1

World War II (1939–1945)

American veteran soldiers are entitled to several benefits as recognition for their service on behalf of the country, but this was not always the case. Before 1944, war veterans received pensions and disability-related medical care, but that was it. WWI veterans had received bonuses for their service, but these were not redeemable until 1945, which led to protests and turmoil during the Great Depression.

To avoid a similar situation with soldiers serving in WWII, a set of laws, popularly known as the "G.I. Bill", was passed in 1944. These laws guaranteed that, in addition to pensions and medical assistance, veterans were entitled to financial help towards education or training, low-cost loans, unemployment benefits, and job-search assistance . Since then, additional "G.I. Bills" have been passed, ensuring that veterans are looked after once their service is complete.

2

The Great Depression (1929–1939)

Historians agree that, despite President Roosevelt’s best efforts, the Great Depression was effectively ended by the industrial mobilization caused by WWII. America’s biggest economic crisis to date had been brought on by several factors , many of them related to reckless market speculation, inefficient monetary policies, lack of social security, and massive bank withdrawals made by panicked citizens.

While F.D.R.’s "New Deal" policies were insufficient to overcome the crisis, they successfully set up a system to prevent a similar economic collapse in the future . As a result of financial and banking reform, personal accounts were federally insured —which prevented future massive withdrawals that would deplete savings, commercial and investment banking were separated, and commissions were set up to regulate trading and prevent fraud. Additionally, social and welfare laws established pensions, work insurance, and unemployment compensation, and protected unions that allowed workers to collectively bargain with their employers.

3

The Great Chicago Fire (1871)

On October 8, 1871, a fire started on DeKoven Street, Chicago, and it burned for three days, destroying 17,450 buildings and leaving 300 casualties and thousands of people homeless. According to legend, the fire was started by a cow (owned by a woman named Mrs. O’Leary), although this was never confirmed; it was the wooden buildings, the strong wind, and the dry weather that turned an accident into a catastrophe.

Americans from all over the country rallied behind the relief effort, donating money, food, clothing, and more, but the tragedy also forced authorities to review their own municipal safety codes. New fire and building safety codes were implemented, banning wood buildings and requiring fire-safe materials such as brick, stone, or marble, as well as fireproof staircases, exit signs, and outward-opening doors. A new fire academy was founded to properly train firefighters, which put Chicago at the lead of America’s firefighting force.

4

Yellow Fever (1793)

In 1793, the city of Philadelphia received cargo ships from Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti), and with them, an epidemic that lasted for half a year. Among the cargo from the Caribbean, there were yellow fever-carrying mosquitoes, which thrived in the crowded docks and in the humid spring and summer weather. The open sewers, poor waste management, and general ignorance about the disease worsened the situation, which only let up with the cold fall weather, with 5,000 people, about 10% of the population, as casualties.

Although the widely believed cause of the spread of the epidemic —foul "miasma" or bad air— was incorrect, it did lead to proper infrastructure changes to prevent a similar situation. The city targeted polluted waterways and rotten waste, exposing severely contaminated wells. Municipal water systems to provide clean drinking water were created, and paved streets with proper gutters and sewers reduced the amount of stagnant water . Additionally, the crisis led to the establishment of municipal health boards, proper quarantine facilities for incoming ships, and municipal hospitals all across the country.

5

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911)

Nowadays we expect any factory or building to have proper fire and safety systems in place, but not so long ago safe working conditions were not a given. Places like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York not only lacked fire alarms, sprinklers, and fire escapes, but also locked their doors during work hours to prevent unauthorized breaks and workers' union gatherings . On March 25, 1911, when a pile of rags caught fire, the single fire escape collapsed and, with firefighters' ladders only able to reach six of the ten floors, the factory became a deadly trap that took the lives of 146 workers.

New Yorkers were outraged by the conditions that led to the tragedy, and public pressure led to the establishment of an investigating commission. As a result, more than 30 safety laws were passed , making fire drills, sprinklers, fire escapes, and emergency exits mandatory, among other measures, all of which set a precedent for federal safety codes and protections. The event also strengthened labor unions all across the country, who pushed for better working conditions.

6

The Dust Bowl (1930s)

The 1929 Wall Street Crash had already kickstarted the Great Depression, but the American crisis was still deepening. By the start of the 1930s, years of severe drought had hit the Great Plains (comprising ten states in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions) and had worsened an environment already depleted by human intervention. Native grasses that protected the topsoil had been eradicated through plowing, leaving the land vulnerable to wind erosion, while intensive cultivation of single crops had depleted the land. All this caused severe dust storms that hit the plains, further eroding the fields and suffocating the crops. In an agricultural recession, thousands of families migrated West looking for work.

The government’s response had diverse approaches. The Soil Conservation Service focused on changing detrimental agricultural practices through educating farmers on contour plowing, crop rotation, and shelterbelt tree planting. FDR’s "New Deal" plan established subsidies for farmers, requiring landowners to distribute a percentage of the subsidy to their laborers, and thousands of cattle were acquired, butchered, and distributed by the government to the affected population. Ultimately, the return of rain in the 1940s ended the drought and helped restore the soil, but the education, conservation, and relief mechanisms implemented by the government ensured that the Great Plains would not be as severely affected by drought in the future.

7

The Cold War (1945-1991)

The euphoria of the WWII victory in American politics was short-lived, as the climate quickly shifted to a new threat: communism. The Cold War deeply affected domestic American life, and the paranoia of the Red Scare prompted the government to invest thousands of dollars in defense , infrastructure, political propaganda, and counter-espionage. Sadly, this paranoia also allowed government officials and politicians, like Senator Joseph McCarthy, to persecute and blacklist thousands of suspected communist sympathizers without solid evidence.

While the desire to beat the USSR in public achievements resulted in the government funding the military industry, science education and research, and sports programs, espionage and propaganda were targeted through the creation of federal agencies —among them the CIA, the NSC, and the NSA— that managed domestic security, international intelligence, information, and propaganda.

8

The Revolutionary War Smallpox Epidemic (1775–1782)

The 1775 North American Smallpox epidemic lasted for nearly a decade, well beyond the Revolutionary War, but the military leaders of the Revolution were the ones to put in the efforts to contain it and prevent further spreading of the disease. In 1775, smallpox was a rampant disease in the American colonies, and a big part of the population had not been exposed to it due to isolation. This meant that, when colonists from rural areas joined the Continental Army, overcrowded military camps became a hotspot of contagion. It is estimated that smallpox caused more casualties than the fighting itself.

While smallpox decimated the Revolutionary Army, the British, who had been traditionally exposed to the disease, were immune to it. Recognizing the need to stop the spread of the disease, George Washington ordered a secret mass immunization of the troops in 1777 , a measure that drastically lowered the mortality rates among the army. While several founding fathers were in favor of mass inoculations and better public health policies, most of the colonists were distrustful of vaccinations and of government-mandated health policies. The success of Washington’s mass inoculation showed that public health policies could make the difference, and paved the way for later policies and health systems.

9

The Cholera Waves (1832–1866)

The U.S. went through three major cholera waves in 1832, 1849, and 1866, with tens of thousands of casualties, economic crises, and mass panic. Rapidly growing cities lacked proper sewage, and rancid water accumulated in the unpaved streets, while overcrowding and poor living conditions furthered the contagion. New travel methods such as the railroad helped introduce the disease to different regions, while doctors blamed the epidemic on "bad air" or a divine punishment.

It was not until the 1866 wave that city governments decided to change their approach to the health crisis. New York was the first city to establish a Metropolitan Board of Health, which focused on improving sanitary conditions and reforming the hospital system. Police forces encouraged (or forced) residents to clean their yards and remove manure and rotten waste, while the city strived to maintain clean streets and build sewage systems. By the time the third cholera wave hit New York, the city was prepared, and the number of casualties was much lower. Following its example, other major cities established their own permanent boards of health, implemented municipal health codes, improved their hospitals, and constructed underground sewers.

10

The Smoking and Lung Cancer Crisis (1960s)

Although tobacco had been popular for decades, the 20th century saw a rise in consumption thanks to aggressive cigarette marketing campaigns in print, radio and television. Smoking was allowed everywhere, and it was portrayed as stylish and smart in movies and magazines. There was a lack of education about the addictive properties of nicotine and the chemicals present in commercial cigarettes , a fact that the tobacco industry was eager to keep concealed. By the 1960s, lung cancer and heart disease numbers had risen dramatically, forcing the government to address the situation.

The 1964 Surgeon General’s report was the first to publicly link lung cancer and heart disease with tobacco consumption. Following several reports by other specialists , public opinion about cigarettes drastically shifted, despite the efforts of the tobacco industry . In 1965, Congress passed a law requiring mandatory health warning labels on cigarette packaging, and in 1971, cigarette radio and TV ads were outlawed. As a result, from the 1960s to the 2010s, cigarette consumption decreased by nearly 50%.

11

The Pure Food and Drugs Act (1906)

If you are the kind of person who religiously scans the ingredient list on food and medicine labels, you might not know that these labels exist thanks to a novel (and several journalists' investigations). In the late 19th century, increased food and medicine demands led manufacturers to sell tainted or unsafe products with false labels and filled with unsafe preservatives. Factory sanitary conditions were also subpar, which led many journalists to write about the issue. In 1906, Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle described the meat-packing industry practices in a graphic and revolting way, which caused mass outrage.

The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 was the first of a series of laws passed by Congress to address the issue. It created a federal agency (now called the FDA) responsible for overseeing food and drug manufacturing , banned a series of commonly used substances and active ingredients, outlawed the sale of spoiled or contaminated food, set an inspection system for factories, and acted as a baseline for future consumer protection laws.

1

What are bills made of?

Unlike other currencies, dollar bills are not made of paper or plastic. U.S. dollar bills are made from a special fabric blend composed of 75% cotton and 25% linen. This mix makes the bills extremely durable and resistant, and they can be folded about 4000 times before tearing.

2

What bills are valid?

Any U.S. dollar bill that was legally printed is valid, no matter how old, as American currency does not have an expiration date. While some bills might not be accepted by businesses of foreign exchange services due to their condition or if they are a discontinued version of the bill, the bills themselves are still valid, and American banks will accept them, though they might take them out of circulation.

3

American leaders

Five bills have a depiction of an American president. The exceptions are the $10 bill, with Alexander Hamilton on the front, and the $100 bill, with Benjamin Franklin. The $1 bill, depicting George Washington, is extremely symbolic: several elements are repeated 13 times as a nod to the thirteen colonies, and it showcases the Bald Eagle and the Eye of Providence as a sign of God watching over America.

4

A change in size

Did you know that dollar bills used to be so big that they were nicknamed "horse blankets"? Original dollar bills were 7.4 × 3.1 inches. In 1929, the Treasury Department reduced the size of bills to 6.14 × 2.61 inches to reduce production costs and materials. Old bills, though still valid, are worth much more as collector items.

5

Uniformity

Besides their value and design, all dollar bills have the same size (6.14 × 2.61 inches), color, and weight (1 gram) , which sets American currency apart from other countries where bills of different values are differentiated by size, color, or both. Why doesn’t the U.S. implement differences among bills? The cost of adapting vending machines, bank drawers, and ATMs to new bill sizes would cost billions of dollars.

6

Hard to copy

Originally, dollars were not green, but black. As time passed, green ink was favored, as it was cheap and did not fade as much as black. The new color also prevented people from using black-and-white cameras to create counterfeit money. Currently, dollar bills are predominantly green, but newer versions also include extra colors, such as pink, orange, or purple.

7

A $100,000 bill?

Have you ever seen a $500 or 1,000 dollar bill? What about a $100,000? Up until 1945, the U.S. Treasury printed $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $100,000 notes , in addition to the values currently in use. These higher-value notes were mainly intended for bank and government use, but were sought by criminals as they made it easier to hide large amounts of money. Even though they were officially discontinued in 1969, these notes are still valid, though rare, and they have a high worth as collector's items.

8

No numbers

Unlike bills, American coins have different sizes and colors related to their value. Originally, gold, silver, and copper were used for coins, but modern coins are made of copper, zinc, or nickel. Besides their size and design, the value of each coin is printed in letters, not in numbers , alongside depictions of American presidents.

9

Liberty for all (the coins)

By law, all American coins must include six specific details : the word ‘Liberty’, the name of our country, the national motto "In God We Trust", the oldest American motto "E Pluribus Unum", the value of the coin, and the year. Each coin also includes a mint mark that shows where it was made: "P" for Philadelphia, "D" for Denver, "S" for San Francisco, and "W" for West Point.

10

A global currency

The American dollar is one of the most powerful currencies in the world, acting as a backbone for international trade and finances. It is estimated that two-thirds of the physical dollars in circulation are outside American territory. Besides the U.S. and its territories, eight sovereign nations have the U.S. dollar as their official currency, with several more accepting it as legal tender.

1

George Wilson (1830): The man who refused his own pardon

In 1829, George Wilson and his accomplice James Porter robbed a U.S. mail carrier in Pennsylvania. Both were convicted in May 1830 on six counts, including putting the carrier's life in jeopardy, and sentenced to hang within weeks.

Porter was executed on schedule. But Wilson's influential friends petitioned President Andrew Jackson, who granted Wilson a formal pardon in June 1830, saving him from the gallows. Then Wilson did something that had never happened before in American history: he refused it.

The case was so unprecedented that it reached the Supreme Court in 1833, housed at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., as illustrated above. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the pardon couldn’t be valid without acceptance. However, Wilson was never executed. He served his prison sentence and was eventually pardoned a second time by President Martin Van Buren in 1841.

2

Richard Nixon (1974): The only president ever pardoned

On the night of June 17, 1972, five operatives were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Investigations revealed that President Richard Nixon had known about the cover-up and actively participated in it. Facing near-certain impeachment, Nixon became the only U.S. president ever to resign from office, stepping down in 1974.

Just 30 days later, his successor Gerald Ford announced from the Oval Office that he was granting Nixon "a full, free, and absolute pardon" for all offenses against the United States committed between 1969 and 1974. No charges had even been filed. The decision was widely condemned. Many historians believe it cost Ford the 1976 presidential election to Jimmy Carter. Nixon accepted the pardon but never admitted criminal guilt, expressing only "regret" for how he had handled the situation.

3

Iva Toguri D'Aquino (1977): The woman they called "Tokyo Rose"

Iva Toguri D'Aquino was a Los Angeles-born 25-year-old visiting a sick relative in Japan when the attack on Pearl Harbor stranded her there in December 1941. The Japanese government declared her an enemy alien and coerced her into broadcasting on Radio Tokyo's Zero Hour program.

This was a Japanese psychological warfare strategy that utilized English-speaking women, eventually all referred to collectively as " Tokyo Rose," to broadcast demoralizing messages intended to weaken Allied troop morale. After Japan's surrender, journalists identified Toguri as one of the voices.

A jury convicted her of treason in 1949, and she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She served six years. After a 1976 CBS 60 Minutes segment revealed key witnesses had lied, President Gerald Ford granted her a full and unconditional pardon in 1977, on his final day in office. It remains the only presidential pardon ever granted for a treason conviction in U.S. history.

4

Jack Johnson (2018): A champion pardoned 72 years after his death

John Arthur "Jack" Johnson was the first Black man ever to hold the world heavyweight boxing championship. In May 1913, a jury convicted him under the Mann Act (a federal law against transporting women across state lines for "immoral purposes") for traveling with his white girlfriend, whom he had since married.

Johnson skipped bail, fled to Canada, and fought two world title defenses in Paris before losing the belt in Havana in 1915. He surrendered to U.S. authorities in 1920 and served nearly a year in Kansas. He died in a car crash at age 68 in North Carolina in 1946.

After years of bipartisan lobbying and a call from actor Sylvester Stallone, President Trump signed Johnson's posthumous pardon in the Oval Office in 2018, 105 years after the conviction.

5

Samuel Mudd (1869): The doctor who set the assassin's leg

Hours after John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., one April night in 1865, Booth arrived at the Maryland farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd with a broken leg.

Mudd set the fracture and gave Booth shelter. When investigators linked Mudd to Booth, including through prior meetings in 1864, he was tried by a military commission and convicted of conspiracy. Sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor, he was sent to Fort Jefferson, a remote military prison on an island 70 miles west of Key West, Florida.

In 1867, a deadly yellow fever outbreak killed the prison's doctor. Mudd stepped in, treating patients and helping contain the epidemic. A petition signed by 299 enlisted men and officers was sent to President Andrew Johnson praising Mudd's courage. Johnson granted Mudd a full and unconditional pardon in 1869. Mudd was released on March 8 and returned to his Maryland farm. His conviction was never overturned; the pardon freed him, but the guilty verdict stood.

6

Marc Rich (2001): A fugitive pardoned on the last day

Marc Rich was a billionaire commodities trader indicted in 1983 on 65 counts, including tax evasion, wire fraud, and trading oil with Iran during the 1979–1981 hostage crisis. Before facing trial, Rich fled to Switzerland, where he remained a fugitive from U.S. justice for 17 years.

On January 20, 2001, his very last day in office, President Bill Clinton granted Rich a full pardon, bypassing the standard Justice Department review process. T he pardon ignited one of the biggest controversies of Clinton's presidency. Rich's ex-wife Denise had donated more than $1 million to Democratic causes and the Clinton Presidential Library.

A federal investigation led by prosecutor Mary Jo White was launched but ultimately found no criminal wrongdoing by Clinton. Clinton's own Justice Department had recommended against the pardon. Rich died in Switzerland in June 2013 at the age of 78, never having returned to the United States.

7

Patty Hearst (2001): From kidnapped heiress to bank robber

Patricia Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley, California, in 1974. She was taken by a radical militant group called the Symbionese Liberation Army.

After weeks in captivity, in which she was kept in a closet, blindfolded, she appeared in a bank surveillance video holding a rifle and participating in the robbery of a bank in San Francisco. She was captured in September 1975. Her defense argued she had been brainwashed and acted under duress. A jury rejected that argument, and she was convicted of bank robbery in 1976 and sentenced to 7 years.

President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence in 1979 after she had served approximately 22 months. She was released and married her former bodyguard. In January 2001, President Bill Clinton granted her a full pardon in the final hours of his presidency.

8

Vietnam Draft Evaders (1977): The biggest blanket pardon in U.S. history

On his first full day as president in 1977, Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4483, granting an unconditional pardon to all Americans who had violated the Military Selective Service Act in the span of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

The government estimated that approximately 210,000 men had been formally accused of draft violations , while hundreds of thousands more had never been charged. Many had fled to other countries, roughly 90% to Canada, where they had been welcomed as legal immigrants.

Carter had campaigned openly on the promise, calling it necessary to heal a nation still divided by the war. The pardon did not extend to military deserters. Veterans' organizations were furious. Despite the backlash, an estimated 50,000 of those eligible chose to remain in Canada permanently, never returning home.

9

Scooter Libby (2007 / 2018): The spy scandal at the heart of the White House

Lewis "Scooter" Libby served as Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney during the George W. Bush administration. In 2003, the identity of Valerie Plame (a covert CIA officer) was leaked to journalists, apparently in retaliation against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had publicly challenged the administration's case for the Iraq War.

Though Libby was not charged with the leak itself, he was convicted in 2007 of four felony counts: obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and making false statements to the FBI. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000. Later that same year, President Bush commuted Libby's prison sentence, calling it "excessive," but left the conviction, fine, and probation intact; he declined to grant a full pardon. Eleven years later, in 2018, President Donald Trump issued a full pardon, completely wiping Libby's record clean.

10

Roger Clinton (2001): The president's half-brother

Roger Clinton is the younger half-brother of President Bill Clinton. Roger was given the Secret Service code name "Headache" during his brother's administration. In 1984, Arkansas state police ran an undercover sting operation that caught Roger selling illegal drugs to an informant. He pleaded guilty in 1985 to charges of conspiracy to distribute drugs and served approximately one year in federal prison, completing his sentence in 1986.

14 years later, on his last day in office, President Clinton granted Roger a full pardon, clearing his criminal record. The pardon drew relatively little public outrage compared to the Marc Rich case.