BC to AD

Before European settlement, the territory of Louisiana was home to numerous native tribes of the Plains nation. Throughout the 18 th century, France laid claim to the vast territory. With their defeat in the Seven Years War, France was forced to cede the territory to Spain. With the establishment of the United States in the wake of the American revolution, the fledgling country began to pursue a sphere of influence on the neighboring territory. In 1800, Napoleonic France reacquired Louisiana from Spain. However, Napoleon’s ongoing wars with his European rivals put a heavy strain on the French treasury. Napoleons woes were furthered, with the lose of France’s Haitian colony due to a popular revolt. The territory became a huge financial liability to him and he sought to sell it. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sought to purchase the port city of New Orleans, in the Louisiana territory. He dispatched James Monroe and Robert Livingston to Paris to negotiate for the city. Du...

Joan of Arc was born in the small French village of Domremy around 1412. She was to the daughter of minor landholders, Jacques D’Arc and Isabelle Romee. During her childhood, France was in the grip of the Hundred Year War with England. When Joan was three, the French experienced a terrible defeat at the Battle of Agincourt. On top of the war with England, France was in the middle of a succession crisis. King Charles VI experienced periodic bouts of insanity and was frequently unable to rule. In response, the court split into two factions. The Armagnacs led by the heir to the throne, Charles who wanted to press his claim to the throne, and the Burgundians led by John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, wanted to establish a regency to rule in the King’s stead. France was beginning to splinter, as the teenaged Joan took fateful trip to her father’s garden on sunny afternoon. One day in 1425, Joan walked through her father’s garden. As she walked, ethereal voices spoke to her. They we...

Before European settlement, Maryland was home to the Iroquois and Algonquin peoples. During the 16 th century, Italian explorer Giovanni de Verrazano explored the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay; and John Smith further explored it in 1608. In 1632, George Calvert, 1 st Baron Baltimore, applied to King Charles I for a royal charter for the area surrounding Chesapeake Bay. When Calvert died, his son, Cecilius Calvert, 2 nd Baron Baltimore, was granted the charter in his stead. The colony was named in honor of King Charles’s wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. Upon its establishment, the colony of Maryland was predominantly Catholic, due to the shared religion of the Queen and Calvert’s. The new colonists landed at St. Clements’s Island on March 25, 1634. St. Mary’s City was established as the colony’s capital, and would remain such until 1695. In 1649, the colonial legislature passed the Maryland Tolerance Act, which fostered the free exercise of religion throughout the colony. However, whe...

When the United States declared war on Great Britain in 1812, military planners recognized the need to capture Britain’s Canadian holdings. Early in 1813, they drew up plans to capture the large British province. The Navy dispatched a fleet under Commodore Isaac Chauncey to gain control of the Great Lakes, in order to disable British naval superiority, there. The Secretary of War, John Armstrong convinced the Navy to defer Chauncey’s expedition and send him instead to blockade the capital of Upper Canada in conjunction with the Army. The War Department dispatched troops under General Zebulon Pike to take the capital, York. On April 26, American forces arrive outside the city. Chauncey’s squadron began to bombard the settlement, in order to aid Pike’s troops advance. As Pike’s troops encircled the city, a magazine exploded, sending debris flying all over the battlefield. Pike collapsed, mortally wounded by the falling debris. Later that afternoon, York surrendered to American f...

(For the events of the Lincoln Assassination, please see the entry for April 14) John Wilkes Booth rode into the cold Virginia mist as the capitol closed in around him. Crossing the bridge into Maryland, he met up with his accomplice David Herold. Booth and Herold then rode to the Surratt Tavern, to pick up guns and equipment. Booth had to stay on horseback as his leg was severely injured in his fall from the President’s box that night. Herold knew that they would need to fix Booth’s leg before they journeyed farther south. They rode to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who quickly splinted Booth’s leg and allowed the two men to stay the night. The following morning, they headed to the home of Confederate spy, Samuel Cox in hopes to that he would help transport them into the Confederacy. As Booth and Herold arrived at Cox’s house, a unit of federal cavalry was dispatched from Washington to hunt for the two fugitives. Cox informed the two men that federal troops were combing the are...

At the beginning of the Civil War, the capture of New Orleans was key to Union’s strategy to defeating the Confederacy. Union leaders devised a plan in which capturing New Orleans would allow them further control of the Mississippi River. On April 25, 1862, a Union fleet under the command of Admiral David Farragut broke through the Confederate defenses and anchored outside the port city. Three days later, New Orleans capitulated giving the Union sole control of the Mississippi River. 

The story of the Trojan War has mostly been one of myth and legend. It was not until the 19 th century that the legendary city was proven to be real. In 1822, Scottish journalist, Charles Maclaren first identified the correct location for where the city would have been. Throughout the 19 th century, many archeologists attempted excavated the site. By the end of the century, archeologist dug deep enough to categorize the ancient walls that once stood during the Trojan War. We can only speculate the events that may have brought down the walls. Our only historical source for the war is Homer’s Iliad. In the Iliad, a shepherd named Paris stumbles upon a cave while tending to his flock. Inside he discovers the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. The three goddesses ask Paris to judge which one of them is the most beautiful. However, Paris could not decide, so they each suggested a reward should he chose them. Hera offered to grant him power. Athena offered to make into a great...

Charles II was born into turbulent times. He was born at St. James Palace on May 29, 1630, to King Charles I of England and his wife, Henrietta Maria. While he was brought up by a Protestant governess, his mother was secretly Catholic and must have taught her son some of her beliefs. During his childhood, he was moved from castle to castle, as his father fought against Parliament during the English Civil War. At the age of 15, he actually fought with his father at the Battle of Edgehill. In 1646, the Parliamentarians captured the King and Charles fled to the Hague into the arms of his sister, Mary and her husband, William II, Prince of Orange. In 1649, King Charles I was executed by order of Parliament. His father’s death elevated Charles to the King of Scotland, while England and parts of Ireland remained in the possession of the Parliamentarians. Charles arrived in Scotland to assume his duties as monarch and to stage an invasion of England. He and his forces were defeated at...

Before the Oklahoma territory was officially organized, it was home to the various native tribes that were forcibly relocated there by the federal government. The tribes that occupied the territory were as follows: Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole, Quapaw, Seneca, Shawnee, Delaware, Kickapoo, Kiowas, Comanche, Wyandot, Arapahos, and Wichita. These tribes would continue to be relocated there throughout the 19 th century. By the time the Civil War ended, whites were increasingly making the journey West to settle new lands. The western expansion was also an opportunity for recent immigrants and freed African Americans to claim land for their own. The need for new land grew so great that the government decided open up land formerly set aside for Native Americans to white settlement. In 1889, Congress passed the Indian Appropriation bill, which allowed settlers to claim any unassigned land in the Oklahoma territory. At noon on April 22, thousands raced across the territor...

The 1830’s were a turbulent time for the Mexican region of Texas. When Mexico broke off from the crumbling Spanish empire in 1821, they wanted to bolster the population of their fledgling republic. They opened their territories to American immigration. Settlers led by Stephen F. Austin brought the very first settlers into Texas in the late 1820’s. The new settlers introduced slavery into the territory, which the Mexican government initially turned a blind eye too. When Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna assumed the Mexican presidency, he decided to clamp down on his unruly Anglo citizens. In 1835, the Texans had enough and revolted against the repressive regime. The Texas Revolution began at Gonzales, when Mexican soldiers tired to seize cannon stationed there; much like the British at Lexington in 1775. Surprisingly, the Texans were able to repel the Mexican advance. In response, Santa Anna attacked a garrison of Texans defending a former Spanish mission called the Alamo in San Anto...

When William McKinley assumed the Presidency in 1897, the general consensus was that his administration would be one of peace and prosperity. Some in his administration clamored for a war of expansion to compete against the European nation that were conducting various wars in order to get colonial holdings. However, McKinley was a veteran of the Civil War and he had seen first hand the human cost of war. He had no stomach for another pointless war, but events during his first term would push him closer and closer to the brink. The Spanish had maintained a stranglehold on the island of Cuba for centuries. The island nation experienced several occurrences of popular uprisings throughout its history. By the end of the 19 th century, the Spanish regime began using more ruthless tactics to put down these rebellions. Concentration camps were a common tactic they used to quell political dissidents. This is when most Americans became aware of the situation. A public outcry ran throug...

The previous day’s activities found a British column marching toward the town of Concord, Massachusetts, in order to seize colonial munitions, there. The colonists were aware of the British incursion thanks to the nocturnal ride of Paul Revere and others. The British regulars were led by Major John Pitcairn. His first objective was to take cannons supposedly stored in Lexington. The British column arrived at Lexington on the morning of April 19, 1775. As the British approached the green, militiamen swarmed out of Buckman Tavern and the surrounding area. They formed into columns on the green, with the aid of Captain John Parker. He told the militia to not fire unless fire upon, as they readied themselves for battle. The British advance halted upon the sight of the organized militia columns. Pitcairn rode to the front of his men and ordered the colonists to disperse. Both Parker and Pitcairn then ordered their men to hold their fire. As the orders were being given, a shot rang o...

On April 7, 1775, patriot colonial leader, Joseph Warren sent Paul Revere to warn the Massachusetts legislature of a possible British invasion. The British had indeed dispatched troops under General Thomas Gage to seize colonial munitions. On the night of April 18, British ships landed at Cambridge; their intention was not only to capture colonial munitions held in Concord but also Patriot leaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock hiding in Lexington. Meanwhile, Warren asked Revere and William Dawes to ride out to Lexington and warn Adams and Hancock. As they prepared for their ride, Warren instructed Robert Newman, sexton of the North Church in Boston to alert the city’s residents. He told him to put a lantern in the steeple if the British arrived on land, and two if they approached by sea. Throughout the night, Revere, Dawes and countless other riders rode throughout Massachusetts to warn the colonists. Near Lincoln around 1 A.M., Revere and Dawes were captured by a British patrol....

On December 31, 1958, Cuban revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro ousted the pro-American Batista government. When Castro gained control of the country, he undertook a campaign of rooting out his political opponents. He arrested and jailed countless Batista supporters, many of which fled to the nearby United States, Central and South America. The United States watched in horror as Cuba, a country only ninety miles from Florida, fell to Communism. Cuban-American relations unraveled throughout the 1950’s and 60’s. Originally, the United States supported General Batista’s overthrow of the previous Cuban government. The Batista regime fostered American economic opportunities of the island, as they turned a blind eye to the regime’s repressive policies. When Castro took over the country, he was not as favorable to the United States’ policies. During the Eisenhower administration, the Central Intelligence Agency hatch plan to stop the spread of Communism in the Southern Hemisphere...

Vladimir Lenin was born in Streletskaya, Ulitsa, Simbirsk, Russia in 1870. He was the son of middle-class Russian serfs. He was a very strong-willed, obstinate child. In 1886, his father died, and young Vladimir began lashing out. He enrolled at Kazan University to study law. While at university, his eldest brother was convicted and executed for plotting to assassinate the Tsar. With the combined deaths of his father and brother in such a short time, he grew increasingly isolated and angry. He began to resent the repressive Tsarist regime. In 1887, Lenin took part in several antigovernment protest. He became interested in Marxist philosophies, devouring Karl Marx’s Capital and Communist Manifesto. By 1893, he had graduated, and became a well-known lawyer in St. Petersburg. He became involved with several prominent Marxist cells in the city. He was an outspoken critic of the government, which forced him into exile in 1900. During his exile, he traveled all over western Europe. ...

On April 10, 1912, the crew of the RMS Titanic prepared the ship for her maiden voyage. By noon, the ship’s voyage was well underway. The beginning of her journey was pleasant and calm. The ship was making good time, but her crew believed that she could get to her destination quicker. The decision was made to increase her speed in order to get to New York faster. On the night of April 14, the lookout spotted an iceberg in the distance. By the time, the message reached the deck, the captain had already begun to steer the ship away from it. However, the ship was going to fast and scrapped the side of it. Water started to flood into her compartments. By 1:00 A.M. the next day, April 15, Titanic was almost fully engulfed in sea water.  By 2:00 A.M. the ship was at the bottom of the ocean. In the end, the shipwreck claimed the lives of a total of 2,224 passengers

The president rose in high spirits on the morning of April 14, 1865. He had many reasons to be in such a good mood. The Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered to Union forces only five days prior, and the war seemed to be coming to a swift end. The President busied himself with the tasks of the day, but he could not wait to get to the telegraph office that night to see the latest dispatches from the front. The First Lady had a different evening in mind. She wanted to go to the theatre for a night of leisure. She bought tickets to see the popular comedic play, Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre. The tired President reluctantly agreed. Originally the Lincolns invited General Grant to attend but he refused, wanting to see family instead. They settled on their friend, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara Harris. As the Lincolns busied themselves in the arrangements, two miles away, John Wilkes Booth was drinking his woes away in a local tavern. The Civil War was a tou...

With the conclusion of the Civil War, the question on what to do with the newly freed blacks was at the forefront of the national consciousness. In 1865, the 13 th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, forever freeing slaves in the United States. The subsequent 14 th and 15 th Amendments were later ratified, providing African Americans with voting and civil rights. However, as Reconstruction progressed in the South, Americans increasingly grew tired of the issue of black civil rights. By the 1870’s, white Democrats has regained some their lost power. In the wake of the Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1873, a group of white Democrats attacked the courthouse in Colfax. Inside were many newly enfranchised black votes unsuspectingly casting their votes for the first time. The whites surrounded the court as if to besiege it. All the African Americans surrendered to the crowd. As they emerged from the courthouse, the whites gunned them down. In all, it is estimated that ...

With the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, southerners worried that the Union was about to be radicalized. In South Carolina, representatives met to discuss possibly seceding from the Union. On December 26, 1860, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union. Following their example, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana also held conventions and seceded from the Union in January and February of the following year. That Spring the seceded states formed the Confederate States of America. Young men from all over the Confederacy armed themselves and formed militia companies. The Confederate government tasked these newly organized militias with capturing federal forts and armories throughout the South. In the Spring of 1861, troops lead by General P.G.T. Beauregard seized numerous federal arsenals in South Carolina. In April, his campaign brought him to the mouth of Charleston Harbor. Beauregard’s men prepared to siege the Union-held fort in the ha...

In the Spring of 1976, two computer designers worked tirelessly to release the first product of their fledgling company. The two programmers were Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Throughout the previous summer, Wozniak went to work designing and building the prototypes for their new personal computer. As Wozniak came up with the prototype, Jobs sought out investors for their venture. On April 11 1976, they unveiled, Apple I to the world. It went on sale that summer, but was discontinued in October of 1977, to make way for their new computer, Apple II.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1896. He spent most of his childhood in Buffalo, New York, where his father worked for Proctor and Gamble. He was a very bright, bookish child with a strong love of literature. He attended St. Paul Academy and the Newman School. In 1913, he enrolled at Princeton University. He was a poor student, devoting much of his time honing his writing. He dropped out in 1917 and joined the Army. In 1917, the United States entered the First World War, and Fitzgerald was worried that he would have to go (his regiment would never be called up). He was stationed at Camp Sheridan in Montgomery, Alabama, when he met Zelda Sayre. When the war ended, Fitzgerald went to New York City to start his writing career, hoping that Zelda would follow him. In 1920, he and Zelda were married. By 1924, Scott and Zelda had moved to Europe, and he began working on what would become The Great Gatsby. His story was about Jay Gatsby and his attempt...

By the Spring of 1865, the Civil War had become a bloody, vacillating stalemate. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had been besieged at Petersburg, Virginia by Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac for more than a year. Lee’s army was nearing its breaking point. Every day, Grant’s lines wormed their way closer to Lee’s depleted forces. He knew that he needed to do something drastic. Lee figured that if he could make to the opposite bank of the James River, his army might be able to continue the fight. On April 1, Lee sent a letter to the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. He told Davis that the defeat of his army was inevitable, and that Petersburg needed to be abandoned. He also suggested that the Confederate government evacuate the capital at Richmond. Davis wrestled with Lee’s proposal. On April 2, he ordered the evacuation of Richmond. That night, the Army of the Northern Virginia withdrew from Petersburg. To Lee’s surprise, Grant was soon in pursuit. Hi...

Lucius Septimius Bassianus was born in Lugdunum, Gaul (present-day Lyon, France) in the year 188. He was born to Roman general, Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. In the year 193, his father became Emperor of the Roman Empire. That same year his name would be changed to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. He was officially known as Antoninus but was colloquially known as Caracalla because of a hooded tunic he frequently wore. His father elevated him to co-emperor in 198; his younger brother, Geta would gain the same honor in 209. Everything changed when his father died in 211. Almost immediately Caracalla and Geta argued about their father’s inheritance. Caracalla thought about splitting the Empire but was convinced not to by his mother, Julia. In 211, Julia asked her two sons to bury the hatchet, and meet to discuss their future cooperation as co-emperors. On February 4, Caracalla had his Pretorian Guard hack Geta to death in front of their mother. He was now the sole ruler of Rome. Ca...

Matilda was born at Sutton Courtenay, in Berkshire, England in 1102. She was the daughter of King Henry I of England and his wife, Matilda of Scotland. Henry was the fourth son of William the Conqueror; becoming king in 1100 after his brother, William II was killed in a hunting accident. Matilda spent her child at her father’s court. In 1108, Henry left to inspect his holdings in Normandy, leaving his daughter in the care of Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury. While in Normandy, Henry received entreaties from Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor for his daughter’s hand in marriage. After several meeting with Henry’s envoys, Henry agreed to the match in 1110, and Matilda set sail for the Holy Roman Empire. In their marriage, Henry and Matilda were equals and very much in love, but the couple remained childless. In 1125, Henry V died while on campaign. In the eyes of the Roman elites, the newly widowed Matilda was essentially powerless without her husband; she decided to return to England....

To the Reader, To all the readers, whether you are a daily subscriber or just passing by, I want to thank you. Your support of this blog means a lot to me. I think having a historical context for the times we live in, is extremely important for us in gaining clarity and understanding. I feel it is helpful to understand the trials and tribulations of those that came before us, especially in these trying times.  Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to achieve the following things. Firstly, I want to post more regularly. Even now when it seems I have a lot more free time, I have not been able to write and post as effectively as I want too; I hope to change that. With that in mind, secondly, I will be adding more Presidential Profiles; like the one on Grover Cleveland, which you should check out. Finally, giving our current fears and preoccupation with Covid-19, I will be adding posts about deadly epidemics of the past, to provide context and assurance during our modern cris...

During the winter of 1862, Union General Ulysses S. Grant campaigned in the Confederate stronghold of Tennessee. Tennessee was important to the Confederacy because of its proximity to the Mississippi River, which was a highway for Confederate supply and transportation. Grant had been a lowly clerk in Galena, Illinois only a year ago, and now he was at the head of the Union's efforts in Tennessee. He had won important victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, while other Union generals suffered defeats in the East. During that winter, the Confederates under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston established a base at Corinth, Mississippi. They chose Corinth because it lay the conjunction of two, key railroads, and for its very defensible position with the Tennessee River to its rear. In April 1862, Grant's army was poised to attack Corinth. Grant's army arrived on the opposing bank of the Tennessee River on April 5th. He decided to make camp while he waited for Don Carlos B...

Jacob Roggeveen was born in Middelburg, Netherlands in 1659. He was educated by his father, Arend in mathematics, navigation, geometry, and astronomy. In 1690, Jacob graduated from the University of Harderwijk with a degree in law. He became employed at the Dutch East India Company in 1706. In 1721, he was tasked with finding the mythical continent of Terra Australis. Terra Australis had appeared on many ancient maps and if found could be used as jumping off point for access to the "Spice Islands." His expedition left India and sailed southwest into the Pacific. They made landfall at Valdivia, Chile before sailing West. On April 5, 1722, Easter Sunday, Roggeveen's expedition found Easter Island. He named the island after the holiday it was discovered on. The expedition sailed back to India. Roggeveen headed back to Middelburg, where he died in 1729.

On March 4, 1841, President-Elect William Henry Harrison arrived in Washington to take the oath of office. That March day was a cold one in the nation's capital. Harrison left his carriage and walked toward the rotunda. When he arrived, he was greeted by the political luminaries of the day, some of them had been his rivals for the very office he currently occupied. After a brief ceremony, Harrison was sworn in by Chief Justice Roger Taney. He then faced the gathering crowd and began to deliver his inaugural speech. With a total of 8,445 words, it would be the longest inauguration speech in American history. In his speech, he laid out his agenda, and emphasized his various exploits. The reason for the length of the speech was because Harrison might have been trying to prove his intelligence. During the 1840 campaign, he was accused of not being very bright, so Harrison might have taken that to heart when crafting his speech. He concluded his speech and beckoned farewell to the che...