Tim Yoder

A group of 117 English men, women, and children landed on Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina in August of 1587. Under the leadership of Gov. John White, houses were built, and what was intended to be a permanent colony was established. The first English child born on American soil, Virginia Dare, was born to John White’s daughter and son-in-law shortly after their arrival. After it became obvious that the colonists were unprepared for life in the New World, John White

After President John F. Kennedy was killed, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination. The Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President Kennedy and that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald. The findings of the Warren Commission turned out to be quite controversial. Another federal investigation into the Kennedy assassination was conducted in 1978 by the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations.

The U.S.S. Maine was a battleship that was sent to Havana Harbor in January, 1898, to protect American lives and property during the revolt of Cubans against the Spanish government. At 9:40 P.M. on February 15, 1898, an explosion ripped through the ship, killing 266 sailors. Later investigations showed that more than five tons of powder stored in the ship’s forward magazines (storage areas for ammunition and powder) ignited and destroyed the forward third of the ship. What was left of the ves

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, killing or injuring over 3,500 U.S. personnel. Nineteen U.S. Navy ships and 350 planes were destroyed or damaged. After the attack, commanders Admiral Kimmel of the Navy and General Short of the Army were relieved of their positions at Pearl Harbor because they were totally unprepared for the surprise attack. In the years since this event, claims have been made that high U.S. government officials en

The sky went dark the morning of May 19, 1780, in New England. The darkness traveled quickly from the West and did not go away until the following day. At the time and in years following the event, many theories have been offered to explain the darkness. After receiving an overview of the situation, students working in groups form a hypothesis giving their explanation of the mysterious event. The students then receive three sets of clues, one set at a time, to help them solve the mystery.

Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, began their trip around the world on May 20, 1937, in a Lockheed Electra twin engine plane. Their trip began in Oakland, CA, and they arrived at Lae, Papua New Guinea, on June 29th. At 10:00 A.M. on July 2, Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae and began what was expected to be a 20-hour, 2,556 mile trip northeast to Howland Island, where their plane would be refueled. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was waiting off the coast of the island. Its

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Today there are still questions about what happened on that day. This slide show depicts the major events of the day from the arrival of the Kennedy’s in Dallas to the swearing in of Lyndon B. Johnson as the 36th President of the United States. It touches on the arrest of suspect Lee Harvey Oswald and his murder two days later. It follows President Kennedy’s funeral procession