On this day in 1931, a song Americans had been singing for generations becomes the national anthem. Perhaps you know that The Star-Spangled Banner has its roots in the War of 1812, but do you know what happened after that? Francis Scott Key wrote the song in the wake of the Battle of Baltimore, which had raged before his very eyes in September 1814. “It seemed as though mother earth had opened and was vomiting shot and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone,” he later wrot

On this day in 1971, a hero receives the Medal of Honor. Gordon Roberts had been serving in the 101st Airborne, just as his father had done during World War II. Then-Specialist Fourth Class Roberts’s bravery came on July 11, 1969, in the A Shau Valley. “Delta company, which was our sister company,” Roberts later explained, “the battalion commander and his headquarters . . . were surrounded and very much in danger of being overwhelmed.” He would later learn that 78 of the 8

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 63 is published. Publius continues his examination of the Senate. Another factor “illustrating the utility of a senate, is the want of a due sense of national character,” he says. The Senate will help America to obtain the “respect and confidence” of other nations because it is “select and stable.” The Senate has a smaller number of elected officials, who are in office for a longer period of time. A “numerous and changeable body” cann

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 62 is published. Publius has wrapped up his discussion of the House. Now he moves on to the Senate. He hits several points in quick succession. First, he addresses the fact that Senators must be older than House members, and they must be citizens for a longer period of time prior to their elections. Publius deems this unremarkable. The “nature of the senatorial trust” requires “greater extent of information and ability of character.”

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 61 is published. Alexander Hamilton (a.k.a. “Publius”) continues to address concerns about election of House members. Should the Constitution have provided that “all elections should be had in the counties where the electors resided”? Publius thinks such an addition would have been “harmless,” but it is also unnecessary. He decides to focus on New York as an example. New York’s constitution does not address “LOCALITY of elections” exc

On this day in 1839, Sybil Ludington Ogden, the so-called female Paul Revere, passes away. You know about Revere’s ride, but you may not have heard of Sybil’s. She made it in April 1777, when she was only 16 years old. She rode more than twice as far as Revere did—and through rockier roads and more sparsely settled country! Her goal? To tell the men in her father’s regiment that the British had raided the town of Danbury, Connecticut. The regiment, then on leave, was needed

On this day in 1862, a radically different type of warship is commissioned. USS Monitor was the Union’s first iron-hulled steamship, but it wasn't the only one of its kind. The Confederacy had already been working on its own iron-hulled ship, CSS Virginia , for months. Between the two of them, Monitor and Virginia would have a lasting impact on naval warfare. At this point in the Civil War, Union ships were maintaining a blockade at Hampton Roads in Virginia. When CSS Vi

On this day in 1933, USS Ranger is launched. She was the first U.S. Navy vessel to be built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. She was also the first American carrier to launch attacks against Nazi-controlled territory during World War II. She would ultimately become the only American carrier to launch an attack against the European mainland. Yes, you read that right. She was the only one. The larger, armored aircraft carriers built after Ranger served in the Pacif

On this day in 1779, George Rogers Clark demands that the British surrender a fort in modern-day Indiana. Wait. Indiana? A portion of the Revolutionary War was fought in Indiana?! You are used to hearing about Revolutionary War battles in the east, but there were conflicts on the western frontier, too. The British lacked manpower to defend both areas, so they fostered alliances with Indian tribes to help their efforts in the west. Thus, the problem of British-funded Indian

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 60 is published. Alexander Hamilton (a.k.a. “Publius”) continues to address the provisions for electing House members. The Constitution gives the authority “primarily” to the states, but “ultimately” to the national government. Paper 59 discussed why the power could not be left entirely with the states. But is there a danger from giving the “ultimate right of regulating its own elections to the Union itself”? Will the national governm

On this day in 1969, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Oscar Austin’s little sister wasn’t surprised. He’d always been a hero to her. Their mother had been single, supporting her family with her job at a laundry. Little sister Lolla remembered the many ways in which Oscar would pitch in to help with his five sisters during those days. “He cared about people. He respected elders,” Lolla said. “I don’t want to make him a saint, but how he

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 59 is published. Alexander Hamilton (a.k.a. “Publius”) defends the election process for U.S. Congressmen. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this paper is an underlying assumption that the states will always be more powerful than the federal government. The constitutional provision in question provides that states will control the “TIMES, PLACES, and MANNER of holding elections” but that the “Congress may, at any time, by law, mak

On this day in 1947, a United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-29 Superfortress crash lands in Greenland. Kee Bird ’s crew would survive three days on the arctic ice, waiting for rescue. Yet even after Kee Bird ’s crew was gone, the plane wasn’t forgotten. Several decades later, an attempt was made to rescue it. After all, she was then the “most well-preserved B-29” still in existence, as an Alaskan Air Museum describes. Kee Bird ’s story starts with Project Nanook, a Cold Wa

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 58 is published. It addresses the last of the four objections made to the composition of the House of Representatives: That the number of representatives will be too small and that this problem will get worse over time. Such an objection, Publius notes, assumes that the number of representatives will never be increased. Yet the Constitution provides that the initial number is to be temporary. It also provides for a decimal Census. The

On this day in 1726, William Prescott is born in Groton, Massachusetts. He is best known for his role in the Battle of Bunker Hill. You may remember that Americans besieged the British in Boston following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. A few months into the siege, Americans became worried that British General Thomas Gage might try to possess the Charlestown peninsula. They decided to beat Gage to the punch. On June 16, Prescott was thus told to proceed “t

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 57 is published. Publius addresses a third concern raised against the House of Representatives: “[T]hat it will be taken from that class of citizens which will have least sympathy with the mass of the people, and be most likely to aim at an ambitious sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of the few.” The attack, if true, “strikes at the very root of republican government.” Can we choose our own elected representatives – or can’t

On this day in 1944, Operation Hailstone comes to an end. The naval attack has been called the “Japanese Pearl Harbor” because of the massive damage that U.S. Naval forces inflicted on the Japanese base at Truk Lagoon. The base was more important to the Japanese effort than most people remember today. Truk’s strategic location in the Caroline Islands, as well as its unique geography, was optimal for Japanese purposes. A huge coral reef surrounds a cluster of islands, encl

On this day in 1864, a Confederate submarine torpedoes and sinks USS Housatonic. The H.L. Hunley changed naval warfare forever. It was the first submarine to successfully sink a warship! Americans had been trying to develop submarines for use in warfare for decades. As early as 1776, an attempt was made to use a submarine during the American Revolution. In the mid-1800s, as the Civil War began, both Union and Confederate forces were still trying to develop this technology

On this day in 1967, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Maybe none of James H. Monroe’s friends and family were surprised by his heroism? “If there was such a thing, he was an ideal American boy,” the registrar at his old high school remembered. One of his junior high teachers agreed: “As a teacher for 31 years . . . he was one of the best.” In an interesting twist given today's holiday, this Medal recipient shares a name with a United State

On this day in 1788, Federalist Paper No. 56 is published. Publius addresses the concern that the number of representatives in the House is too small and thus will not “possess a due knowledge of the interests of its constituents.” In other words, how can so few people represent so many people, particularly given the great “diversity of their interests”? “It is a sound and important principle,” Publius acknowledges, “that the representative ought to be acquainted with the int