On this day in 1954, a soldier receives the Medal of Honor. Ola Lee Mize has been called “one of Alabama’s great fighting sons,” who fought “the greatest one-man battle of the Korean War.” Yet Mize nearly missed his chance to serve in the Army. At only 120 pounds, the son of Alabama sharecroppers was initially deemed too light to serve. Moreover, an old injury had left him virtually blind in one eye. He should have flunked the vision exam, but he tricked the examiner into te

On this day in 1779, Benjamin Tallmadge prepares to raid Lloyd’s Neck. You may know Tallmadge as the leader of George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, but did you know that there was a more traditional military side to him, too? Tallmadge was an officer in the Continental Army. He was also a native of Long Island. Understandably, this Long Island native was disturbed by much of what was going on in that area during the American Revolution. New York was the British headquarte

On this day in 1817, a little-known Revolutionary War soldier passes away. It’s said that Tristram Thomas obtained the surrender of a large British force without firing a single shot! Unfortunately, much of the rest of his story is lost to history. “The name of Tristram Thomas,” local historian Duncan D. McColl writes, “distinguished in the early annals of Marlboro County, is practically unknown to the present generation, which enjoys the fruits of the splendid sacrifices m

On this day in 1945, a formal surrender ceremony is held aboard USS Missouri. Today is the anniversary of V-J Day! On this day, World War II effectively came to an end. It had been less than a month since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima had been devastating, of course. But the second bomb dropped on Nagasaki was—if anything—even worse. That plutonium bomb produced an explosion 40 percent bigger than the uranium one dropped on Hiroshim

On this day in 1773, Phillis Wheatley becomes the first black American to have a book of poetry published. Very little is known about Phillis Wheatley’s early life—not even her name at birth. She was born somewhere in Africa before falling victim to the slave trade: As a young girl, she was apparently kidnapped and taken to Boston. By the time the ship arrived in the colonies, the slave trader had decided that Phillis was sickly and frail. He sold her for a “trifle” to a re

On this day in 1950, a soldier begins an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Travis E. Watkins might have earned his Medal in the Korean War, but he was a World War II hero as well. He’d been at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked that base, and he went on to serve in the Pacific theater of the war. His service at Guadalcanal earned him a Bronze Star, but he seems to have known that his service in the Pacific wouldn’t be the end of it. Watkins returned home

On this day in 1916, two women approach the end of a remarkable motorcycle ride across the United States. The Van Buren sisters had undertaken the ride, hoping to prove that women could ably serve as military dispatch riders. Augusta “Gussie” Van Buren and Adeline “Addie” Van Buren were also descendants of the 8th President of the United States, Martin Van Buren. The women began their ride at Sheepshead Bay, New York, on July 4, 1916. More than 5,000 miles and nearly two mo

On this day in 1858, Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln continue a series of debates about slavery. Technically, the two men were engaged in a contest for one of Illinois’s Senate seats, yet the debates would prove to have more far-reaching consequences. Even outside Illinois, Americans were captivated. Transcripts of the debates were published in newspapers nationwide, bringing Lincoln into the national spotlight in a way that might not have happened otherwise. The stru

On this day in 1950, rescuers search the icy waters near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. They’d pulled hundreds of people from the frigid waters the evening before, but dozens were still missing. The missing had been aboard the hospital ship USS Benevolence when she abruptly sank. Benevolence is perhaps best known for her work after World War II. She’d been in Tokyo Bay, helping newly released POWs. “We took on a tremendous load of patients,” nurse Alene Duerk said. “

On this day in 1814, a fire rages through Washington, D.C. Our country was then still in the grips of its second war against Great Britain. The British had marched upon and attacked our capital. You may remember these events because the British occupation of D.C. during the War of 1812 prompted First Lady Dolley Madison to flee the White House with a portrait of George Washington. But did you know that a sudden, violent storm—perhaps coupled with a tornado—may have saved t

On this day in 1967, Jimmy Stewart receives the Medal of Honor. No, not that Jimmy Stewart. True, both Stewarts served in the Army, but this soldier would go on to earn a Medal of Honor in Vietnam. Jimmy Goethel Stewart was born in West Virginia, but he was living in Ohio by the time he was a high school student. He enlisted in the Army after graduation and was soon dispatched to Germany. He met his future wife while overseas. The young couple had two boys together, but J

On this day in 1814, Dolley and James Madison prepare for the worst. The War of 1812 is raging: British troops had landed in Maryland, potentially advancing against Washington, D.C. They were moving against an American flotilla, James Monroe reported on August 21, or perhaps “taking that [flotilla] in their way and aiming at the City.” The report he sent the next day proved even more ominous. “The enemy are in full march for Washington,” Monroe wrote. “Have the material

On this day in 1952, a Marine receives the Medal of Honor for an action described as a “desperate five-day defense of a frozen mountain pass.” William Barber had been right in the thick of it. Then-Captain Barber was a Marine who had already served in World War II, earning a Silver Star and a Purple Heart at Iwo Jima. “It was tough combat,” he shrugged, “but we were tough.” He would be called back to the front lines of Korea in late 1950. “We got to Hagaru probably the

On this day in 1947, Howard Hughes fights for his reputation, trying to prove that he would one day get a huge, experimental wooden airplane in the air. His “Spruce Goose” would have the largest wingspan of any airplane ever to take to the sky. The idea for the seaplane was born during World War II. When the United States first entered that war, the Battle of the Atlantic was in full swing. It was not going well. German U-boats were a formidable force, and they were sinki

On this day in 1920, the 19th amendment is formally ratified, guaranteeing that women cannot be denied the right to vote based on their gender. The battle for women’s suffrage was long and hard-fought. Suffragettes began their battle as early as the mid-1800s, but an amendment protecting women’s voting rights was not approved by Congress until 1919. The states completed ratification on August 18, 1920, and the U.S. Secretary of State declared the amendment effective on August

On this day in 1922, a future Medal of Honor recipient is born. Sadao “Spud” Munemori would become the first Japanese American to be awarded the Medal. He’d joined the Army even before the United States entered World War II. Unfortunately, his service didn’t shield his widowed mother from the general suspicion surrounding Japanese Americans in those days. Instead, she was sent to an internment camp in the months after Pearl Harbor, as too many Japanese Americans were. Nev

On this day in 1776, John Adams writes his wife Abigail about an unusual assignment: He, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson had been asked to design a seal for the new United States. They’d been given the assignment just a few weeks earlier, on July 4. You may think of July 4 as the day that the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. That’s true, but Congress accomplished other things that day as well. For instance, Congress passed a resolutio

On this day in 1860, the woman known as Annie Oakley is born. That wasn’t her real name, of course. The famous sharpshooter’s name at birth was Phoebe Ann Mosey. Annie was nothing if not talented. “At 30 paces she could split a playing card held edge-on,” one commentator notes, “she hit dimes tossed into the air, she shot cigarettes from her husband’s lips, and, a playing card being thrown into the air, she riddled it before it touched the ground.” She could even fire ove

On this day in 1778, General Charles Lee’s court martial ends with a guilty verdict. But who is Charles Lee? Well, it seems that if Charles Lee had had his way, he would have been Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Now he was in trouble. Mere weeks earlier, he had ordered a retreat in the midst of the Battle of Monmouth. General George Washington had arrived just in time to reverse the retreat and salvage the battle. Battle of Monmout

On this day in 1934, Alcatraz accepts its first official group of federal prisoners. That maximum security prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay would soon become the stuff of legends, earning a reputation as “The Rock” from which no prisoner could possibly escape. Did you know the facility was a military prison long before it was a civilian one? As early as the 1850s, the Army was constructing a fort on the island. It soon began using Alcatraz as a military prison, b