To celebrate National Library Week during this time of social distancing, we encourage you to explore the collections of the Library of Congress online. One of the great things about exploring the collections of the Library of Congress is its ability to surprise you. In that spirit, I wanted to share something I came across …
Today marks the 157th anniversary of the Homestead Act becoming law. For a number of years before the Civil War, there had been interest in allocating public lands in the trans-Mississippi west to individual settlers, but for a variety of reasons, including arguments over the status of slavery in the territories and concerns by Northern …
Bernardo Vicente Apolinar de Gálvez y Madrid is one of those unsung heroes of American history. Today, I would like to share a few highlights about this giant of Americana. Born on July 23, 1746, in Macharaviaya—a town and municipio in Málaga within the autonomous community of Andalusia, which is situated in the south …
The individual statutes for congresses 68 through 81 are now available on the Law Library of Congress website. This addition closes the gap for the years for which the Statutes at Large were not available on the Internet. As with the volumes for previous congresses, each of these statutes is tagged with tailored, descriptive metadata …
On March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27th state to join the United States. People first reached Florida at least 12,000 years ago. Because the sea level was much lower then, Florida was nearly twice the size it is today. Florida is the site of the earliest visit to the continental U.S. by European explorers …
This coming Monday, February 15, we will celebrate the federal holiday, Washington’s Birthday. You may be thinking, “my calendar says Monday is ‘Presidents’ Day,’ not ‘Washington’s birthday!’” Interestingly, the federal holiday is officially called Washington’s Birthday (5 US Code 6103) and is observed on the third Monday in February as established by Public Law 90-361 …
A report titled Guest Worker Programs was recently added to the list of reports posted on the Law Library of Congress website under “Current Legal Topics” where you can also find a range of other comparative law reports on various topics. The Guest Worker Programs report is based on a study conducted by staff of the Global Legal …