From the First Amendment to the Suez Crisis, get the facts on big things from history you should know—in five minutes or less.
What is free speech? How does the freedom of speech factor in to the U.S. Constitution? What are limitations and protections of free speech in the U.S.?
Learn about the Iran-Contra Affair under President Reagan who secretly supported an anti-Communist group in Nicaragua and funneled weapons to Iranian terrorists in exchange for American hostages.
Why did JFK promise to put a man on the moon? Was it just to beat the Soviets? Learn about the events that led to the creation of the Apollo Program.
Learn about the many names and identities of the man who would become the face of the Vietnamese nationalist movement.
The Stonewall Inn Riots sparked the beginning of the gay rights movement in America. Learn how members of the LGBTQ community came together to protest exploitation and police harassment.
Explore the history of the 1967 Detroit riots, from the political context that sparked them to the broader consequences of the conflict.
Learn about the Waco Siege and how cult leader David Koresh lived as a polygamist among his Branch Davidian followers at the Mount Carmel Center. Discover the 51-day siege, which ended in a deadly FBI raid on April 19, 1993.
In 1920, women in the U.S. gained the right to vote - but only after a struggle that lasted more than 70 years. Learn how suffragists fought for the 19th amendment.
Learn how media bias and anti-Mexican racism contributed to the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles in 1943, resulting in one of the worst episodes of racial violence in 20th century America. Discover the origins of the term "zoot suit."
Discover the history of the Suez Canal and how Egypt's President Nasser, with the support of the Soviet Union, seized the canal from the British in 1956, causing an international crisis.
The 38th parallel is the dangerous line that divides North and South Korea. But what lead to this division and why does it remain one of the most contentious areas in the world?
What did President Lyndon B. Johnson envision with his suite of domestic programs known as the Great Society? What did the programs entail, and what became of them after the 1960s?
A group called The New York Radical Women may have protested the 1968 Miss America Pageant, but contrary to popular myth, they did not burn any bras.
Learn about Puerto Rico's complex history, starting with its Spanish rule to becoming a U.S. territory.
In 1918 the Spanish Flu killed at least 50 million people around the world and was the second deadliest plague in history – after, well, the plague in the 1300s. But how exactly did a flu virus cause such massive death and destruction across the world?
Learn about the landmark Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia, which legalized interracial marriage in the United States.
Seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, American and Japanese forces clashed over Midway Atoll, a dot of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Explore the history of how the National Park Service came to be and how Presidents Lincoln, Grant, Roosevelt and Wilson helped protect areas like Yosemite and Yellowstone.
North Vietnam's surprise attack on the South during the holiday of Tet altered the entire course of the Vietnam War.
Learn what motivated white right-wing terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols to commit the Oklahoma City Bombing, which killed 168 people on April 19, 1995.
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte pulled off one of the greatest political coups in history, seizing control of the French government in a matter of days – without sacrificing a single life.
Archduke Ferdinand's assassination caused the outbreak of World War I, but what caused the assassination itself? It may have been something as simple as a wrong turn.
Learn the history of the freedom of religion as outlined in the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, how this freedom is enforced, and how religious policy manifests in the real world.
Explore the circumstances surrounding the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967, to the public.
It was all hands on deck as Americans pitched into a second World War effort after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
D-Day is one of the most widely known battles in WWII, but it almost didn't happen. Here's Why.
Find out why historians say Betty Ford, one of our most popular--and outspoken--first ladies, probably did more for American women than any other first lady in history.
The brutal violence of the Russian Revolution culminated in the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family, ending 300 years of Romanov rule over the Russian Empire.
What happened at Kent State University on May 4, 1970? Learn about the political and social movements that set the stage for a bloody showdown between student protestors and the Ohio National Guard.
