This Week In American History

November 26 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. This followed the precedent set by President Abraham Lincoln in...

November 19 1863 At the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American...

November 12 1799 Andrew Ellicott, an early American astronomer, witnessed the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys. Ellicott wrote in his journal that the “whole heaven appeared...

November 5 1940 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected for an unprecedented third term as president of the United States. Roosevelt’s decision to break the precedent set by George Washington was...

October 29 1965 Nine months after its subject’s assassination, The Autobiography of Malcolm X was first published. Through his work with the Nation of Islam and advocacy for Black power,...

October 22 1965 During the Vietnam War, about 35 miles northwest of Saigon, PFC Milton Lee Olive III of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, threw himself on an enemy...

October 15 1863 The H.L. Hunley, the world’s first successful combat submarine, sunk during a test run, killing its inventor and seven crew members. The submarine would go on to...

October 8 1871 The Great Chicago Fire began when flames sparked in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, igniting a two-day blaze that killed between 200 and 300...

October 1 1890 An act of Congress created Yosemite National Park. Environmental trailblazer John Muir (1838-1914) and his colleagues campaigned for the congressional action, which was signed into law by...

September 24 1789 The Judiciary Act of 1789 was passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made...

September 17 1787 The Constitution of the United States of America was signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. During an intensive debate,...

September 10 1813 The Battle of Lake Erie marked the first unqualified defeat of a British naval squadron in history. U.S. Captain Oliver Hazard Perry leads a fleet of nine...