Dave Roos Archives

Stories

Audience members sit in their seats and watch the screen at the Newsreel Theater on Broadway and 47th Street, New York, New York, January 25, 1940.

Featured

How Movie Theaters Got Their Start in America

In April 1896, Thomas Edison rented a New York Vaudeville hall to show a film—an event that many consider to be America’s first movie theater experience.

America’s Long History of Trying to Acquire Greenland

In 1868, Secretary of State William Seward promoted Greenland as a land with so many natural resources it would empower the United States to ‘command the commerce of the world.’

Why the US Returned the Panama Canal

After decades of strained relations, treaties signed in 1977 paved the way to ending American management of the 51‑mile‑long waterway.

The California Water Wars: How LA Got Its Water Supply

When the L.A. Aqueduct was completed in 1913, it was celebrated as an engineering marvel, but it drained distant watersheds to ensure its own precarious survival.