this week in history

This week in history: March 6-12

March 6, 2025 The Associated Press

March 6 1820: President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state. 1836: The Alamo in San Antonio, […]

This week in history: Feb. 27 – March 5

February 27, 2025 The Associated Press

Feb. 27 1933: Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, was gutted by fire; Chancellor Adolf Hitler, blaming communists, used the fire to justify suspending civil liberties. 1942: The Battle of the Java Sea began during World […]

This week in history: Feb. 20-26

February 20, 2025 The Associated Press

Feb. 20 1792: President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department, the predecessor of the U.S. Postal Service. 1907: President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, […]

This week in history: Feb.13-19

February 13, 2025 The Associated Press

Feb. 13 1945: Allied forces in World War II began a three-day bombing raid on Dresden, Germany, killing as many as 25,000 people and triggering a firestorm that swept through the city center. 1935: A […]

This week in history: Feb. 6– 12

February 6, 2025 The Associated Press

Feb. 6 1778: During the American Revolutionary War, the United States won official recognition and military support from France with the signing of a Treaty of Alliance in Paris. 1862: During the Civil War, Fort […]

This week in history: Jan. 30 – Feb. 5

January 30, 2025 The Associated Press

Jan. 30 1649: England’s King Charles I was executed for high treason. 1933: Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany. 1948: Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in […]

This week in history: Jan. 23-29

January 23, 2025 The Associated Press

Jan. 23 1368: China’s Ming dynasty, which lasted nearly three centuries, began. 1789: Georgetown University was established in present-day Washington, D.C. 1849: Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the […]

This week in history: Jan.16 – 22

January 16, 2025 The Associated Press

Jan. 16 1865: Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman decreed that 400,000 acres of land in the South would be divided into 40-acre lots and given to former slaves. (The order inspired the expression, “40 […]

This week in history: Jan. 9-15

January 9, 2025 The Associated Press

Jan. 9 1861: Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union. 1916: The World War I Battle of Gallipoli ended with an Ottoman Empire victory as Allied forces withdrew. 1945: During World War […]

This week in history: Jan 2 -8

January 2, 2025 The Associated Press

Jan. 2 1942: The Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II. 1959: The Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 launched, becoming the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity. 2016: An armed […]