In his February 9, 1950, speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy brandished a list which he said contained the names of 205 communists, though the number fluctuated over time.
For the next few years, McCarthy investigated State Department officials and others, relying on shaky charges and insinuation.
He was finally brought down when the Senate voted to censure him in December 1954.
Gerald R. Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., in 1913. His parents divorced when he was an infant; his mother then married Gerald R. Ford, Sr., who adopted the future president and gave him his name.
In 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. for $5 million. In addition, Spain gave up its claim to the Oregon Territory while the U.S. recognized that Texas belonged to Spain. Within three decades, in 1845, the U.S. had annexed Texas too.
The electric sign on 1 Times Square at 42nd Street in New York that displays headlines was installed in 1928. At that time, the building housed offices of the New York Times and was known as the Times Tower. It is now owned by several general and limited partners and runs headlines from New York…
Captain Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young flew the space shuttle Columbia on its maiden voyage April 12-14, 1981.
People of Mexican descent founded the city of Los Angeles in 1781. Mexicans remained the major population group in Los Angeles (named for Our Lady of the Angels) until the Gold Rush of 1849 brought Anglo-Americans to California in droves. By then, as a result of the Mexican War in 1846-48, California had passed from…
The 1882 law, the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was enacted to preserve jobs for native-born Americans, suspended Chinese immigration to the U.S. for ten years. Renewed from time to time in the 20th century, it was completely suspended in 1965.