On July 20, 1966, US Navy pilot Dieter Dengler was rescued after escaping a POW camp in Laos, where he endured months of torture and deprivation after his plane was shot down near the North Vietnam-Laos border during the Vietnam War. He became only the second captured airman to escape during the war. Dengler was…
Approximately one in four soldiers who enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War were immigrants to the United States. They came to America looking for a better life, with many escaping political strife, famine, and persecution. America was viewed as a land of opportunity, offering freedom and a place to begin a new…
“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you…” With these words, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the “Order of the Day” just before the 1944 Allied assault…
A Gold Star Service Flag is presented to the family of service members who died while serving in the US Armed Forces. Each gold star represents an individual life, and one group of volunteers is working hard to tell each of their stories. Stories Behind the Stars (SBTS) was founded in 2019, and to date,…
In November 1942, an air transport crew ferrying a B-17 Flying Fortress to England diverted to Greenland to participate in a search for an overdue plane. During the search, the Flying Fortress crashed on the Greenland ice cap. Before the epic ordeal was over, five men died (including three rescuers), and the others spent months…
In April 1865, some 2,000 passengers, mostly Union soldiers, boarded the Sultana in Vicksburg, MS. The soldiers had recently been released from prison camps, including Andersonville and Cahaba. Weary and tired, they had begun the arduous trek home following the end of the Civil War. The 260-foot-long wooden, side-wheel steamboat, designed to hold 376 passengers,…
Do you have ancestors from Massachusetts who served in the Revolutionary War? We have added a new collection, Massachusetts, Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, 1775-1801. This collection contains an alphabetized index created by the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from primary historical sources. More than 620,000 cards containing service information for Revolutionary…
