Abraham Lincoln

A side view of the Lincoln Memorial shows a woman standing near the large pillars and a rainbow in the distance.

Juneteenth observance arrives amid US reckoning with racism

Global Politics

With most formal Juneteenth events canceled due to coronavirus concerns, street marches and “car caravans” were planned on Friday across the United States to demand racial justice on the day commemorating the end of slavery a century and a half ago.

Getting Lost with Hand Drawn Maps

Arts, Culture & Media

Oh Lincoln, My Lincoln

Arts, Culture & Media
The assassination of President Lincoln: at Ford's Theatre, Washington, DC, April 14th, 1865.

After Lincoln’s assassination, no one wanted to see the play he was watching — until now

Arts
apple pie

That ‘American’ apple pie actually goes back to Europe in the Middle Ages

Food
Rudolf Hess march in Wunsiedel

A German town turns a neo-Nazi march into an anti-hate walkathon

Global Scan

A German town has spent decades grappling with a neo-Nazi group marching through it, honoring a Nazi hero. But this year, they came up with a way to make a little good come out of the march. Meanwhile, Norway is making its passports into works of art that reflect their country. And a video explanation of why the US and Liberia are linked by history. Those stories and more in today’s Global Scan.

The World

Why does America have a ‘special’ relationship with Liberia?

Conflict

So, how did Liberia come about? Well, it’s mostly to do with racism — many whites just didn’t like seeing free blacks. The solution people came up with was colonization.

Union soldiers entrenched along the west bank of the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

How wars end part II: the American Civil War

Conflict & Justice

Jeb Sharp explores the lessons from the American Civil War that resonate with current events in Iraq.

The World

Meet the one man still making those little Statue of Liberty replicas

Looming over New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty has been the symbol of a new life in a new world for millions of immigrants, including Ovidiu Colea. He dreamed of seeing the statue as a boy in communist Romania. Now, he owns a factory making souvenir replicas of Lady Liberty.

Union army telegraph operators just after the battle of Gettysburg. The Civil War is sometimes described as the first information war. Intercepted messages landed on Abraham Lincoln's desk.

The history of electronic surveillance, from Abraham Lincoln’s wiretaps to Operation Shamrock

Conflict & Justice

Did you know the official electronic eavesdropping goes back to the Civil War and the days of the telegraph?