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Death Over the Potomac: A Mid-Air Plane Crash Leaves D.C. Looking for Answers

Death Over the Potomac: A Mid-Air Plane Crash Leaves D.C. Looking for Answers

08/17/2021 in DC by Ben Miller

In 1949, a shocking mid-air crash near National Airport killed more people than any previous air disaster in U.S. history. It did not take long for investigators to place the blame on one unlucky pilot. But was Capt. Erick Rios Bridoux really at fault?

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Virginia
Elsa? Do You Wanna Build a Theme Park?

Elsa? Do You Wanna Build a Theme Park?

08/06/2021 in Virginia by Dominique Mickiewicz

In 1993, Disney announced its decision to develop a new theme park in Prince William County. Their plans sparked serious controversy, leading Disney officials to question whether the dreams that you wish really do come true...

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DC
Brood X in the Eighteenth-Century Headlines

Brood X in the Eighteenth-Century Headlines

05/11/2021 in DC by Katherine Brodt

As a historian, seeing the media “buzz” surrounding cicadas makes me wonder how our ancestors reacted to their periodical swarms. Who were the first people to realize what was going on? Did they understand the seventeen-year cycle? Were they afraid, curious, or unbothered? As I suspected, Washington-area locals have been fascinated by Brood X for a very long time. 

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DC
Cicadas: Time Traveling Trouble Makers

Cicadas: Time Traveling Trouble Makers

05/03/2021 in DC by Michael Kohler

Every seventeen years, the Brood X cicadas create a buzz in the treetops and in the press. The story of the time traveling insects tells an interesting tale of how much changes in the world over their hibernation period and how much doesn't at all.

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DC
Jefferson's Missing Daughter

Jefferson's Missing Daughter

04/02/2021 in DC by William Choi

Harriet Hemings was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. After twenty years of living as as her father's slave, she moved to Washington to begin her life anew... and promptly disappeared from the historical narrative.

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Maryland
The Centuries-Long Saga of the ‘Oyster Wars’

The Centuries-Long Saga of the ‘Oyster Wars’

11/18/2020 in Maryland by Arielle Gordon

The battle lasted about half an hour, and when the smoke cleared, Captain Frank Whitehurst lay dead in a pool of his own blood on the deck of the Albert Nickel, a Baltimore oyster schooner. While Whitehurst met a fate avoided by most, the so called “Oyster Wars” had been brewing for more than 100 years prior to that fateful night on the Severn River.

For nearly two centuries, Maryland and Virginia were engaged in conflict over one of the region’s valuable resources — oysters. Full of inconsistent enforcement and rampant law-breaking, it took the president’s signature to end the Oyster Wars.

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Virginia
"The Shot That Was Felt Around the World": McLean's Polio Pioneers

"The Shot That Was Felt Around the World": McLean's Polio Pioneers

10/21/2020 in Virginia by Arielle Gordon

April 26, 1954, wasn’t an ordinary day at work for Dr. Richard Mulvaney. As McLean, Virginia’s first general practitioner, he treated all types of patients, but he’d never dealt with a situation like the one that awaited him at Franklin Sherman Elementary School that morning.

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DC
When the Secret Service Was Only Interested in Money

When the Secret Service Was Only Interested in Money

10/09/2020 in DC by Charlotte Muth

In the mid nineteenth-century, one-third (or more!) of all U.S. currency was counterfeit.  The banking system was broken and every private bank issued unique paper bills.  By the 1860s, the government had to take action: currency became nationally standardized and the Secret Service was born. 

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DC
What's in a Name? The Potomac River

What's in a Name? The Potomac River

06/26/2020 in DC by Katherine Brodt

How did Washington's most famous river get its name? Though the name is of American Indian origin, historians can’t really agree on its exact meaning. It’s been called a lot of different names, depending on who you talked to. And, until 1931, most people weren’t even sure how to spell it!

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DC
A General, a Queen, and the President

A General, a Queen, and the President

05/29/2020 in DC by Emily Robinson

February of 1863 saw one of the most anticipated celebrity weddings of its time—after all, what better to provide a momentary distraction from the realities of the Civil War than a little star gossip? The bride and groom were General Tom Thumb (Charles Stratton) and the Queen of Beauty Lavinia Warren, of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum (which would later become Barnum’s Circus) in New York City. At 12:30 p.m. on February 10, 1863 in Manhattan’s Grace Episcopal Church, Tom and Lavinia wed in the presence of an enormous crowd, which spilled out onto Broadway and for many more miles into the City, thanks to Barnum’s extensive publicizing of the event. People across America were fascinated by Barnum’s Tom Thumb and the President of the United States was no exception. The Lincolns were so enthralled by Barnum’s acts that they invited the newlywed Strattons to the White House for a wedding reception just a few days later.

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