Late on Christmas night of 1776, George Washington made a bold move to cross the icy and treacherous Delaware River with his army of 5,000 men as a first stroke in his surprise attack on the Hessian/British contingent in what would become known as the Battle of Trenton.
Commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1803, American explorers Lewis and Clark began the Corps of Discovery Expedition in May of 1804. Thirty-three explorers, including a Native American woman named Sacajawea, would depart from the town of Wood River, IL on a mission to lay the groundwork for the settling of the western frontier.