Erin Blakemore

The Mann Act was designed to prevent human trafficking—but used to punish interracial relationships. It is still in effect.

As many as 1.3 million people may have been swept up in the Eisenhower-era campaign called 'Operation Wetback.'

Melvil Dewey helped create a new profession for women—and harassed them at every step of the way.

The 1970 postal strike brought the nation to its knees.

People didn’t always need birth certificates.

The 1882 trial of laborer Yee Shun set a new legal precedent in America.

Panic set in after the partial nuclear meltdown as the public tried to decide which story to trust—and whether to evacuate.

Prisoner exchanges were critical to a ceasefire in the Korean War—but a peace treaty was never signed.

The death of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu was a harbinger of disaster.

The state was once known as 'the world’s sanatorium.'

In a time before social services, society’s most vulnerable people were hidden away in brutal institutions.

Between the 17th and 19th centuries, wife-selling was a weird custom with a practical purpose.

In 1871, the Wisconsin town of Peshtigo burned to the ground, killing up to 2,500 people. But it was overshadowed by another fire.

Horrifying medical experiments on twins helped Nazis justify the Holocaust.

After the Treaty of Versailles called for punishing reparations, <br>economic collapse, the rise of Naziism, and another world war thwarted Germany's ability to pay.

The widely circulated image of the enslaved man's wounds helped turn white Northerners against slavery.

America didn’t always extend citizenship to those born within its borders.

Ride was eminently qualified for space flight. So why did the press ask about makeup and periods?

Would-be mail thieves didn’t stand a chance against Stagecoach Mary. The hard-drinking, quick-shooting mail carrier sported two guns and men’s clothing.

Denounced, questioned, pressured to resign and even fired, LGBT people were once rooted out of the State Department in what was known as the Lavender Scare.

In the late 1880s, Weldon was vilified as a harpy who was in love with Sitting Bull. Both she and the Lakota leader would meet tragic fates.

The swift, often comfortable ride on the Transcontinental Railroad opened up the American West to new settlement.

Up to 16,000 Native Americans were murdered in cold blood after California became a state.

The executive order acknowledged state-sponsored violence and discrimination against Native peoples as part of 'California's dark history.'

The pioneers hoped to shave 300 miles off their journey. But the route they took to California had never been tested.

Napoleon was eager to sell—but the purchase would end up expanding slavery in the U.S.

The archives’ treasures are the stuff of legend—but their existence is absolutely real.

A proclamation by King George III set the stage for Native American rights—and the eventual loss of most tribal lands.

The third president had a secret: his carefully edited version of the New Testament.

How the Plattsburg camps for young men tried to raise a volunteer army ahead of World War I.

Appointed by a Republican president, the Associate Justice’s views on the death penalty and affirmative action shifted dramatically over time.

Did it help or hurt the civil rights movement?

Fleming Begaye, Sr. was deployed to the Pacific Theater.

There were multiple memorials and tributes to the fallen civil rights leader.

Plagued by bad press and fraught with racial and ethnic tensions, the huge steel strike was doomed to fail.

Under the Treaty of Versailles, the German emperor was supposed to be tried as a war criminal. Why wasn't he?

Caroll Spinney—the puppeteer in the yellow suit—was in talks to go to space.

The more than 900 passengers of the M.S. St. Louis were denied entry by immigration authorities in multiple countries in the lead-up to the Holocaust.

Normal Danes sprang into action and pulled off an astounding feat.

When Helmuth Hübener learned the truth about Nazi Germany, he spread the word—and paid the ultimate price.

General Orders No. 11 gave Jewish people just 24 hours to leave their homes and lives behind.

“My Yiddishe Momme" became an anthem for new immigrants in the 1920s. Victimized Jews later sang it in concentration camps.

In the 20th century, the country issued reparations for Japanese American internment, Native land seizures, massacres and police brutality. Will slavery be next?

Publishers were initially reluctant to publish the teenage author’s chronicle of life during the Holocaust. They thought readers were not ready to confront the horrors of World War II.

Desperation drove ingenuity among East Germans determined to reach West Berlin.

The Los Alamos Historical Museum halted a Japanese exhibition on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of a controversy over its message of abolishing nuclear weapons.

Born in the ashes of World War II, the currency used by 19 European countries went into effect on January 1, 1999.

Maya Lin won a design competition—and sparked a national controversy.

Nisei members of the Military Intelligence Service were discriminated against by their own country—even as they worked to protect it.

When Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in protest at the 1968 Summer Games, Australian runner Peter Norman stood by them. It lost him his career.