Forty-eight times between 1777 and 1910, an American state moved its capital. The count is unsettling because most people assume capitals were settled fixtures, chosen at statehood and inherited from the territorial period, but... Read More →
World War II killed somewhere between 70 and 85 million people - roughly 3 percent of the entire human population alive in 1940. That number is so large it becomes abstract until you consider... Read More →
On August 2, 1776, fifty-six men gathered in Philadelphia and signed what amounted to a death warrant - their own. By putting their names on the Declaration of Independence, they were committing treason against... Read More →
The office of the American presidency was invented on the fly. In 1787, the founders sat in Philadelphia arguing about whether the executive should be a single person or a committee of three. They... Read More →
Twelve men who sat in the Oval Office first gave orders on a battlefield. Some commanded armies that changed the course of history. Others held the rank in name only, their “generalship” a political... Read More →
Twelve of the first eighteen American presidents owned enslaved people at some point in their lives. Eight of them owned enslaved people while actively serving as president. They presided over a nation founded on... Read More →
The Vice Presidency has always been a strange job. You're one heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the world, but nobody voted for you to have it. Nine times in American history,... Read More →
Before joining the United States, four states existed as fully independent nations. One was a kingdom recognized by Europe. One fought a war for independence. One governed itself for 14 years while America refused to acknowledge it. And one declared independence on a Tuesday and was gone before the month ended. Read More →
Before Washington, D.C., America's capital bounced between nine different cities—fleeing British troops, mutinous soldiers, and deadly yellow fever epidemics. Here's every city that hosted the U.S. government. Read More →
Eight American presidents died in office—four by assassination, four from illness. From live snake remedies to mistresses at deathbeds, here's every president who never made it out of the White House alive. Read More →
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