2016 is far from the first time America has experienced a contentious election. With Newspapers.com, you can learn all about the controversies of elections past from historical articles written by the people who had to vote in them. Let’s take a look at three of the most sensational elections in American history:

1800

The election of 1800 created so much drama that it resulted in a Constitutional amendment. Under the original system, each person in the Electoral College got two votes: the candidate who got the most votes (as long as it was a majority) became president, and the person in second place would become vice president, whether or not the two were from the same party. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (both of the Democratic-Republican Party) tied at 73 votes in the Electoral College. The election went to the House of Representatives for a decision, and Alexander Hamilton (former secretary of the treasury) convinced his fellow Federalists to vote for Jefferson. Although Hamilton disliked Jefferson, he disliked Burr more. Burr would eventually kill Hamilton in a duel a few years later.

• LEARN MORE: Read an article from a Federalist paper critical of Federalists in Congress willing to switch their support to Jefferson

1824

The election of 1824 likewise had to go to the House of Representatives for a decision. All four candidates were Democratic-Republicans: war-hero Andrew Jackson, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford, and House Speaker Henry Clay. Although Jackson won the popular vote, he only won a plurality of Electoral College votes (rather than a majority), so it was up to the House of Representatives to decide the election. Henry Clay (who got the least electoral votes and was thus no longer under consideration for president) got his supporters to switch to Adams, making Adams president instead of Jackson. Adams, in turn, made Clay his secretary of state in what Jackson called a “corrupt bargain.”

• LEARN MORE: Explore excerpted articles from a variety of papers defending Henry Clay’s involvement in Adam’s election

1876

The election of 1876 was perhaps the most contested of the three elections. It pitted Republican Rutherford B. Hayes against Democrat Henry Tilden. Tilden won the popular vote but was one electoral vote short of a majority, with 20 electoral votes yet to be tallied due to various controversies. Congress appointed a commission to award the remaining votes, and all 20 were given to Hayes, which gave him the majority. When Democrats threatened to contest the results, the matter was settled with a behind-the-scenes agreement that made Hayes president but essentially ended Reconstruction in the South.

• LEARN MORE: See newspaper headlines protesting Hayes’ election

Learn more about elections throughout America’s history by searching or browsing on Newspapers.com!

For family members on the home front during World War II, receiving letters from sons and daughters serving overseas was often a happy occasion, as it meant their child was still alive—at least for now. Some families received letters from their children, only to later receive a dreaded telegram informing them of injury or death. Though for a lucky few, the reverse was also sometimes true: the family erroneously received a telegram from the military, only to receive a letter from the serviceman dated after the telegram, letting his family know he was alive.

Due to military censorship, and the servicemen and women’s own desire not to worry the folks back home, the letters were often relatively vague, mostly just letting their family know that they were okay and giving very general details about where they were and what they were doing. Some of these letters were printed or summarized in local newspapers, where you can still see them today. Who knows? You might even find one written by a family member!

Start by exploring the selected letters and articles below:

• Parents Learn About England from Son’s Letter
• Claysburg Boy Reported Dead May Be Safe
• Son’s Letter Written After Date Of Death
• Son’s Letter Cheers Parents With News He Met Kin in Italy
• Stranded Boro Soldier Got Lift From Masaryk
• Lt. W.C. Pinson Writes Father of Shaking Hands With Queen Mary on Visit to Red Cross in England
• Tipp City Airman Makes His Escape from German Camp
• Red Cross Does ‘Grand Job’ In New Guinea, Son Says
• Private at Pearl Harbor Sends Message of Cheer to Mothers
• Wounded Son’s Letter Eases Mother’s Mind
• 4 Hours Separate Son’s Letter and Death Notice
• Son’s Letter Tells Mother Not to Mourn
• Prayers of Seattle Mother Answered

You can find more WWII letters on Newspapers.com! Try a search like this one as a starting point to find some additional letters, or begin a new search using search terms and dates of your own.

When World War I began in Europe in 1914, the majority of Americans wanted the United States to stay out of the conflict. Although there was a vocal segment of the population who favored “preparedness” (a strengthening of the U.S. military), support for neutrality and isolationism was strong. Industrialist Henry Ford even organized a “peace ship” to sail to Europe in December 1915 to try to encourage peace talks between the belligerents. However, despite the United States’ initial neutrality, many Americans personally sympathized with Britain, France, and their allies, and American institutions lent huge sums to the Allied governments, giving the U.S. a financial stake in the outcome of the war.

Public opinion began to shift away from neutrality following Germany’s sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915, which resulted in the deaths of more than a thousand people, including Americans. Reports of Germany’s atrocities against civilians in Belgium also changed Americans’ opinions, as did the resumption of Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917. The final straw in the shift of American public opinion toward involvement in the war was the discovery of the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany encouraged Mexico to declare war on the U.S.

By the time President Wilson declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, many Americans had reversed their position on neutrality and instead supported American intervention in order to—as Wilson phrased it—make the world “safe for democracy.”

This shift in American public opinion was captured in the newspaper articles and editorials of the time. You can find a sampling of them below via clippings from Newspapers.com:

• December 1914: A quote from President Wilson in support of neutrality
• December 1915: Editorial in support of Henry Ford’s quixotic “peace ship”
• January 1916: “Peace ship” satiric comic
• February 1916: Pro-preparedness, anti-pacifism article
• May 1916: Editorial defending pacifism and criticizing preparedness parade
• June 1916: Excerpt from editorial defending neutrality
• June 1916: Letter to the editor defending pacifism
• April 1917: Political cartoon about America’s potential post-neutrality role
• April 1917: Editorial associating pacifism with being pro-German and unpatriotic
• July 1917: Article tracing President Wilson’s move away from neutrality
• September 1917: Editorial criticizing the peace movement
• January 1918: Article about pacifist teachers being fired in public schools

Find more articles from the debate surrounding America’s entrance into World War I by searching Newspapers.com.

Seventy-seven years ago this month, in April 1939, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath was first published. The novel tells the story of the Joads, a struggling family that makes their way to California after being forced to leave their Oklahoma farm by financial hardship and the Dust Bowl. The Joads were representative of hundreds of thousands of Great Plains residents during the 1930s who struggled to make a living during the Dust Bowl, when massive dust storms caused by drought and poor farming techniques swept across the American and Canadian prairies, destroying crops and livestock and thus the livelihoods of many.

If you’re interested in learning what life was like during the “Dirty Thirties”—perhaps to get a better understanding of what your own Midwestern family members lived through—Newspapers.com has a wealth of articles written by the people who experienced it firsthand. Below are some examples of clippings of articles from the Dust Bowl:

• “Great Dust Cloud Drifts from Western States to East,” May 1934
• Map showing extent of May 1934 dust storm
• Photo: “Dust Storm Obscures Chicago Skyscrapers,” May 1934
• “Boy, 7, Found Suffocated in Kansas Dust Storm,” March 1935
• “Denton in Grip of Worst Dust Storm Ever Seen Here,” April 1935
• “Farmers Fear Judgment Day in Dust Storm,” April 1935
• “Flying Dust Dries Up Hope for Southwest’s Salvation,” April 1935
• “Estimate Crop Damages in Dust Storm Area $30,000,000; Farmers Hope for Rain,” April 1935
• “Oklahoma Families Flee Dust,” April 1935
• Dry-Land Farmers Living in Dust Storm Areas Are Hard Folk to Discourage,” April 1935
• “United Press Writer Tells a Vivid Story of Dust Storm Area,” April 1935
• “New Dust Storm Plagues Kansas as Farmers Give Up All Hope of Wheat Crop,” April 1935
• “Dust Storm Victims Fan Spark of Hope; Farmers Pray for ‘Just One Good Crop,'” March 1936
• Photo: Dust storm in Colorado from the air, July 1936
• “Dust Turns Day into Night, Closes Schools, Blocks Roads,” February 1937
• Photo: “Dust Storms Hit Western States,” February 1937
• “40,000 Farm Hands Aided: Workers from Dust Bowl Provide Problem in Relief in California,” April 1938
• “Fugitives from Dust Bowls Find Meager Living on Coast,” June 1938

Do you have family stories from the Dust Bowl? Share them with us! Or get started searching Newspapers.com for articles related to the Dust Bowl.

In 1943, worried that World War II and the draft would hurt baseball revenues, Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley decided to create a professional women’s baseball league to capture the public interest and bring in money.

The league, mainly centered in the Midwest, began playing in the spring of 1943 with four teams, though that number would grow over the 12 seasons the league lasted. Originally called the All-American Girls Softball League, the league underwent numerous name changes over the years and today is referred to as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The rules of play also evolved over time, with the game initially being more like softball but by its final seasons having become nearly identical to men’s baseball.

In addition to having to make the transition from softball to baseball, players in the league also had to take charm-school classes where they learned grooming and etiquette. Uniforms included shorts covered by a short-skirted tunic, which made sliding to bases painful.

The women’s baseball league did well in mid-sized cities, reaching its peak attendance in 1948 with almost a million people in the stands over the course of the season. In the 1950s, the league began to decline, due in part to the decision to operate teams independently rather than under centralized league control, and the league was finally suspended following the 1954 season.

If you’ve seen the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League may sound familiar, as the film is based on one of the teams in the league. To learn more about the true story behind the film—and see photos of the real-life players—check out these clippings from Newspapers.com:

• A 1943 photo of the first woman to sign a contract with the league
• A 1944 article about injuries sustained by league players
• A 1944 photo of the woman who pitched the league’s first perfect game
• A photo of the 1948 player of the year
• A 1948 article (and photos) about the Fort Wayne Daisies team
• A 1948 photo of a player arguing with an umpire
• An account of a 1949 game between the Springfield Sallies and Chicago Colleens
• A 1950 photo of a player that was almost scouted by a men’s team
• A 1950 ad for a league game

Do you have any family stories about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League? Tell us about them! Or find more articles and photos pertaining to the league by searching Newspapers.com.

This year is a Leap Year, which means we get an extra day on February 29 for a total of 366 days in the year. Want to learn a little more about the origins and traditions of Leap Year? Newspapers.com has got you covered.

If you want to find out about the more about the history of Leap Year, check out the clippings below:

• An article about why we have Leap Years
  
• An article about ancient Egypt’s connection to Leap Year
• A list of Leap Day facts
  
• A 1912 article about proposed alternatives to the Leap Year system
• A 1752 act of Parliament regarding proposed changes to the calendar, including Leap Year

Or if you’re more interested about Leap Year traditions, try reading the following:

• An article about Leap Year legends in different countries

One of the most common Leap Year traditions in the United States and Great Britain in previous centuries was the idea that during a Leap Year, women could propose marriage to men. Over the years, the tradition also grew to include the custom of holding Leap Year dances and balls, which were Sadie Hawkins-type events where the women were in charge and asked the men to dance.

Check out the following clippings from over the centuries about the “Ladies’ Law” Leap Year tradition:

• A 1796 reminder to women about the upcoming Leap Year
• A description of an 1848 Leap Year ball
• A humorous 1852 poem called, “Why Don’t the Girls Propose?”
• An 1864 call for a revival of the Leap Year “law”
• A list of eligible bachelors for women to pursue during the 1880 leap year
• A facetious 1892 article about how to make a Leap Year proposal
• A 1940 article about a Leap Day “manhunt” in an Illinois city

Want to learn more about Leap Year and its traditions? Start a search on Newspapers.com.

This year on January 18, the nation will celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., born on January 15, 1929. Though he was just 39 when he was assassinated in 1968, the civil rights leader made an indelible impact on the civil rights movement and on the country as a whole.

You can read thousands of articles about important events during the public life of Martin Luther King, Jr., on Newspapers.com. Below is a selection to get you started:

• King’s home is bombed in 1956
• King delivers his first national address at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in 1957
• King and other civil rights figures meet President Eisenhower in 1958
• King is stabbed by Izola Ware Curry in 1958
• King travels to India to learn about Gandhi in 1959
• King is sent to jail in Birmingham in 1963, where he writes the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
• King gives his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
• King accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964
• King is assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968
• King is buried in Atlanta on April 9, 1968
• King’s birthday is made a federal holiday in 1983
• First federal observance of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day in 1986

Do you have any personal stories about Martin Luther King, Jr.? Tell us about them! You can also find many more articles about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement on Newspapers.com.

When Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) was released in the United States on May 25, 1977, it was an immediate sensation. Show after show sold out, with many viewers returning to see the film more than once. It received near-universal praise from film critics as well and went on to break all kinds of records for box-office earnings, attendance, and length of run. It surpassed Jaws as the top-grossing film of all time and retained that title until 1982, when it was overtaken by ET, though it still remains one of the most financially successful films.

People went wild for Star Wars, and its popularity is reflected in the plethora of articles and reviews newspapers published about the film. Below is a just a small sample of the tens of thousands of matches you can find for Star Wars on Newspapers.com:

• Announcement that production of Star Wars is to begin
• Roger Ebert’s Star Wars review
• One of the few negative reviews of Star Wars
• Images of characters from the movie including Leia, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, C3PO and R2D2, and Chewbacca
• Newspaper serialization of the Star Wars novel
• Image of a woman who saw Star Wars 16 times in the theater
• Interview with Star Wars actors
• Article about the popularity of Star Wars merchandise
• Article exploring the influence of the Vietnam War on Star Wars

Did you see the original Star Wars in the theater? Tell us about it! Or get started searching for Star Wars on Newspapers.com.

Game 1 of the 111th World Series kicks off this year on October 27. If you aren’t already in the spirit, here are some clippings pulled from Newspapers.com of some of the most memorable moments in early World Series history.

• 1912, Game 8, Red Sox v. Giants: The Giants’ Fred Snodgrass muffs the ball in the 10th inning
• 1929, Game 4, Athletics v. Cubs: Cubs lose an 8-0 lead after Athletics score 10 runs in the 7th inning
• 1932, Game 3, Yankees v. Cubs: In his final World Series, Babe Ruth appears to call his shot by pointing to centerfield before hitting a homerun there (and here are two papers’ takes on Ruth’s gesture the day after: the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Nevada State Journal)
• 1941, Game 4, Yankees v. Dodgers: Dodger catcher Mickey Owen drops a third strike, allowing the Yankees to score 4 runs and win the game
• 1946, Game 7, Cardinals v. Red Sox: The Red Sox’s Johnny Pesky holds the ball too long allowing Enos Slaughter to make it home and score the winning run
• 1954, Game 1, Giants v. Indians: The Giants’ Willie Mays sprints to make an incredible catch way back in centerfield, preventing two runs in the 8th inning
• 1956, Game 5, Yankees v. Dodgers: The Yankees’ Don Larsen pitches a perfect game
• 1960, Game 7, Pirates v. Yankees: Bill Mazeroski hits a game-ending homerun in the final inning of the last game to win the World Series for the Pirates

Do you have any favorite World Series memories? Tell us about it! Or start a search for World Series stories and images on Newspapers.com.

Did you know that in the 1850s the American government brought camels to the Southwest to be used by the army and that 50 years later, feral camels were still being spotted in the desert?

In the late 1840s, Major Henry Wayne of the Quartermaster Department suggested the use of camels to the War Department, and in the mid-1850s Secretary of War Jefferson Davis convinced Congress to appropriate money to import the camels as pack animals for the army in the ever expanding West.

Major Wayne and Naval Lieutenant David Dixon Porter sailed to North Africa and the Middle East in 1856 and came home with some camel handlers and a few dozen camels, which were kept at Camp Verde, Texas. A year later, Porter returned for more camels, bringing the total to about 70.

The camel experiment in the Southwest was relatively successful, as camels were hardier than horses, mules, or burros, traveling farther, packing heavier weights, needing water less often, and being able to subsist on the native desert plants. However, the camels tended to spook the other pack animals, and most of the Americans assigned to them never learned to like them or handle them properly.

The camels’ downfall came with the Civil War. The Confederates took over Camp Verde, but when the US government regained control, it had lost interest in the camel experiment, so the animals were sold (though some had died or escaped during the war).

But that wasn’t the end of camels in the Southwest. Up through the early 1900s, there were occasional reports of sightings of feral camels roaming the desert.

Did you know that you can find articles about the army’s camels on Newspapers.com? Below is a selection of a few of the different articles you can find:

• Letter from Major Wayne during his trip to buy the camels
• Account of the camels arriving in the US
• Camels in the army are tested out
• Camels are given a positive review
• Secretary of War recommends buying more camels
• Government puts the camels up for sale
• 14 ex-government camels sent to New York
• Summary of the fate of some of the camels
• Death of what was believed to be the last of the feral camels in 1901
• Camel driver for the government dies in 1903
• Article debating whether feral camels still exist in 1905

Have you heard of the Southwest’s camels? If you want to learn more about them, start a search on Newspapers.com!