This Week In American History

May 25     1935 At Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Babe Ruth hit his 714th home run, a record for career home runs that would stand for almost 40 years....

May 18 1860 Abraham Lincoln, a one-time U.S. representative from Illinois, was nominated for the U.S. presidency by the Republican National Convention meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Lincoln first gained national stature during...

May 11 1858 Minnesota entered the Union as the 32nd state. Known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” Minnesota is the northern terminus of the Mississippi River’s traffic and the...

May 4 1776 Rhode Island, the colony founded by the most radical religious dissenters from the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony, became the first North American colony to renounce its...

April 27 1956 World heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano retired from boxing at age 31, wanting to spend more time with his family. Marciano ended his career as the only heavyweight...

April 20 1841 Edgar Allan Poe’s story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," first appeared in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine. The tale is generally considered to be the first...

April 13 1870 The Metropolitan Museum of Art was officially incorporated in New York City. The brainchild of American expatriates in Paris and a number of wealthy New Yorkers, the...

April 6 1830 In Fayette, New York, Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church), organized the Church of Christ...

March 30 1867 U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two...

March 23 1839 The initials “O.K.” were first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the...

March 16 1802 The United States Military Academy—the first military school in the United States and often simply referred to as West Point—was founded by Congress for the purpose of...

March 9 1862 One of the most famous naval battles in American history occurred as two ironclads, the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia, fight to a draw off Hampton...