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Category: Today in History

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Election Day Collection Coverage

Posted by: Erin Allen

Today, American citizens gather en masse to exercise their right to vote for the nation’s next president. This particular election will certainly go down in the history books as an interesting one. However, American presidential election history is full of choice moments. This election year hasn’t been the first to see name-calling and insults. In …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New Online: Today in History, Hispanic Heritage & Folklife Collections

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.)  Website Updates Today in History is an online presentation of historic events illustrated by items from the Library’s digital collections. First established in 1997, the site was migrated this month from the American Memory site to a new home …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New Day for “Today in History”

Posted by: John Sayers

(The following post was written by Peter Armenti, literature specialist in the Library’s Digital Reference Section and a regular contributor to the poetry and literature blog, “From the Catbird Seat.”) For nearly 20 years, the Today in History feature has been one of the most popular areas of the Library of Congress website. Drawing heavily …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Trending: Olympic Games

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a feature in the July/August 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM, that was written by Audrey Fischer, magazine editor. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) Broadcasts of the Olympic Games bring the event to life for millions of viewers and leave a record behind for posterity. …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

How Did America Get Its Name?

Posted by: Erin Allen

Today, America celebrates its independence. Our founding fathers drafted and adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring America’s freedom from Great Britain and setting in motion universal human rights. While the colonies may have established it, “America” was given a name long before. America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer who set forth the …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Pic of the Week: Happy 216th Library of Congress!

Posted by: Erin Allen

The Library of Congress celebrates its 216th birthday on Sunday. Founded on April 24, 1800, thanks to an appropriation approved by Pres. John Adams of $5,000 for the purchase of “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.” What started with a whopping 740 books and three maps has evolved to more …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Easter Week Illuminations

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by Levon Avdoyan, Armenian and Georgian area specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division.) The feast of Easter is arguably the holiest of holidays for the various Christian denominations but especially for the Eastern Churches – among those, the Armenian Church. For it, Easter Week (Avag Shabat, the …