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    Meet the man who defied George Washington
     
     
    The "Obstinate" Mr. Burns
    When George Burns refused to give up his land to the D.C. city planners, it sparked a long feud with President George Washington.
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    Reagan Assassination Attempt
     
     
    March 1981: The Tourist From Hell
    On March 30, 1981, a visitor arrived in Washington, on a mission to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.
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    Baseball Legends
     
     
    Washington's "One Legged War Hero"
    Despite losing his right leg in WWII, Bert Shepard defied the odds and played for the Washington Senators in 1945, becoming a local hero.
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    Prince William Forest Park
     
     
    Secrets in the Forest
    Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to begin your training as a World War II spy in the forests of Prince William County, Virginia.
DC
"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

03/17/2023 in DC by Hunter Spears

A guard patrolling the basement of the Capitol during the Civil War is attacked -- not by enemy soldiers, but by a giant, demonic cat! Over a hundred years later, the "Demon Cat" is still one of Washington's greatest ghost stories, which is saying something in a city with as many phantom residents as the capital. What is the real story of this mystical mouser?

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DC
From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

03/10/2023 in DC by Jane Sartwell

On a cold, overcast Tuesday morning in February 1981, something caught the eye of a museum technician as he walked through the “We the People” exhibit on the second floor of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History: The silver pen of President McKinley’s Secretary of State John Hay was missing. The 7 ¼-inch Parker Jointless pen had been used to sign the 1898 Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War.

But now, to the technician’s horror, its case was empty -- and there were more alarming discoveries to come.

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DC
The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

03/03/2023 in DC by Hunter Spears

While digging a sewer near the Capitol in 1898, a construction crew makes an incredible discovery- a fossil! Only, when it's brought to the Smithsonian, no one is able to say for certain what kind of dinosaur it might belong to. Could this be a clue to a dinosaur found only in the District? See how generations of paleontologists dispute the identity D.C.'s oldest resident, and how a group of school kids played a factor in solidifying its legacy.

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DC
Was Lisner Auditorium Really Desegregated in 1947?

Was Lisner Auditorium Really Desegregated in 1947?

02/17/2023 in DC by Meaghan Kacmarcik

In 1946, Washington, DC was on the precipice of a Civil Rights movement. One of the first tests of the city’s shifting beliefs came with the opening of the George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium and its use for commercial theater performances. The first play put on at the theater, Joan of Lorraine, turned out to be a  experiment in the continuance of race-based discrimination policies. Was the swift public backlash to the segregation enforced by GW enough to tear down the artificial barriers between black and white Washingtonians at Lisner?

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DC
Alice Dunnigan Left Her Mark as the First Black Female White House Reporter

Alice Dunnigan Left Her Mark as the First Black Female White House Reporter

02/10/2023 in DC by Jenna Furtado

In 1948, Black journalist Alice Dunnigan put the first of many accomplishments under her belt when she became the first Black female reporter to join the White House press pool and the first Black reporter to go on a campaign trip with a president. Doubted by many reporters due to her gender and race, Dunnigan had to fight for even a smidgeon of the recognition that her male journalist colleagues got, though it never stopped her from doing what she loved. 

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Maryland
How Ethel Barrymore Helped Bring Theater to Olney, Maryland

How Ethel Barrymore Helped Bring Theater to Olney, Maryland

01/27/2023 in Maryland by Katherine Brodt

As Washingtonians and Marylanders began to recover from the hardships of the Great Depression, movies and local theater were a great way to find some escape. In the late 1930s, outdoor theaters were beginning to spring up on the outskirts of the District, where they were especially popular in the summertime. Most of the new playhouses, though, were in Northern Virginia. Maryland lacked options... until organizers of a new theater project in Olney called in a favor from Ethel Barrymore.

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DC
Metro Mythbusting: Georgetown's Nonexistent Metro Stop

Metro Mythbusting: Georgetown's Nonexistent Metro Stop

01/20/2023 in DC by Emma O'Neill-Dietel

If you think you know why Georgetown doesn't have a Metro stop, think again! Though many believe it is the outcome of neighborhood resistance, in reality it has much more to do with geography, geology, expense, and WMATA's original vision for Metro as a commuter rail. The origins of the Georgetown Metro myth are just as interesting as the debunking of the myth.

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Maryland
Hulks like Huge Flower Pots: The Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay

Hulks like Huge Flower Pots: The Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay

12/16/2022 in Maryland by Emma Tanner

At the beginning of the First World War, the United States decided to undertake the largest shipbuilding effort in the nation's history. But before these ships could set sail, the war ended. Thus began the curse of the Ghost Fleet, a large group of unwanted ships that would eventually be abandoned in Mallows Bay on the Potomac. For decades many saw them as an eyesore and hazard. But after years of the neglect, the ships would eventually find their purpose -- in a most unexpected way.  

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DC
On a Wing and a Prayer: D.C.’s Destined-to-Fail Airmail Flights

On a Wing and a Prayer: D.C.’s Destined-to-Fail Airmail Flights

12/09/2022 in DC by Emma Tanner

On May 15, 1918, Lt. George Boyle took off from Potomac Park as the inaugural flight in the United States’ first continuous airmail service. However, hours later, Boyle was climbing out of a crash-landed plane in Waldorf, MD, miles away from his intended destination. But Boyle wasn’t entirely to blame for the airmail’s rocky start – or was he?

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DC
Time Travel in the "Virgin Vault": Washington’s Women’s Boarding House

Time Travel in the "Virgin Vault": Washington’s Women’s Boarding House

11/25/2022 in DC by Emma O'Neill-Dietel

In an imposing brick building at 235 2nd Street, NE on Capitol Hill, time stands still. It is home to over 70 young people living, working, and learning in Washington. This is Thompson-Markward Hall, a boarding house that has been a home for young women in Washington since 1833. But its residents haven’t always been elite graduate students or ladder-climbing interns. Women’s work in Washington has changed dramatically since the 1800s, but Thompson-Markward Hall has remained a necessity.

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Categories

  • DC (565)
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Latest Posts

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

03/17/2023

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

03/10/2023

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

03/03/2023

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

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DC’s Most Underrated History Philanthropist

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La Dame qui Boite  (The Limping Woman)

06/14/2022

La Dame qui Boite (The Limping Woman)

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