The 1920s heralded a dramatic break between America’s past and future. Before World War I the country remained culturally and psychologically rooted in the nineteenth century, but in the 1920s America seemed to break its wistful attachments to the recent past and usher in a more modern era.

Civil libertarians cried foul over the indefinite detention of hundreds of Sept. 11 suspects and plans to try accused terrorists in military tribunals. In defense, some Bush administration loyalists cite another wartime leader who locked up civilians and resorted to army courts, Abraham Lincoln—even though Lincoln faced a radically different situation, and, more importantly, his civil liberties record stands as a rare blot on his reputation.

The Seneca Falls Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19 and 20, 1848, was the first women’s rights convention held in the United States, and as a result it’s often called the birthplace of feminism.

Traveling aboard the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, 104 men landed in Virginia in 1607 at a place they named Jamestown. This was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Thirteen years later, 102 settlers aboard the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts at a place they named Plymouth. With these two colonies, English settlement in North America was born.

On December 6, 1606, the journey to Virginia began on three ships: the Susan Constant, theGodspeed, and the Discovery. In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the most famous events in English history. It was arguably Queen Elizabeth’s finest hour.