to have remarked that the good Lord had only ten.

Which island nation did the 1901 Platt Amendment oblige to lease land for the U.S. naval base built at Guantánamo Bay?

Cuba also had to accept that the United States could intervene in its affairs, and most of those terms were not repealed until 1934.

Which publisher's New York Journal fought a circulation war with Pulitzer's World and loudly called for war in 1898?

William Randolph Hearst later became the model for Charles Foster Kane, the newspaper tycoon at the center of Orson Welles's 1941 film Citizen Kane.

Which U.S. naval officer led the 'black ships' into Edo Bay in 1853 to press Japan to open its ports?

Matthew Perry came back the following year and signed the Convention of Kanagawa, which opened the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American ships.

Which nickname was given to the 16 U.S. battleships sent on a voyage around the globe from 1907 to 1909?

The Great White Fleet owed its name to the stark white peacetime paint on its hulls, which were finished with gilded scrollwork at the bow.

Which country did Panama break away from in 1903, as U.S. warships stopped troops from retaking the territory?

Colombia's congress had rejected an American canal treaty only months earlier, and the United States was the first country to recognize the breakaway republic.

Which nickname stuck to the foreign policy of President William Howard Taft and his secretary of state, Philander Knox?

Dollar diplomacy was summed up as substituting dollars for bullets, using American economic power to get its way in Latin America and East Asia.

Which country did Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door notes of 1899 aim to keep open to trade with all nations?

China looked about to be carved up 'like a melon' by rival powers, so Hay asked each of them to pledge equal access to the ports in its sphere of influence.

Which French ruler sold 828,000 square miles of North America to the U.S. in 1803 for under three cents an acre?

Napoleon Bonaparte chose to sell after France failed to put down a revolt in Saint-Domingue and a new war with Britain loomed.

Which state's southern strip was bought from Mexico in the 1853 Gadsden Purchase for a rail route?

Arizona's southern strip, Tucson included, was sold by a Santa Anna government in financial distress, which took $10 million for it and a corner of New Mexico.

Which future state did the United States gain under the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty while renouncing its claims to Texas?

Florida was only part of the bargain: the same treaty drew the first U.S. boundary running all the way across the continent to the Pacific.

Which river became the western boundary of the United States under the 1783 peace treaty with Britain?

The Mississippi boundary came with a promise that both Britain and the United States would have perpetual access to the waterway.

Which Secretary of State negotiated the 1867 purchase of Alaska for about two cents an acre?

William Seward's deal was labeled 'Seward's Folly' and 'Seward's Icebox' by some opponents, who argued that the United States had bought useless land.

Which general won the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto and served as the first president of the Republic of Texas?

Sam Houston is the only person ever elected governor of two different U.S. states, having held that office elsewhere before he moved to Texas.

Which president, called the first 'dark horse' nominee, settled the Oregon dispute and kept a pledge to serve one term?

James K. Polk left office in 1849 after his single term and died of cholera soon afterward, only months into his retirement.

Which queen was overthrown in 1893 by a coup backed by U.S. Marines, before her island kingdom was annexed in 1898?

Liliuokalani was also a composer, best known for the song 'Aloha Oe', and she published her autobiography in 1898, the year of the annexation.

Which 1787 law organized the territory between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes and banned slavery there?

The Northwest Ordinance promised that any part of the territory reaching 60,000 people could join as a state on an equal footing with the original thirteen.

Which humorist co-wrote the 1873 satirical novel that gave the Gilded Age its name?

Mark Twain wrote it with Charles Dudley Warner, and though it is not among his best-known works it has run to more than 100 editions.

Which central banking system, with twelve regional banks, did Congress create in 1913 after the Panic of 1907?

The Federal Reserve was a compromise: private banks would control the regional banks, but a central board of presidential appointees held the controlling interest.

Which nickname for reform journalists like Ida Tarbell comes from a character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress?

Muckrakers got the label from a 1906 presidential speech, which granted that they were often indispensable, but only if they knew when to stop raking the muck.

Which 1896 Supreme Court ruling upheld segregated rail cars under the doctrine later called 'separate but equal'?

Plessy v. Ferguson was decided 7–1, and the lone dissenter, John Marshall Harlan, wrote that the Constitution 'is color-blind'.

Which animal gave the Progressive Party of 1912 its nickname after its candidate boasted he felt as strong as one?

Bull moose also became the party's emblem after the candidate, asked whether being shot would hurt his campaign, told a reporter he was 'fit as a bull moose'.

Which orator won the 1896 Democratic nomination at age 36 with his 'Cross of Gold' speech against the gold standard?

William Jennings Bryan went on to be the Democratic nominee three times, in 1896, 1900 and 1908, and never won the presidency.

Which officials did the Seventeenth Amendment let voters choose directly, taking that power from state legislatures?

U.S. senators had been picked by state legislatures, where deadlocks were common: between 1891 and 1905, 46 such elections stalled across 20 states.

Which union leader, jailed for defying a court order in the 1894 Pullman Strike, ran for president five times?

Eugene V. Debs made all five runs as a Socialist, the last of them in 1920 from a prison cell, and still took 3.4 percent of the popular vote.

Which reporter used early flash photography to expose New York's tenements in the 1890 book How the Other Half Lives?

Jacob Riis had emigrated from Denmark carrying $40 donated by friends, and at first got by on odd jobs and by stowing away on freight trains.

Which 1883 law replaced the spoils system with merit exams after a disappointed office seeker shot a sitting president?

The Pendleton Act was signed by Chester A. Arthur, who had himself risen through the patronage system as a spoilsman.

Which group of World War II pilots, trained in Alabama, were the first African American aviators in the U.S. military?

The Tuskegee Airmen were nicknamed the Red Tails after pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group painted the tails of their fighters red.