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Special Report

Untold Stories of American History

Explore the lives of little-known changemakers who left their mark on the country


Illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The American Yawp Vol. II: Since 1877, Getty Images
Alice Beatrice Rhinelander, née Jones (seated at center), looks at her father, George Jones, as they await the verdict in the Rhinelander v. Rhinelander case.

How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties

The memorial artwork hadn't been seen since the 1970s, when it was placed on a replica of Kennedy's gravesite in Upperville, Virginia.

A Secret Sculpture Built for John F. Kennedy's Grave Vanished in the 1970s. Half a Century Later, the Mystery Has Been Solved

An 1860 photo of New-York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, who challenged President Ulysses S. Grant in the 1872 election

This Defeated Presidential Candidate, Once the 'Best-Known Man in America,' Died in a Sanatorium Less Than a Month After Losing the Election

More Stories

The 31-star Perry flag is visible in the background of this photo, which shows United States General Douglas MacArthur signing the official Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945.

HISTORY

To Mark Japan's Surrender at the End of World War II, This Navy Officer Raced Halfway Around the World With a Historic Flag in Tow

Peter Zablocki

A grand jury tasked with investigating the riots argued that the violence outside Peekskill “was basically neither antisemitic nor anti-Negro in character.”

HISTORY

The Peekskill Riots Revealed the Racism and Antisemitism Hidden Beneath the Surface of the Anti-Communist Movement

Matthew Schuerman

The Sodder children, from left to right: 14-year-old Maurice, 12-year-old Martha, 9-year-old Louis, 8-year-old Jennie and 5-year-old Betty

HISTORY

What Happened to the Sodder Children, the Siblings Who Went Up in Smoke in a West Virginia House Fire?

Abbott Kahler; Updated by Meilan Solly

Frustrated residents of Sheridan, Wyoming, coalesced around the idea of secession, allying with nearby communities to petition for their own state.

HISTORY

How the Great Depression Fueled a Grassroots Movement to Create a New State Called Absaroka

Eli Wizevich

A few weeks after Harriet Beecher Stowe crossed paths with John Andrew Jackson, she began drafting Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

HISTORY

The Black Fugitive Who Inspired 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and Helped End Slavery in the U.S.

Susanna Ashton, The Conversation

Members of the U.S. team participate in the opening ceremony at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.

HISTORY

At the 1960 Olympics, American Athletes Recruited by the CIA Tried to Convince Their Soviet Peers to Defect

Erik Ofgang

A 1959 photograph of William "W.R." Saxon, who is standing third from left

HISTORY

This Little-Known Civil Rights Activist Refused to Give Up His Bus Seat Four Years Before Rosa Parks Did

Taryn White

Was Leicester Hemingway's micronation of New Atlantis a quixotic experiment in democracy or an elaborate improv comedy sketch? 

HISTORY

Why Ernest Hemingway's Younger Brother Established a Floating Republic in the Caribbean

Fred Nadis

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