David Thompson was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo - Koo - Sint" or "the Stargazer". Over his career he mapped over 3.9 million square kilometres of North America and for this ha...

Among the young men whom Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier deeply influenced was Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771–1834), the founder of the DuPont Company. His father, Pierre Samuel du Pont—an economist, government official, and publicist—was among t...

La Mulâtresse Solitude was a historical figure and heroine in the fight against slavery on French Guadeloupe. She has been the subject of legends and a symbol of women's resistance in the struggle against slavery in the history of the islan...

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea coming into the colonies. On...

William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States (1841) served the shortest time of any American President - only thirty-two days. He also was the first President from the Whig Party. He had won his nickname, "Old Tip," as the tou...

Meriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark, whose mission was to explore the...

The American Revolution was a colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America. In alliance with France and othe...

The Declaration of Independence has been described as the most important document in human history. Here, in the memorable language of the famous preamble, a hundred and ten words fatally undermined the political basis of the old order and...

Jean Lafitte was a French pirate and privateer who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his older brother Pierre spelled their last name Laffite, but English language documents of the time used "Lafitte". This ha...

Martin Van Buren was the first President (1837-1841) not born a British subject, or even of British ancestry. The Van Burens were a large, struggling family of Dutch descent. Martin's father, Abraham Van Buren -- a supporter of Thomas Jeffe...

Agustín de Iturbide, also known as Augustine I of Mexico, was a Mexican army general who built a successful political and military coalition that was able to march into Mexico City on 27 September 1821, decisively ending the Mexican War of...

Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader. Together with José de San Martín, he played a key role in Hispanic-Spanish America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, and is today considered one of...

Hugh Glass was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, fur trader, hunter, and explorer. Born in Pennsylvania to Scotch-Irish parents, Glass became an explorer of the watershed of the Upper Missouri River, in present-day Montana, North Dakot...

American author Washington Irving is best known for his short stories which include "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." Also a historian, he wrote several biographies of historical figures such as George Washington and Muham...

At the time he became 12th President of the United States (1849-1850), Zachary Taylor was the most popular man in America, a hero of the Mexican-American War. However, at a time when Americans were confronting the explosive issue of slavery...