John Lewis was a civil rights activist who helped plan the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. At age 23, Lewis was the youngest speaker at the March. His strongly-worded speech criticized lawmakers and the President for not doing…
Maya Lin won the design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1981. She was an undergraduate student majoring in architecture at Yale University when her design was chosen from nearly 1,500 entries. She proposed an abstract design in the…
On June 11, 1861, Thaddeus S.C. Lowe flew a gas balloon, the Enterprise, over the White House. Lowe wanted to demonstrate the potential of using balloons for reconnaissance missions. Lowe placed his gas generators on the Mall near the Smithsonian…
In 1932, MacArthur was the Chief of Staff of the Army when a group of veterans called the Bonus Army converged on Washington to demand payment of bonuses by Congress. On July 28 the protesters clashed violently with police, resulting in the death of…
James McGirk was the first person to be executed in the District of Columbia on October 28, 1802. He was found guilty of murdering his wife. At this time, the gallows were located on the Capitol Grounds, between where the Grant and Garfield statues…
In 1901, Charles McKim was appointed by Senator James McMillan to the Senate Park Commission, which was meant to suggest improvements to the National Mall. McKim was a dominant voice in the Commission, recommending a return to the 1791 design…
McMillan was a US Senator from Michigan who led the Senate Park Commission in creating a new design plan for Washington's public spaces, including the National Mall. The work and plan of the Senate Park Commission is often referred to by McMillan's…
John McShain was a building contractor in charge of the construction of many federal buildings in Washington during the 1900s. On the Mall, he was responsible for building the Jefferson Memorial and was trusted with remodeling the White House during…
Robert Mills, an architect from South Carolina, won the competition to design the Washington Monument in 1836. Although construction began under his supervision, work stopped in 1854, a year before he died, and the monument was not completed for…
The Nacotchtanks are a Native American Algonquian tribe who once lived on land which is now near the National Mall. Captain John Smith noted that the village had 80 fighting men in 1608. The Nacotchtanks likely spoke the Piscataway variation of the…
