History
Here we bring you the fascinating world of history: U.S. history; archeological, anthropological, natural, and evolutionary history; plus historical figures. To know where we are going we must first understand where we have been.
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How the Immigration Act of 1924 Tried to Reshape America
Nate Barksdale / HISTORY / history.com
The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson–Reed Act, upended the way migration into the United States functioned for a century and a half. The legislation drastically reduced immigration by setting quotas for which nationalities could—and couldn’t—settle in America.
A New York Times headline on April 27, 1924, declared, “America of the Melting Pot Comes to End.” The article by Senator David Reed, a Republican from Pennsylvania, outlined the bill he cosponsored to reshape the nation’s demographic future by attempting to recreate a version of its past. A month later, the bill was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge.
The Act’s main goal, as laid out in Reed’s article, was to undo the effects of decades of heavy immigration from southern and eastern European countries like Italy and Russia. It was designed to reduce overall immigration while favoring migration from northern and western European countries like Great Britain…Read more here.
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Why Does Congress Take So Many Recesses?
Dave Roos – history.com
The U.S. House of Representatives was in legislative sessions an average of 160 days a year between 2007 and 2024, while the Senate averaged slightly more days. For comparison, the average American worker clocks around 240 days on the job each year with the standard two weeks of vacation and federal holidays.
Since the early 1970s, Congress has taken a month-long recess nearly every August, plus shorter breaks for the holidays. What do Senators and House members do when they’re not in Washington, D.C.? They call the time in their home states “district work periods,” not vacation. Legislators meet with constituents (state fairs are popular), travel for international conferences and raise campaign money.
Congress Used to Be a Part-Time Job: It wasn’t always this way. For most of American history, serving in Congress wasn’t even a full-time job. From the first congressional session in 1789 through…Read more here.
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Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Was Initially Rejected by a Publisher. It Later Became One of the World’s Most Beloved Novels
Kayla Randall / Digital Editor / Smithsonian Magazine
In a letter dated February 4, 1813, Jane Austen told her sister that she believed her new novel, Pride and Prejudice, was “too light and bright and sparkling.” She added, “It wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter—of sense if it could be had.”
The British writer’s best-known book follows the Bennet family as its matriarch seeks to marry off each of her five daughters. At a ball attended by prospective suitors, the kind Mr. Bingley becomes smitten with the equally sweet Jane, while the sharply intelligent Elizabeth clashes with one of Bingley’s friends, the wealthy, standoffish Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth’s initial impression of Darcy is that he’s miserable and arrogant. As the pair continue to interact at social gatherings, however, he finds himself charmed by her.
Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, but she declines, accusing him of pushing Bingley away from her sister and slighting her new acquaintance, Mr. Wickham. Darcy then writes Elizabeth a letter…Read more here.
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How ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ Became an Unexpected Classic
Dave Roos – history.com
When “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired on December 9, 1965, TV executives—and even some of the show’s creators—were convinced it was going to flop.
“Peanuts,” the comic strip created by Charles Schulz, was incredibly popular. (It had just graced the cover of Time magazine). Featuring beloved characters such as the hapless Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy, the franchise set especially high expectations for the TV special.
But Charlie Brown’s animated debut was unlike anything seen on television at the time.
What made ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ so unusual?: The special broke several cartoon conventions of the era. It hired actual kids as voice actors, featured a spare jazz soundtrack and did not include a laugh track. Most controversial of all, it was a children’s Christmas special featuring a lengthy quote from the Bible.
A week before its airdate, CBS held a test screening of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for executives.
“The general reaction was one of disappointment,” said former CBS executive Fred…Read more here.
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