The assassination of President Lincoln is one of the most, if not the most, tragic event in the history of Washington. Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre in the evening of April 14th, 1865. A massive hunt for the conspirators ensued in the days following the assassination and the War Department, headed by Edwin Stanton, printed up and distributed the ... Read More »
This is a guest post by GoDCer from Poolesville, Jack (the guy that tipped us off to some great stories, like the decapitated convict). On the afternoon of August 23, 1933 the Weather Bureau updated an already ominous forecast by predicting that strong winds and heavy rain would inundate the Washington area. The storm had formed in the Atlantic days ... Read More »
History happens every single day and many of you witnessed this one (I did). The sight of the 747 and Space Shuttle over DC was amazing and it warrants a quick video post to share with everyone. The video was taken by the folks over the Department of Interior, when the fly by happened just two months ago on April ... Read More »
If you’re a history buff — and a presidential history buff — you’re well aware of the 1876 U.S. Presidential election. This is not a post about that. You can read up on the whole election on Wikipedia as well as the resulting “corrupt bargain,” the Compromise of 1877 – ending military occupation of the southern states (effectively ending Reconstruction) and ... Read More »
This has less to do with the history of our city, but everything to do with the (almost) history of our nation. Arizona had been admitted to the union only a few years earlier in 1912 and by the middle of the decade, the two new senators, Marcus Smith and Henry Ashurst, were strongly advocating to acquire Mexican territory south ... Read More »
I came across an interesting video from 1968 while checking out this YouTube channel. The quote that is the most powerful is when a teacher is reading something written by one of her fifth graders. His dream wasn’t like most dreams. It wasn’t just him in the dream. He wanted everybody in his dream. He wanted to take us to ... Read More »
This is a guest post by Jason (aka, @MidAtlanticBias) First In War, First In Peace, And Last in the American League By the time September 30, 1971 rolled around, baseball fans in Washington had become accustomed to abandonment. In fact, the feeling had been passed down from one generation to the next. In 1899, the Washington Statesmen/Nationals/Senators were contracted by ... Read More »
This is a clip from President Johnson’s speech before signing the bill into law. This was only a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. We all know that the roots of injustice run deep. But violence cannot redress a solitary wrong, or remedy a single unfairness. Of course, all America is outraged at the assassination ... Read More »
In Washington, late into the evening of December 6th, reporters worked their normal, likely frantic, hours and submitted their articles in time to be published the following morning. War had been raging in Europe now for two years, but it was still very distant for Americans and those living in Washington. It was the thing they read about in the ... Read More »
This is another haunting discover, much like the advertisement I uncovered for the Titanic (also, read about the notable DC resident that went down with that ship). I came across an advertisement in the Washington Post on April 25th, 1915 — exactly 97 years ago today (a good “This Day in History” post) — for passage to Europe on the ... Read More »
Here’s an excellent photo from the DC Public Library Flickr photostream. This shows the Capitol Building fully lit up following announcement of the end of World War I. The end of the Great War has lost its luster in place of the end of the Second World War … but it was an equally, if not more celebratory occasion, given ... Read More »
This … picture … is … awesome. This is why I love baseball. I could almost end the post with just this picture because it’s just that amazing. The 1937 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held in Washington at Griffith Stadium. The Senators were between mediocre and lousy by then, but this was reason to celebrate because it was ... Read More »
This post went up at exactly 8 a.m. this morning local time, which is twelve noon Greenwich Mean Time. Exactly 100 years ago at this very moment, on April 12th, 1912, the Titanic set off from Southampton, England, on her tragic maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. On the luxury liner was prominent Washington resident and presidential aide, Major Archibald Butt. Archibald ... Read More »
This is an excellent silent film from 1929. It begins with outgoing president Calvin Coolidge and Hoover entering a vehicle and being taken to the Capitol Building down Pennsylvania Avenue. The members of the Supreme Court are seen — including former president and then Chief Justice William Howard Taft — on the inauguration platform. Both Coolidge and Hoover are present ... Read More »
It was to be expected that the Caps would suck in their first year. It was the team’s first year in D.C and the NHL. They joined the league that year as an expansion team, along with the Kansas City Scouts (really, a team in KC?). The team was in the Norris Division of the Prince of Wales Conference — such ... Read More »
Ghosts of DC The lost and untold history of Washington