As my readers well know, even though this blog centers primarily on how people think, every now and then I like to throw in a tidbit or two concerning key figures and events in American History. Not only is history my second biggest passion after psychology, but at the end of the day, both subjects are more entwined than most people realize. Historians aim to understand the rationale behind the decisions that Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., and other figures have made, dissecting everything from their upbringing and social relationships to their innermost fears and aspirations. And while historians delve into these men and women's personalities, psychologists -- for their part -- cannot paint a full picture of the individuals without essential historical facts like when they were born, the places they lived throughout their lives, etc. The month of February has witnessed countless important events over the past 200 or so years, two of which occurred 37 years apa...

On this day in 1767, John Quincy Adams, son of the second U.S. president, John Adams, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts. John Quincy Adams not only shared the elder Adams' passion for politics, but seemed to have inherited his father's cantankerous personality as well. At 14, he was already joining his dad on diplomatic missions; he entered the legal arena upon completing his schooling. As a young man, he served as minister to several countries, including the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Prussia, and England. In 1803, he commenced his first term as a Republican in the Senate and helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812. From 1817 to 1824, he served as secretary of state to President James Monroe. While it is Monroe who gets most of the credit for his eponymous Doctrine, historians assert that Adams was the true mastermind behind it. In the heavily contested presidential election of 1824, a tie between Quincy Adams and Democrat Andrew Jackson p...

Even if you aren't into politics, you're probably aware of the turmoil in the Republican Party right now, which finds itself mired in a civil war as we draw ever closer to the general election. Still, you might not know how the Republican Party started in the first place, which is the subject of this timely post. On March 20, 1854, former members of the Whig Party met in Ripon, Wisconsin, to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. Created in 1834 to oppose the “tyranny” of President Andrew Jackson, the Whig Party had been unable to cope with the national crisis over slavery. The party derailed as a result of the successful introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty.  By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun convening in the upper midwestern states to consider the format...

It has been speculated that the 15th President of the United States, James Buchanan (1791-1868), was the nation's first gay president. Unfortunately, Buchanan is often ranked one of the worst commanders-in-chief in U.S. history, namely because of his inability to act in the face of secession. The fact that he may have been asexual, bisexual, or homosexual is one of the few things people remember him for. Much has been made of his close relationship with William Rufus King (1786-1853), an Alabama senator who would go on to become vice president under President Franklin Pierce. The two lived together in a Washington for 10 years until King departed for France and attended social functions together. Rufus referred to their relationship as a "communion." Andrew Jackson referred to them as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy," the former being a euphemism of the time for an effeminate man. After Rufus left to Paris, Buchanan wrote the following: "I ...