Abolitionist John Brown commissioned a blacksmith to produce hundreds of pikes – deadly spear-like weapons made from iron and wood, for his team of militiamen to raid the armoury and help set enslaved people free. But it ended in failure and Brown became the first US...
Shirley Chisholm, the first African American Woman elected to Congress, addresses the US House of Representatives to argue in support of a controversial women’s rights bill; the Equal Rights...
This is the story of Newton Knight, a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War who chose to go AWOL, and eventually formed the Knight Company, a guerrilla force of fellow deserters and escaped slaves, who fought against the Confederacy from...
Kentucky-born Garrett Morgan invented life saving gadgets, but despite facing racial prejudice all his life, Morgan was recognised as one of America’s most prolific and socially conscious...
When Black Lives Matter protesters toppled a statue of former US President Ulysses S Grant in 2020, it was big news! They targeted the statue because although Grant was a Civil War hero who helped bring about an end to slavery, he was a controversial figure too – and...
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivers a speech to the people of West Berlin, calling upon the Soviet Union to tear down the wall that divides the...
Think you know all about the American War of Independence? Think again! This is the untold story of the African and Native Americans who fought in the war that defined our country....
A landmark case, known as Brown versus Board of Education, thrust Linda Brown, who was just 9-years-old at the time, into the national spotlight, as she fought – and won – against segregation in the American school...
In 1972, Anthony Romani used the raised fist symbol to create a product that combined function with meaning, creating a grooming tool that came to symbolise African-American history, culture and...
In 1921, John Augustus Larson, a medical student and police officer in Berkeley, California invented a machine to help detectives determine if someone was telling the truth – or lying. He called it – the...
In 1962, when a quick and accurate means of communication was needed between two of the world’s greatest superpowers, the Moscow-Washington hotline was created. Since then the technology used to facilitate this line of communication has changed over...
Did you know that when the US Constitution was first drafted in 1787, lots of Americans thought it was a bad idea? That’s why Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers – to convince the American people that...
During one of the deadliest pandemics in human history – The Spanish Influenza – the then San Francisco Mayor singed The Mask Ordinance – the first order requiring the wearing of face masks in public in the United...
Written by Founding Father James Madison in 1789, The Bill of Rights makes up the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. Today, many people still consider the Bill of Rights to be the cornerstone of our society, but not everyone...
