American History
The 8th Illinois Cavalry Regiment engaged in the first action of the Battle of Gettysburg, defending Union positions and delaying the advance of waves of Confederate infantry. Chicago's Rosehill Cemetery has a connection to that history.
Amid growing global tensions, major gaps in diplomatic relations and fitful efforts to reduce the weapons stockpile, some experts are warning it’s time for world leaders to renew their focus on preventing nuclear war.
It was 160 years ago that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — after the Civil War’s end and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
The opera spotlights the women who challenged segregation in Montgomery, using classical music infused with sounds of gospel, jazz and the blues to tell the story centered around seven women.
A selection of 144 items owned by the Lincoln Presidential Foundation chronicling Lincoln’s personal and political life went up for sale at the auction house Freeman’s and Hindman in Chicago. In total, the auction saw 136 of 144 items sold for just over $6.2 million, not including auction fees, according to the auction house.
The “Lincoln’s Legacy” collection up for auction features 144 items chronicling Lincoln’s personal and political life, from manuscripts and artifacts from his time as a lawyer in Illinois to his presidential campaign, leading the country during the Civil War and his ultimate assassination.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, is a federal law that requires a museum or institution to publish public notices if any human remains or funerary objects it holds belong to a tribal nation.
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, which is also known as the fall of Saigon. The conflict killed millions of Vietnamese and 60,000 American service members.
In a March 27 executive order, President Donald Trump alleged that Smithsonian exhibits had disparaged the nation’s history via a “divisive, race-centered ideology.” A group of pastors is pushing back.
Glamorous Quinceañera dresses and an Indigenous ceremonial mask are among the items that will be on display in “Aquí en Chicago,” an upcoming Chicago History Museum exhibit celebrating the long history of Latinos in the city.
From a mother who lost her first-born baby, a son who never got to know his father, and a young man so badly injured that he still struggles to breathe, three decades have not healed the wounds from the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995.
State councils have been working on programming for America250, an initiative marking the milestone anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But the Republican administration’s deep cost-cutting effort across the federal government has led the National Endowment for the Humanities to cancel its grants.
Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site is a replica of the hamlet where Lincoln lived for six years during his early adulthood, and where he won his first elective office – though only after losing his first election.
Shermann “Dilla” Thomas has a new gig at theDuSable Black History Museum as a brand ambassador and social media chief — an opportunity he’s called a “dream job.” It’s just one of his many projects — from giving bus tours to posting on TikTok about the city’s lesser-known history.
The history of the month dates back almost a century, and the way it is celebrated and evolved has created history in itself.
State Rep. Sonya Harper (D-Chicago), sponsor of the Enslavement Era Disclosure and Redress Act, said it’s a way for corporations that profited on the backs of enslaved people to help repair the legacy of harm caused for generations of Black Americans.