American history

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Biographer Ron Chernow discusses the extraordinary life of the American Founding Father who inspired a hit musical. (Image by Getty Images)

Editor’s pick: Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of founding father Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull

Your guide to Alexander Hamilton, plus 6 fascinating facts about the founding father

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' (2020): Viola Davis as Ma Rainey. (Photo by David Lee/Netflix)

Who was Ma Rainey, “mother of the blues”?

Mixed signals: A shortwave radio listening post in California, set up to report and translate broadcasts from Asia. (Photo by AP/Shutterstock)

Second World War

Caught off guard: why didn’t America see Pearl Harbor coming?

Land girls on an Essex turkey farm round up the turkeys for the last time. (Photo by Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

A brief history of turkeys, plus why we eat a turkey dinner at Christmas

The First Thanksgiving in 1621, after a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme; screen print, 1932. (Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

7 facts you might not know about the history of Thanksgiving

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Karen Jones on the Wild West

The Wild West: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

President Donald Trump

Life after the White House: what the US presidents did next

President Nixon making final TV address

The 5 most notorious presidents in US history

George Washington

American presidents: 9 things you (probably) didn’t know

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Passengers on the Transatlantic liner Victoria, 1930s. (Photo by Getty Images)

Adventure and opportunity: female transatlantic travellers . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Hughes Glomar Explorer was a salvage vessel disguised as a mining ship, designed to secretly recover Soviet sub K-129

Project Azorian: the Cold War CIA mission to snatch Soviet nuclear sub K-129 from the sea floor

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln, Adams and George W Bush: the 6 most disputed presidential elections in American history

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A Choctaw Indian encampment on the Mississippi River, circa 1833. Painting by Karl Bodmer (Photo by Getty Images)

The dispossession of Native Americans . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Halloween postcard

10 things you didn’t know about the history (and mystery) of Halloween