This Week In American History

The tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday dates to the early history of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, when post-harvest holidays were celebrated on the weekday regularly set aside...

November 20    1923 The U.S. Patent Office granted Patent No. 1,475,074 to 46-year-old inventor and newspaperman Garrett Morgan for his three-position traffic signal. Though Morgan’s was not the first traffic...

November 13 1979 In the middle of a game in Kansas City, Philadelphia 76ers center Darryl Dawkins leapt over Kansas City Kings forward Bill Robinzine and slam-dunked the basketball, shattering...

Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on November 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War 1. President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of...

November 6 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. By the...

The origins of Halloween date back 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which was celebrated on October 31 on the eve of their new year. The Celts...

October 30 1938 “The War of the Worlds”—Orson Welles's realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth—was broadcast on the radio. The broadcast was extremely realistic and has become...

October 23 1915 At least 50,000 people take to the streets of New York City to march in the country’s largest women’s suffrage parade up to that time. Dr. Anna...

October 16 1923 Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, California. The studio, now known as the Walt Disney Company, has had an oversized impact...

October 9 1635 Religious dissident Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Williams had spoken out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to...

October 2 1955 Alfred Hitchcock Presents, an anthology show of stories based in suspense and mystery, premiered. The 30 minute episodes are introduced and concluded by Hitchcock himself, frequently in...

September 25 1775 After aborting a poorly planned and ill-timed attack on the British-controlled city of Montreal, Continental Army Colonel Ethan Allen was captured by the British. After being identified as...