Washington, D.C.

When John Tayloe III was looking to build a winter home, his personal friend George Washington suggested the District. Tayloe commissioned William Thornton, who designed the Capitol building and Thornton designed an impressive home, which fit neatly into the triangle lot it was situated on at 18th St. and New York Ave, NW. The layout of the building is quite imaginative, but today the house is not just known for its architecture. It's also known for the spirits that are said to linger on in the residence.

Before D.C. United became a mainstay in the District's sports scene, the Washington Diplomats tried—and failed—to make soccer stick in the capital. With flashy signings, fleeting glory, and a fan base that never quite caught fire, the Dips’ story is a cautionary tale of ambition, mismanagement, and the long road to soccer success in D.C.

The 1964 Freedom Summer movement in Mississippi does not generally conjure up images of the nation’s capital. But a few of the organizers had strong ties to the District and helped advance a bold crusade to register Black voters in Mississippi, risking violence and arrest to challenge Jim Crow.

This year's FIFA World Cup has produced some exciting matches. But one of the most thrilling goals in World Cup history actually was scored at Washington's RFK Stadium back in 1994, when the U.S. hosted the global tournament for the first time ever. 

In June 1960, a biracial contingent of college students from the Non‑Violent Action Group staged sit‑ins at Arlington lunch counters—facing taunts, arrests, and even a counter‑demonstration by American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell. Their persistence forced local stores to integrate within days and marked a major victory in the local civil rights movement.

After a decade-long fight, Frederick Douglass became the first figure to represent the District of Columbia inside the U.S. Capitol—an emblematic victory that forced Congress to confront D.C.’s long struggle for recognition and equal representation.

On a sweltering August night in 1957, Washington’s National Theatre hosted a glittering crowd of senators, ambassadors, and VIPs for the pre-Broadway premiere of West Side Story. It was enough to make any composer nervous, but behind the velvet curtain, composer Leonard Bernstein was strangely calm.

Before Brazil’s bossa nova swept the globe, its breakout moment happened in a DC church basement. Discover how a chance meeting, a cultural exchange tour, and a three-hour recording session turned Jazz Samba into a Grammy-winning sensation—and made Washington, not Rio, the unlikely launchpad of a musical revolution.

In the 19^th century, the North and South waged an important battle. No, not the Civil War- horse racing! Before the war between the states with military and espionage there was a stirring contest fought with the finest horses that either side could breed, and the first battle took place right in the heart of Washington D.C., at the National Course somewhere around 14^th Street, north of Euclid Street and south of Columbia Heights.

In the early 1990s, homeowner Stephanie Slewka made a fascinating discovery on the second floor of her 19^th century townhouse at 415 M Street, NW: a mural concealed beneath layers of paint and wallpaper.  As if peeling back layers of time, she found one of the only remaining traces of Shomrei Shabbos, a small orthodox community in downtown Washington that worshiped in the townhouse. Decades later, that same mural is in danger. 

Between 1830 and the 1970s, clerks in Washington sorted thousands of undeliverable letters a day, reuniting lost messages, uncovering bizarre packages, and sometimes finding stories more haunting than the mail itself.

Spending a Sunday afternoon at the ol’ ballpark is pretty commonplace nowadays. But 100 years ago? Notsomuch. In the early 1900s, debate raged about whether it was appropriate – or, for that matter, legal – for ballclubs to suit up on Sundays. Blue laws in many states put severe restrictions on what could and could not be done/consumed/enjoyed/observed on the traditional day of rest.