Articles

If you’re passing through Brookeville, Maryland these days the town might not seem too different from the other suburban stops along Georgia Avenue. But don’t be fooled. Brookeville has a unique claim to fame. For one day during the War of 1812, it was the capital of the United States.

Hidden in the burial yard of Alexandria’s Old Presbyterian Meeting House lies a modest table-top memorial marking the grave of an unidentified Revolutionary War soldier whose remains were discovered there in the 1820s and formally honored in a 1929 dedication that echoed the nation’s renewed interest in its colonial past

On November 11, 1921, three years to the day after the armistice that ended World War I, President Warren G. Harding presided over the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. It was an emotional affair for Washington and the nation.

In November 1862 President Lincoln replaced General George McClellan and two days later appointed Ambrose E. Burnside to lead the Army of the Potomac; his brief, disastrous tenure at Fredericksburg would tarnish his military reputation but cement his curious legacy as the namesake of the sideburns and a perennial "No-Shave November" icon.

Virginia is the 35th biggest state, yet has the 3rd most counties and independent cities in the country. How did that happen? Well, at least part of the answer is lies in the Commonwealth's colonial origins.

It’s Election Day, and hopefully most of you are braving the weather and the lines at your local polling place to make sure your voice is heard. If you cast your ballot for a presidential candidate in the District, you exercised a right that has only been around since 1961; that’s how long DC residents have had the right to vote in presidential elections, a right granted by the 23^rd Amendment.

A quirky local superstition links Washington’s football fortunes to presidential outcomes: since the team arrived in 1937, the result of the Redskins’ last home game before Election Day has predicted with remarkable accuracy whether the incumbent party stays or gets voted out. It's a coincidence that raises a smile and a question about what sports weirdness might say about politics.

Is this bear enjoying the music? Or is it just waiting for a chance to take a swipe at the musicians through the bars.

Amish horses and buggies in the Washington, D.C. Metro area? Yep. It's true. Over 200 Amish families live and work in St. Mary’s and Charles counties in Maryland, less than 40 miles from downtown D.C. The settlement, which is centered around the town of Charlotte Hall, dates to 1939 when seven families migrated to the area from Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania for the cheap Maryland land(!) and to escape pressure from the Pennsylvania state government.

You’re sixteen years old, caught up in the intoxicating freedom that comes with your new driver’s license, and it’s Halloween night. You and your friends are driving around your small town looking for a quiet place far away from adult supervision. You decide to park on the side of the road near a secluded railway overpass. It’s the perfect place to get “up to something,” as your mother would say: woods creeping up on either side and the complete darkness you can only find on rural roads without streetlamps or nearby houses.