If lawmakers had had their way, Washington's popular Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park — which attains its 50th anniversary as a national park this year — would have become a 60 mph highway. Then a Supreme Court justice stepped into the fray, embarking on a nearly 200-mile "protest hike" along the canal's towpath that ultimately helped to convince President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the canal.

The Nautilus made its maiden voyage in 1955, was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982.

A longtime link between the civilians who worked together through war and peace ends Dec. 31 when the Mare Island Navy Yard Association becomes history after 100 years.

On Oct. 14, 1947, 24-year-old Capt. Charles "Chuck" Yeager, World War II fighter ace turned test pilot, took the bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane dubbed "Glamorous Glennis" past 660 mph to break the sound barrier for the first time.

The Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in Boston on Thursday that they located the US Revenue Cutter Bear, which was built in 1874. The U.S. utilized the Bear for several missions during World War I and World War II.

Vietnam veteran Gary Holland never knew his great-great-great-grandfather William Ingram, of course. Ingram died in 1863 and Holland was not born until more than eight decades later. But Holland feels a special bond with his ancestor who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg with the Army of Northern Virginia, was taken prisoner there, and died in a federal prisoner of war camp four months later.

A letter written by founding father Alexander Hamilton during the Revolutionary War and believed stolen decades ago from the Massachusetts state archives has been returned following a federal appeals court decision, top state officials said Tuesday.

After 77 years, U.S. Army 1st Lt. James E. Wright, known by his family members as Dick, will return home to a funeral service containing full military honors and a host of relatives.

Additional information on how and when to register for the lottery will be provided at a later date, according to the National Park Service.

Before the first atomic bomb test at Trinity Site, in July 1945, another secret weapon was being tested in the New Mexico desert. Project X-Ray, a classified weapons system using the Mexican freetail bat from Carlsbad Caverns and some Texas caves aimed to produce “bat bombs.”