Horst Wessel was an early leader within the Nazi stormtroopers (SA) who clashed regularly with leftist groups such as Communists. Although murdered by a known leftist it seems that the reason for his assassination was more personal than political.

Hitler is wary of the influence of the Brownshirts particularly after he becomes Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and fears that the armed and semi-mutinous gangs will destabilize his rule.

As it suffers blow after blow on the Western, Eastern, and home front and Hitler becomes more withdrawn Nazi Germany focuses its time and resources on expensive propaganda productions.

The Articles of Confederation proved to be more trouble than help, with individual states all pushing their interests and agendas, to the point of threatening the country as a whole.

There are many misconceptions surrounding our understanding of General George Armstrong Custer and his final campaign against the Plains Indians but the actual facts are more compelling than the fiction.

Such were his powers of organization and logistics, Dwight Eisenhower was always kept away from combat because he made others better and more well-prepared for it.

Our vision of Paul Revere's midnight ride is all wrong, especially how it concludes.

George Washington was preceded by several other Presidents of the United States.

Paul Revere has been billed as America?s first action hero after his famous "Midnight Ride" but as truth would have it, he was part of a network.

In 1932 Rear Admiral Harry Yarnell mounted a simulated attack on Pearl Harbor utilizing carrier-based airplanes to expose how vulnerable it was to a carrier-borne attack. The Japanese took notice.

A small anecdote from the crossing of the Mayflower to America reveals that an indentured servant, John Howland was swept off the deck of the ship during a storm, and that had he not been saved US history would have taken a different turn.

Witness how childhood boredom escalated into the mass hysteria that led to the Salem Witch Trials.

There were actually two boats of Pilgrims that left England for the US, and Plymouth Rock was not the first place the Mayflower disembarked.

When one thinks of America's first amusement ride Coney Island comes to mind, but another ride in Pennsylvania was attracting large crowds of thrill-seekers a decade before.

The negative characterization of Edgar Allan Poe as a paranoid drug addict with the darkest of minds can be traced back to one man who was a rival of Poe's. There is no proof of drugs and his "darkness" is only inferred because of the scary stori ...

Halloween in the early-to-mid-20th century was not a sweet nor pleasant holiday, but an excuse for pranks and general mischief.

The two-day weekend wasn't always the case. What caused the 20th century weekend we've all come to know and love?

There are several facts and fictions associated with New York City's Empire State Building, like that one about a penny dropped from the top having the ability to kill someone on the sidewalk.

Just as with their flags there are many misconceptions about pirates and how they operated.