It turns out, it’s actually an original!

A rare copy of the Magna Carta from 1300 sits in a display case at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 15. Lorin Granger/Harvard Law School

A “copy” of Magna Carta bought decades ago by Harvard Law School for just $27.50 is now understood to be an extremely rare original from 1300, according to new research.

British historians were able to verify the document’s true authenticity after an academic stumbled across the item while looking through Harvard Law School’s online archives. Continue reading →

The 855-women crew was responsible for clearing out a 3-year mail backlog to boost morale among U.S. troops by working around the clock in harsh conditions

In this image provided by the National Archives, members of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-female, all-Black unit formed during World War II, are shown in an undated Department of Defense photo. National Archives

Congressional leaders honored members of the all-female 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor one can receive from Congress.

The medal was bestowed upon all 855 members of the battalion, colloquially known as the Six-Triple-Eight, to pay tribute to their service during World War II when the group was deployed to England to clear a massive backlog of mail that had been stacking up over the course of three years. The backlog hindered troops abroad from receiving letters and packages from their loved ones, resulting in concerning levels of low morale. Continue reading →

Much can be gained by acknowledging our society’s roots in the classical Roman civilization.

    Sculpture of Cicero. He was a great Roman statesman, who contributed greatly to Western philosophy.

Probably no other civilization has shaped the Western world more than the ancient Romans did.

At the peak of the Roman empire, when its borders stretched from the foggy hills of northern Britain to the winding waterways of the Nile, upwards of 60 million people lived under the sign of the eagle. The Romans left traces of their influence on all the people they ruled and, taken together, had a profound impact on Western culture as a whole. Continue reading →

A photo of Thomas Jefferson (Library of Congress and his weather observation sheet for January and February 1790. (National Archives)

Three days before the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson purchased a thermometer from a local Philadelphia merchant while he was in town for the signing. He also bought a barometer, one of only a handful for sale in America at the time.

Jefferson immediately began recording weather observations and continued, with a few gaps, until a few days before his death in 1826. Jefferson began with an observation in the morning to capture the low temperature and one in the afternoon to record the high temperature, according to Princeton University. Continue reading →

With her flowing robes, flaming torch held high, and crown radiating out to the world like a beacon of hope, the Statue of Liberty has stood as an American emblem off the coast of New York for over two centuries.

If you were to ask the average American what they think of when they think of the Statue of Liberty, many would say she’s a symbol of the liberty sought by people around the world who have come to our shores to find it. As the first American sight countless immigrants saw when they arrived at Ellis Island, with her pedestal bearing the words, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” Continue reading →

GORHAM, Maine – While renovating a 200-year-old academy building, workers found a treasure trove of secret notes and doodles from students in the early 1800s.

The building, constructed in 1806, originally acted as a private high school, but was eventually absorbed into the University of Southern Maine as the campus grew around it. Continue reading →

During the Civil War, Americans relied on Harper’s Weekly as their primary source of news on the war. These newspapers contained detailed accounts of the battle, and insightful analyses of both the war and the politics of the day. Today, they make for incredible reading.

Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, U.S.N. — [Photographed by Mathew Brady.] 

During World War II, Della Raney became the first Black nurse to enter the Army Nurse Corps since World War I. (Wikimedia Commons)

In 1940, under growing social and political pressure, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the enlistment of Black aviators in the Army Air Corps. From 1941 until 1946, about 1,000 men were trained as Tuskegee pilots and 16,000 graduated as ground crew. While an impressive number for the time and circumstances, there were also many others at the Tuskegee Army Air Field (TAAF) training, teaching, learning and working to defeat fascism overseas.

When the Army Air Corps launched a pathway for Black men to serve in the air, it did so through a separate, segregated support infrastructure, which included separate, segregated health care. Only Black medical staff could treat Black service members and civilians, and that created quite a problem: There simply weren’t any Black nurses in the Army. Continue reading →

Esteban, York and James Beckwourth charted the American frontier between the 16th and 19th centuries.

York, the enslaved man who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their history-making expedition, appears in the rightmost canoe in this 1905 painting by Charles Marion Russell. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Every summer, millions of Americans flock to the United States’ 63 national parks. Federally protected wilderness areas offer people the chance to explore a wide variety of terrain, from the vibrant canyons of the Southwest to the imposing mountains of the West Coast. Today, these public lands often represent an escape for Americans, 81 percent of whom live in cities. Some may agree with the naturalist John Muir, who believed that “wildness is a necessity” and national parks are “fountains of life.”

When Americans walk through dense forests or descend into gloomy caverns, they might recall explorers of the past who trekked across the country decades before Congress established Yellowstone as the U.S.’s first national park in 1872. Names like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and Kit Carson loom large in the popular imagination. But their stories are not the only ones. Continue reading →

Introduction ~ Frédéric Bastiat is arguably one of the most important yet forgotten political economists of the eighteenth century. His defense of liberty, natural rights, private property rights, rule of law and justice make him a key figure in the development of classical liberal political thought. The purpose of this article is to analyze Bastiat’s insights into the nature of the rule of law and justice and how the perversion of law has been developed by Government authorities who in his own words, have used the power conferred to them by the electorate, to make use of “legal plunder” in order to pursue a private interests and advance a personal agenda in detriment of the individual in society. Continue reading →

The Navajo code, based on the language of the Navajo Nation, was considered unbreakable.

The United States’ Navajo code secured victories at major turning point battles and remained unbroken by the end of World War II. But it wasn’t a series of random, encrypted characters — it was a pre-existing language.

During the war, the U.S. Marine Corps enlisted members of the Navajo Nation, a Native American population and reservation in what is now Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Their originally unwritten language became the basis of a code that was used in most Marine operations in the Pacific Theater, according the U.S. Intelligence Community, a group of federal agencies dedicated to national security. Continue reading →

Issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789

Continue reading →

George Orwell, one of the most influential political writers of the 20th century, is widely recognized for his searing critiques of totalitarian regimes in his novels Animal Farm and 1984. Orwell’s portrayal of state control, propaganda, and the manipulation of truth has resonated with readers across the political spectrum. However, Orwell’s personal political ideology and his critiques of totalitarianism are far more complex than is often acknowledged. Rather than being a passive observer or simply an opponent of dictatorship, Orwell was deeply involved in the socialist movements of his time, aligning himself – whether accidentally or intentionally – with Trotskyist circles. Orwell was a powerful voice of the left, despite being a target in the war among socialist factions. Continue reading →

March 6, 2006 ~ It is that time of year for me to remind my readers about the magnificent stand by the defenders of The Alamo back in 1836. The Alamo fell on March 6 of that year. For more than 13 days, 186 brave and determined patriots withstood Santa Anna’s seasoned army of over 5,000 troops. To a man, the defenders of that mission fort knew they would never leave those ramparts alive. They had several opportunities to leave and live. Yet, they chose to fight and die. How foolish they must look to this generation of spoiled Americans! Continue reading →

“Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin!

Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out.”
Continue reading →

~ The Forefathers’ Finances ~
Many of us might be understandably guilty of viewing life in 18th-century America through a lens that only consists of tricornered hats, lots of tea and Mel Gibson single-handedly altering the course of the American Revolution with his marksmanship. Lest we all entirely forget our high school U.S. history class, life today is essentially unrecognizable from life in the colonies, as tends to happen to societies over a quarter of a millennium.

“Viewed from the 21st century, life in colonial America was like living on a different planet,” said University of Virginia professor Ronald Michener in a piece on economics of the time in The Colonial Williamsburg Journal. Continue reading →

Original copy of the US Constitution – Credit: Brunk Auctions

An incredible piece of US history has been found, and is expected to bring $20 million at auction.

In the lead-up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, 100 copies of the US Constitution were printed, but only 8 of them were signed by Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress, for the official purpose of being brought to each state for the delegates therein to deliberate on.

One of those 8 copies was just discovered inside a house in North Carolina, making it the only privately owned signed copy or the Constitution in the country. It’s now going up for auction at at Brunk Auctioneers, and the opening bid of $1 million has already been met. Continue reading →