Elizabeth Nix Archives

The Worst Picnic in History Was Interrupted by a War

On July 21, 1861, Washingtonians trekked to the countryside near Manassas, Virginia, to watch the first major battle of the American Civil War.

Meet Jack Jouett, the Paul Revere of the South

Paul Revere gets all the glory but he wasn’t the only one to make a daring late‑night ride to warn that the British were coming. In 1781, during the Revolutionary War (and six years after Revere’s ride), a 26‑year‑old Virginian, John “Jack” Jouett, made a dangerous, 40‑mile dash on horseback to Monticello, the home of […]

British Royals Have Been Scandalously Marrying Commoners Since 1464

That’s the year when Prince William—who’s next in line after his father to become king of England—married Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge. Middleton’s great‑grandfather came from a family of coal miners and her parents were airline workers who wound up making a fortune as founders of a party‑supply business. But the tradition of […]

Want to Rule an Uninhabited Island? Just Make Sure It Has Enough Bird Poop

Unlikely as it might seem today, bird poop was once a hot commodity. In the 19th century, guano—the excrement of seabirds and bats—was prized by American farmers as an effective natural fertilizer, full of nitrogen and phosphorous. In fact, in 1856 Congress passed the Guano Islands Act, giving any American citizen who discovered an uninhabited […]

9 Famous Presidential Retreats

Commanders in chief seeking refuge from Washington politics and weather have retreated to destinations across the U.S. map, from the Jersey Shore to Southern California.

Are there countries the U.S. doesn’t have diplomatic relations with?

The history of American diplomacy stretches back to Ben Franklin, the country’s first diplomat, who helped the 13 colonies form official ties with France in 1778, during the Revolutionary War. Other nations that were among the earliest to make a formal diplomatic alliance with America include the Netherlands (1782), Spain (1783), Britain (1785) and Russia […]

Tuskegee Experiment: The Infamous Syphilis Study

In order to track the disease’s full progression, researchers provided no effective care as the study’s African American participants experienced severe health problems including blindness, mental impairment—or death.

Why is James Buchanan considered one of America’s worst presidents?

Many historians rate America’s 15th chief executive, James Buchanan, as the most inept occupant of the White House due mainly to the fact that he took no action to unite a country sharply divided over the issue of slavery and did nothing to stop Southern states from seceding in the lead‑up to the Civil War. […]

How Robert Hanssen Spied for the Soviets

The former FBI agent was sentenced to life in prison for selling U.S. secrets to Moscow.

6 Famous Congressional Investigations

Find out the first‑ever congressional investigation and other probes into organized crime, illegal spying and a famous tragedy at sea.

Who was the “king who never was”?

Prince Albert Victor, the grandson of Queen Victoria, became second in line to the British throne at the time of his birth in 1864. However, Eddy, as he was nicknamed, died at age 28, before his father and grandmother, and never became king. Since his death, there have been unsubstantiated claims that the prince was […]

9 Things You Should Know About the Vice Presidency

1. The job used to go to the person with the second‑most votes. The drafters of the Constitution set up a system in which presidents were chosen by members of an Electoral College, and each elector got to vote for two people. The candidate with the most electoral votes (as long as it was a […]