Our "On This Day in History" section of the website is designed to provide teachers with video resources to help students better understand significant events throughout U.S. history.
Each event features several short video clips that help set the stage by providing context through archival footage and witness testimony (where available), utilizing C-SPAN's unique access to historical newsreels, vignettes, oral history, and expert analysis.
As one of the most recent additions to our site, this area will continue to develop each month. If you or your students have suggestions for key moments in history that are not currently represented, please email us at educate@c-span.org.
The Cuban Revolution began in July 1953 when Fidel Castro and his followers led a revolt against President…
on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln took another step towards ending slavery in the nation by…
On January 1, 1892, Ellis Island in New York City officially opened. It became one location where millions of…
Occurring in the midst of a global pandemic, the Presidential Election of 2020 was subject to claims of fraud…
Thomas Paine's Common Sense was published anonymously on January 10, 1776. This pamphlet plainly laid out…
On January 11, Alexander Hamilton was born in either the year 1755 or 1757; the precise date is unknown. He…
To commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, C-SPAN Classroom has aggregated a number of video…
On this day in 1920, the 18th Amendment went into effect. Prior to its ratification in 1919, alcohol was…
On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued their ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.…
The discovery of gold in California in 1848 generated an influx of people to the area from other parts of the…
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: “The internationally recognized date for…
On January 27, 1967, NASA Apollo 1 Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee boarded their…
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral,…
On January 30, 1968, on the Tet holiday or new year which was traditionally a day of truce, North Vietnamese…
On February 1, 2003, after spending approximately two weeks in space, Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart and…
On February 1, 1960, a group of African American students organized a nonviolent sit-in at a segregated lunch…
ABSCAM was a sting operation led by the FBI in the late 1970s for the purpose of uncovering a network of…
On February 3, 2023 at approximately 9:00pm ET, there was a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment in East…
From February 4-11, 1945, leaders of the “Big Three," World War II allies Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin,…
On this day in 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican-Wisconsin) in a speech in WV, claimed he had a list…
On February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed between Britain, France, and Spain marking the end of…
On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15-style automatic rifle at Marjory…
During World War II, United States Marine forces landed on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima as part of a…
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, published on Feb. 19, 1963, is considered one of the most influential…
In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which resulted in the relocation…
On this day, John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. In a flight lasting just…
On February 28, 1993, just outside of Waco, TX, local and national law enforcement arrived at the Branch…
The U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was…
Upon winning its independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico began to expand its territory to the north. As the…
On Sunday March 7, 1965, about six hundred people began a fifty-four mile march from Selma, Alabama to the…
On March 8, 1992, an article printed in the New York Times, detailed Bill and Hillary Clinton's financial…
On March 8, 1971, eight activists from the group Citizens Commission broke into the FBI offices in Media,…
On March 11, 1993, Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the first woman Attorney…
On March 12, 1989, computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee put forth a hypertext project that would generate…
Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ and was announced to the…
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the…
On March 20, 2003, the United States, in conjunction with allied forces from nations like the United Kingdom,…
March 22, 1765 was the day that The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament. The Stamp Act was enacted…
In 1971, Congress passed a Joint Resolution to grant the right to vote to American citizens who are 18 years…
On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck a reef and spilled close to 11 million gallons of oil…
Thousands gathered in downtown Washington, D.C. for the “March for Our Lives” rally. An estimated 800…
According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, March 25 was established by Congress as National Medal…
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City produced garments for women that were popular in the early…
On this day in 1964, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Prince William Sound area of Alaska. It is…
On March 28, 1979, a partial meltdown took place at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg,…
On this day in 1981, John Hinckley Jr. made an assassination attempt on President Reagan after he spoke at an…
Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 near Yuma, Arizona. It was through his experiences living in Arizona…
On April 1, 1945, the U.S. military launched its campaign, Operation Iceberg, on the island of Okinawa. This…
On April 3rd, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the Economic Recovery Program, also known as the…
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance between 29 different countries in Europe…
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader and clergyman Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot while staying…
Born into slavery on April 5, 1856, Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator,…
Under President Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. maintained neutrality when WWI erupted in 1914. During this time…
In the early 1920s, a portion of land in Wyoming was allocated to secure oil reserves for use by the…
On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant in the home of Wilmer McLean…
On April 11 1970, Apollo 13 launched and became the 3rd manned mission intended for the moon. However, plans…
President Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22am on April 15, 1865, in the small, back bedroom of the Petersen House,…
On April 16, 2007, a mass school shooting took place at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia.…
On April 17, 1961, over 1,000 Cuban exiles launched an invasion into Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel…
On April 19, 1775, British and colonial militias engaged in the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In response…
On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK.…
On the morning of April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold, 18, and Eric Harris, 17, arrived at Columbine High School in…
On April 20, 2010, the Gulf of Mexico experienced the largest oil spill in history as a result of an…
Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which events worldwide are held to demonstrate…
On April 26, 1986 a disaster occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in the Soviet Union.…
As the British Empire emerged as victors of the Seven Years' War in 1763, they found themselves deeply in…
In December 1787, the HMS Bounty sailed from England under the leadership of Captain William Bligh. It was…
President Dwight D. Eisenhower commemorated the first Law Day on May 1, 1958. Law Day celebrates the…
Tens of thousands of anti-Vietnam War protesters, young people and military veterans alike, converged on…
On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard soldier opened fire on unarmed college students participating in a…
On May 5, 1987, Congress began its official proceedings in the investigation of the Iran-Contra affair.…
The Mexican army's victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 is observed on el Cinco de Mayo.…
Signed on May 6, 1882 by President Chester Arthur, the Chinese Exclusion Act halted immigration of Chinese…
The British ocean liner, the Lusitania, set sail from New York on May 1, 1915, with over 2000 passengers and…
On May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day (or VE Day) marked the formal acceptance by the Allied Forces of Nazi…
From 1862 through 1869, the transcontinental railroad was constructed, connecting the eastern part of the…
On May 12, 2004, the U.S. Senate responded to revealed footage depicting human rights violations that took…
On May 13, 1864, the first soldier was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington National Cemetery was…
On May 14, 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark launched their expedition to explore the Northwest.…
The Sedition Act extended the Espionage Act of 1917 and was enacted on May 16, 1918 to cover a broader range…
On May 17, 1968, nine Catholic activists who were protesting the Vietnam War, went to a Selective Service…
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court handed down a…
On May 18, 1917 President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Selective Service Act, authorizing the federal…
On May 21, 1881 Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross, a humanitarian organization to provide emergency…
On May 22, 1856, Representative Preston Brooks (D-SC) attacked Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA), with a walking…
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were two notorious criminals whose crime sprees varied across several states…
On May 24, 1883, after more than a decade of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge, the first steel suspension…
On May 27, 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge, a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate strait, opened to…
On May 30, 1922, the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial took place. Now known as Memorial Day, the dedication…
On May 31, 1921, a mob of white residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma attacked black residents and businesses in the…
During the years 1692-1693, people in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were accused of witchcraft. Subsequently,…
In the spring of 1989, there were a series of student-led protests throughout China involving individuals who…
Not long after midnight on June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) was shot and mortally wounded in…
June 6 marks the anniversary of the World War II D-Day invasion of Normandy, France. On June 6, 1944, 160,000…
NASA scientists announced the latest scientific discovery from the space agency’s Mars rover. Named…
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Navy and the United States Navy faced off…
On June 12, 1929 Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt Germany. With the rise of Adolf Hitler in power, an…
June 14th, 1777 marks the day that the Second Continental Congress adopted the flag of the United States. In…
Magna Carta was drafted by a group of barons who joined together for protection of their property and rights…
On June 17, 1972, there was a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices in Washington, DC.…
On this day in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage. They had…
On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX and announced the end of the Civil War and slavery.…
Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered with a hatchet in their home in Fall River, MA on Thursday, August 4,…
On June 23, 1972, President Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. Title IX…
On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces surprised the South Korean army by invading and advancing towards the…
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges by a 5–4 decision that…
The Stonewall riots were six days of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community following a police…
The Treaty of Versailles was the peace agreement signed after World War I on June 28th, 1919. The treaty was…
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution declaring the Thirteen American…
On July 7, 2005 several bomb explosions took place in central London's transit systems. These confirmed…
The Scopes trial, also known as the "Scopes Monkey Trial," began on July 10, 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, when…
On July 11, 1804, former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and long-time political rival Vice…
On July 17, 1955, the first theme park of Walt Disney Studios was opened in Anaheim, California. Disneyland…
Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, conducted its first crewed flight into space. The New Shepard…
On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two people to land and walk on the surface…
On July 22, 1916, there was a bombing of a parade in San Francisco that killed 10 and wounded 40. The bombing…
The Detroit Rebellion, also known as 12th Street Riot, began on July 23, 1967, following a police raid on an…
After acquiring the island of Puerto Rico from the Spanish-American War through the Treaty of Paris, the…
On July, 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities act. The ADA…
On July 30, 1945, the U.S.S. Indianapolis was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine. The ship and its…
On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed and enacted the Social Security Amendments which…
As required by Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, the United States held its first…
On August 2nd, 1964 an incident between the North Vietnamese Navy and the U.S. Navy occurred in the Gulf of…
James "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who gained international fame at the Summer…
During WWII, there was growing concern that German scientists had discovered how to split a uranium atom.…
On August 7, 1990, President George H.W. Bush issued orders to coordinate Operation Desert Shield. This was…
The Watts riots erupted on August 11, 1965 in Los Angeles following the arrest of a black man for driving…
Victory over Japan Day is recognized for Japan's surrender to Allied forces, which signified the end of WWII.…
The Woodstock Festival was a four-day outdoor music event which began on August 15, 1969, on an upstate New…
The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees American women the right to vote, was ratified on…
On this day in 1791, the only successful slave revolt began in the modern day nation of Haiti. Author…
During the War of 1812 on August 24, 1814, British troops invaded Washington, D.C. In response to an American…
On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation creating the National Park Service. This…
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom occurred on August 28, 1963. The march was organized to…
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina crossed the Gulf Coast becoming the costliest natural disaster, as well…
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland after signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union.…
Emmett Till was a fourteen-year-old African-American boy from Chicago, Illinois. While visiting his uncle in…
On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon for his involvement in…
On this day, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is created and becomes a Cabinet-level…
Marking the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, C-SPAN Classroom has aggregated a…
On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key penned the lyrics to the Star-Spangled Banner. During the War of…
National Hispanic Heritage Month is the period from September 15 to October 15 in the United States, when…
On September 15, 1963, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed by…
This Civil War battle on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day of fighting in American history with over…
On September 17, 1787 the delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document they had created.…
On September 19, 1796, U.S. President George Washington publishes his "Farewell Address" and retires to Mount…
On September 21, 1976, a car bomb exploded at Sheridan Circle on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., just over a…
When the Revolutionary War began, Benedict Arnold joined the Continental Army and served under George…
The Little Rock Nine were the first Black students who attempted to integrate the then all White Little Rock…
On September 25th, 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in to the Supreme Court and became the first woman to…
On September 26, 1960, then-Senator John F. Kennedy and then-Vice President Richard Nixon faced off in the…
On September 29, 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 770 points, the most in any single day up to…
Yosemite National Park located in central California was founded on October 1, 1890. Yosemite was the first…
On October 3, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 also known as…
WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization that publishes secret information, news leaks, and…
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, into low Earth orbit.…
Gutzon Borglum began construction on a monument near Keystone, South Dakota on October 4, 1927 and the…
On October 10, 1845, the United States Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Maryland. Originally named the…
On October 12, 2000, the Navy destroyer USS Cole, was bombed during a refueling stop in the port of Aden in…
On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano sent out a Tweet saying "If you’ve been sexually harassed or…
On October 15, 1966, in Oakland, CA, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the Black Panther Party. This group…
On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown and his team launched a raid on a federal armory located in…
In October 1962, the U.S. engaged in a 13 day confrontation with the Soviet Union over the deployment of…
On this day, the Department of Education was created as a Cabinet level agency. Its mission is to promote…
On October 17, 1973, OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, declared an oil embargo on…
On October 19, 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis and his troops surrendered to the American and French…
In 1945 at the United Nations Conference on International Organization, 50 member countries signed the…
On October 25, 1983, U.S. and OECS forces landed on the Caribbean island of Grenada. President Ronald Reagan…
On October 26, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act into law. The title of the…
On this day in 1965, construction of the Gateway Arch was completed. The 630-foot monument was designed by…
The Statue of Liberty is located on Liberty Island in New York City. The statue was a gift from the French…
Since the first celebration in 1968, on November 1st each year, millions of people celebrate authors and the…
On this day in 1969, President Nixon addressed the nation about the prospects for peace in Vietnam. He…
On November 4th, Democratic senator Barack Hussein Obama defeated Senator John McCain in the 2008…
On November 4, 1979, more than 50 U.S. diplomats and public servants were taken hostage in the Tehran Embassy…
On November 6, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. This law,…
William Henry Harrison led forces against a growing group of Native Americans living in Prophetstown, a…
On November 9th and 10th, 1938, Nazi “Brown Shirts” and mobs of non-Jewish citizens attacked Jewish-owned…
Construction of the Berlin Wall began in August of 1961, separating West Berlin from East Berlin. The goal…
Fighting during World War I was temporarily halted during the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the…
On November 15, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution…
"During the late 1960s, the United States learned that the Soviet Union had embarked upon a massive…
On November 17, 1869, after more than ten years of construction, the Suez Canal was formally opened for…
A look at the Peoples Temple, its leader Jim Jones, and the community called Jonestown he established in…
On November 19, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt held a ceremony to lay the cornerstone of Presidential…
On November 19, 1942, the Soviet Red Army began a counteroffensive attack to move the Germans out of…
President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address during the dedication of the National Cemetery in…
Following WWII, Allied forces conducted a series of military tribunals in the city of Nuremberg, Germany.…
On November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot as his motorcade traveled through the streets of…
On November 24, 1859, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, a book by Charles Darwin…
On this day, the Department of Homeland Security is created and becomes a Cabinet-level agency. The…
A brief overview of the life of Harvey Milk, an American politician and the first openly gay elected official…
On November 29, 1864 members of the Colorado Territory militia attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho village in the…
On this day in 2018, former President George Herbert Walker Bush passed away at the age of 94. He served this…
Rosa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist who is best known for her work with the Civil Rights…
On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe introduced The Monroe Doctrine during his seventh annual address…
On December 2nd, 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency officially began operation. Proposed by President…
On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, repealing the 18th…
On the morning of December 7, 1941 Japan attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, HI. It led to…
On December 8, 1987, President Ronald Reagan signed into effect the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)…
On December 10, 1898, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris to end the Spanish-American War.…
On December 12, 2000, the United States Supreme Court ruled that George W. Bush won the 25 electoral votes…
On December 13, 2003, the U.S. Operation Red Dawn succeeded in its mission to capture the deposed Iraqi…
On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and fatally shot more than…
On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified by Virginia, allowing the passage of the first ten…
On December 16, 1773 thousands of Massachusetts colonists gathered at Old South Meeting House in Boston to…
On December 16, 1944, Adolph Hitler launched a surprise offensive attack on Allied Forces in the Ardennes…
On December 17, 1992, President George H. W. Bush, along with leaders from Canada and Mexico agreed to the…
On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched mankind into the moon’s orbit for the first time. Astronauts Frank…
In December 1776 George Washington and the Continental Army arrived in Bucks County, PA. They encamped in the…
When the Iroquois Theatre opened in 1903, it was advertised as “absolutely fireproof.” With the approval…