Books in Snapshots in History series

In the 1850s, tension over the issue of slavery was splitting the United States and fracturing the political parties. Out of the wreckage of the old party system, the Republican Party took shape. The Republicans stood firmly against the further spread of slavery and pushed for new laws to build the American economy. Though their first candidate for president lost the election of 1856, Republican Abraham Lincoln won the White House just four years later, and the party was on the way to becoming a key force in American politics.

When Oliver Brown took his daughter to enroll at a local school, she was refused admission because she was an African-American. Brown was one of several parents who challenged the local school board in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This case, among the most famous in American history, eventually made it to the Supreme Court and came to represent all cases for the integration of schools across the United States. The court’s decision forever changed the lives of all Americans.

On March 13, 1963, Ernesto Miranda confessed to three crimes. Based on his confession, Miranda was convicted at trial, but some lawyers thought Miranda's rights had been denied. The lawyers helped Miranda wage a three-year legal battle, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In an historic decision, the Court said anyone accused of a crime had "the right to remain silent." This and several other legal protections are now part of the Miranda Warning read to every person who is arrested in the United States.

Pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 in Beijing’s mammoth Tiananmen Square led to a violent crackdown by the Chinese army that killed perhaps several hundred people and shocked the world. Hardly anyone thought the government would treat its own citizens so harshly. The suppression was followed by attempts to seize and punish people connected with the protests, especially the student organizers. Some were executed, and others were still being held almost 20 years later, as China hosted the 2008 Olympic Games.

Four years into World War I, millions of soldiers had died or been badly wounded, and neither side could gain a clear advantage in the bloody conflict. In August 1918, one year after the United States entered the war, Allied troops launched an attack near Amiens, France. It was the first of many Allied offensives that would take place all along the Western Front during the next 100 days. These small but significant attacks helped the Allies gain the advantage and ushered in the end of the war.