Prologue: Pieces of History

As frigid temperatures cover much of the country, and many areas are still dealing with record amounts of snow, my thoughts turn to the polar explorers of the early 20th century. They didn’t have Goretex jackets with superwarm linings, satellite communications, or portable computers. Our “Pieces of History” blog takes its name from a regular [...]

Since April 2010, we’ve brought you more than 100 Pieces of History. Nothing too small, too strange, or too obscure has escaped the spotlight of our blog or the scalpel of your clever comments. And we are still discovering new pieces of history every day here at the National Archives! But before we go forward into [...]

It’s been called the nectar of the gods, but it may soon be called the nectar of Starbucks. The giant coffee chain is now selling wine (and beer) in a few test stores in Seattle in an attempt to expand its brand image. Starbucks has long been known as the “third place”—not quite home, not [...]

At 1:28 p.m. on September 28, 1924, two planes landing in Seattle made history. The Chicago and New Orleans had flown 26,345 miles in 66 days to become the first airplanes to circumnavigate the globe. Four planes had started the journey on April 6, but the Seattle and Boston had been forced down over Alaska and [...]

In 1924, a group of eight Army airmen set out to be the first humans to ever circle the globe by air. On their journey over Arctic mountain passes and vast Indian deserts, they would lose half their planes and set numerous records to become what were dubbed the “Magellans of the Sky.” Listen as [...]