David Wilmot was a congressman from Pennsylvania who in 1846 proposed an amendment to a military appropriations bill that slavery be forbidden in any territory obtained from Mexico during or after the Mexican War (1846-48). The amendment passed in the House but not the Senate.
“ARVN” stood for “The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam” in the Vietnam War, the army that South Vietnam fielded against North Vietnam.
On one side of the Bank War (1833-36) was President Andrew Jackson, who wanted to abolish the Second Bank of the United States. On the other side was the Second Bank’s president, Nicholas Biddle. Jackson vetoed the Second Bank’s early renewal in 1832 and withdrew all federal funds in 1833 In retaliation, Biddle contracted credit…
The date of the first human migration to the Americas is still in dispute. It may be as early as 35,000 years ago or, according to some archeologists, no more than 12,000 years ago. Whichever date turns out to be correct, it is believed that the first Americans migrated from northeastern Siberia across the Bering…
The first drive-in movie opened on a 40-acre parking lot in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933. The creation of New Jersey entrepreneurs Richard M. Hollinshead, Jr., and Willis Smith started a nationwide craze. During its peak, in 1958, there were over 4,000 drive-ins across America. As of 1992, there were fewer than 1,000…
James K. Polk, photographed by Matthew Brady in 1849, was the first president photographed while in office. The first president of whom there is any known photograph was John Quincy Adams.