The causes of wars are seldom what they are made out to seem, and their conclusions almost always have unintended consequences for which the belligerents have not prepared and that cause continuing headaches afterwards. Such was certainly the case with the Spanish-American War of 1898 . Since the days of George Washington's administration, the United States had been isolationist in its foreign policy, paying strict heed to his warning against foreign entanglements. But as America grew, some...

Early explorers must have been superstitious, or at least they were attuned to the importance of historic anniversaries of fellow explorers' deeds. How so? Well, consider the following three events that all occurred on this date during the so-called Age of Exploration, yet they were years apart. First, on this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus , an Italian, entered into contract with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Christopher Columbus By the terms of the contract, Columbus's...

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The following day, April 10, Lee delivered his farewell address to his troops, outlining the terms of surrender and issuing to them his final order, known as General Order No. 9 . Lee dictated the order to his aide de camp Colonel Charles Marshall and then edited it himself to produce the final version. It was released for...