55-51: Tear Down This Wall

55: Harriet Tubman emancipates herself and begins freeing slaves via the Underground Railroad.

54: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a brain hemorrhage; Vice President Harry S. Truman assumes the presidency.

53: At the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, President Reagan challenges Soviet leader Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall.” ft. speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, Murdoch Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, host of the podcast Common Knowledge, and author of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life, Peter M. Robinson.

52: Eli Whitney’s patent for the cotton gin is granted ft.
curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Dr. Abeer Saha.

51: Congress passes the Indian Removal Act.

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