The History Channel

When it opened in 1926, the St. Francis Dam was an engineering marvel. Just two years later, it became an engineering catastrophe.

On November 20, 1835, David Ruggles, a Black abolitionist living in New York City, founds the New York Committee of Vigilance, an interracial collective working to protect free Black New Yorkers and fugitive former slaves from kidnappers and police. Its stated goal: to “protect unoffending, defenseless and endangered persons of color, by securing their rights […]

From contaminated raw milk to tainted meat, outbreaks have spread rapidly through the country's food supply chain, with deadly consequences.

Explore facts about the JFK assassination, the perpetrator, the investigations...and conspiracy theories surrounding the event.

A single giant sequoia could supply 500,000 board feet of lumber, a bonanza for profit‑hungry logging companies—or so it was thought.

Many of the holiday songs played over and over each December have unique stories that go back decades, or even centuries.

In 1982, President Reagan appointed private sector experts to hunt for government wastefulness. They were met with limited success.

A health scare caused Americans (including President Eisenhower) to forgo serving cranberry sauce at their holiday tables.

Americans have been cashing in coupons since the 19th century. But the practice really took off during the Great Depression.

On November 26, 1948, the first “Land Camera”—better known today as the instant Polaroid camera—goes on sale at Jordan Marsh department store in Boston for $89.75. The invention of Edwin H. Land, who had enrolled at Harvard to study physics in 1926, but dropped out to conduct his own research, becomes an instant hit and […]