EXPLORE HISTORICAL ACTIONS
All Historical Actions
Search and explore the visual archive by subject, registry number, or historical consequence.
EDUCATIONAL PRESENTATION
Historical Action Gallery
Educational editions are presented with accessible historical context, learning support, and inquiry prompts.
15 historical actions found
B-097 · Bad
Wealthy Parents Bribed Their Kids’ Way Into College. A Court Later Threw Out Two Convictions.
In 2019, prosecutors uncovered a scheme where wealthy families paid to fake test scores and athletic records to get their children into selective colleges, but a 2023 court ruling overturned the convictions of two fathers who fought the case.
B-098 · Bad
Criminals Stole Tens of Billions in Pandemic Loans. Most of It Was Never Prosecuted.
B-098; Educational Edition; The Consequences of America; AI-assisted digital artwork; PPP fraud; pandemic relief
When the government rushed emergency small-business loans out the door in 2020, fraud flourished, and even years of dedicated federal prosecution only caught a fraction of the total money that was stolen.
B-099 · Bad
Criminals Stole People’s Identities to Steal Unemployment Money. Losses May Have Hit $191 Billion.
During the pandemic, organized criminal groups used stolen personal information to file fake unemployment claims, leaving real victims to fix fraudulent records while the total losses were later estimated at up to $191 billion.
B-100 · Bad
A Mob Broke Into the Capitol to Stop an Election Count. Years Later, Most Were Pardoned.
On January 6, 2021, a mob broke into the U.S. Capitol and interrupted Congress as it counted electoral votes, injuring more than 140 police officers, before nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people charged were pardoned or had their sentences reduced in 2025.
G-001 · Good
Mayflower Compact
G-001; Educational; Mayflower Compact; 1620
Four connected scenes show the 1620 agreement, the government it helped organize, the people left outside political power, and the taking of Nauset corn five days later.
G-063 · Good
The Ballot Secured
August 6, 1965LocationPresident’s Room, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.Image MasterG-063E.png
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, the federal government gained new tools to remove barriers that had kept many Black Americans from voting. Yet organizers still faced deadly violence.
G-097 · Good
He Was Off Duty. He Ran Toward the Gunfire Anyway.
When a gunman attacked shoppers at an El Paso Walmart in August 2019, an off-duty Border Patrol agent and regular shoppers helped move people to safety and gave first aid — brave acts that happened during a massacre meant to terrorize an entire Hispanic community.
G-098 · Good
They Kept Showing Up. Thousands of Them Didn’t Go Home.
In 2020, doctors, nurses, and aides in hospitals like Long Island Jewish Medical Center treated a brand-new disease with no rulebook to follow, building up emergency care as they went — but the record shows the cost of that work fell hard on the workers themselves.
G-099 · Good
The Fastest Vaccine in History Also Bred the Fastest Doubts. Then Came the Blood Clots.
A U.S. government program called Operation Warp Speed helped produce working COVID-19 vaccines in under a year — an achievement that also came with real costs: lower public trust tied to the speed itself, and a rare, sometimes fatal, safety problem in one vaccine.
G-100 · Good
When the System Was Overwhelmed, Neighbors Filled the Gap. It Cost Them.
In 2020, informal neighbor-run groups delivered food, medicine, and check-ins to people the official system couldn't reach — but researchers found the volunteers who did this work paid a real personal price.
U-001 · Ugly
Africans Were Traded for Supplies in Virginia. Laws Made Slavery Hereditary. Families Could Be Sold Apart.
The 1619 arrival at Point Comfort begins a cause-and-effect story: forced transfer brought captive Africans into Virginia, later laws passed slavery to children, and property rules placed families at risk of separation.