Instead of going to the mall for the Presidents Day sale this year, you can really celebrate by brushing up on some presidential history. A great place to start is U.S. Presidents which provides biographical information, historical documents, and audio and video files. If this doesn't satisfy your historical sweet tooth, check out the Presidential Documents Archive at the American Presidency Project which has digitized over 85,000 documents related to the Presidency, including audio and video. Still not enough? The Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections contains detailed national results of all U.S. presidential elections since 1789. Other great sites include the Presidential Historians Survey and Famous Presidential Speeches. And if you want to compare today's presidential campaigns with those of the recent past, browse the Museum of the Moving Image's site The Living Room Candidate where you can find more than 300 commercials from every presidential election since 1952.

This legal holiday is celebrated in the United States on the first Monday of every September. The first Labor Day celebration dates back to a parade in New York on Tuesday, September 5, 1882. More than half the states were celebrating Labor Day by 1893, but it wasn't made a national holiday until June 28, 1894, when President Grover Cleveland signed it into law.

Books

Reference

Historical encyclopedia of American labor by edited by Robert Weir and James P. Hanlan

Labor conflict in the United States: an encyclopedia by edited by Ronald L. Filippelli — editorial assistant, Carol Reilly

US Labor History

Bread--and roses: the struggle of American labor, 1865- 1915 by Milton Meltzer — illustrated with contemporary prints & photographs — Using diaries, newspaper reports and other source material, the author shows the industrialization of America and the workers' struggle for higher working standards.

Pioneering women who led and won struggles for equality and civil rights; created and advanced educational and professional opportunities; and made great contributions to the arts, sciences and humanistic causes are honored each year during the month of March — National Women's History Month.

General History

Chronology of women worldwide: people, places & events that shaped women's history by Lynne Brakeman, editor ; Susan Gall, managing editor

Extraordinary women of the Medieval and Renaissance world: a biographical dictionary by Carole Levin ... [et al.]

Notable Black American women by Jessie Carney Smith, editor

Notable women in world government by edited by the editors of Salem Press

165 years ago, on January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill setting off the California Gold Rush. People began flocking to the state later that year, but the majority didn't arrive until the next year — hence the term "forty-niners." All told, the news drew some 300,000 people from all over the world (Latin America, Europe, Australia and China) between the years 1849 and 1855, to seek their fortune in California.

The age of gold: the California Gold Rush and the new American dream by H.W. Brands

The California Gold Rush and the coming of the Civil War by Leonard L. Richards

Days of gold: the California Gold Rush and the American nation by Malcolm J. Rohrbough

Two hundred years after Detroit surrendered to the British during the War of 1812, the city's riverfront will host a weeklong gala (Sept. 5- 10) which will include a replica tall ship, and four military ships. It was on August 16, 1812 that Gen. William Hull, commander of Fort Detroit, surrendered after being led to believe that the British forces across the river in Windsor were much larger than they actually were. After the war, he was court-martialed for his actions and sentenced to death, but was pardoned by President James Monroe because of Hull's service in the Revolutionary War. Visitors to the riverfront can expect to see the US Brig Niagara, the USS De Wert, the USS Huricane, and the Coast Guard Cutter Katmai Bay. The original USS Niagara was Adm. Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship during the War of 1812. The current ship was rebuilt in 1913, 1933 and 1988. Other planned events include concerts and a Red WIng alumni versus Navy personnel softball game.

The beauty and the sorrow: an intimate history of the First World War by Peter Englund ; translated by Peter Graves

Berlin diary: the journal of a foreign correspondent, 1934-1941 by William L. Shirer ; with a new foreword by Gordon A. Craig

Blue-eyed child of fortune: the Civil War letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw by edited by Russell Duncan

Dear America: letters home from Vietnam by edited by Bernard Edelman for The New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission ; [with a new introduction by Senator John McCain ; foreword by William Broyles, Jr.]

Check out some of these fascinating stories that you probably never learned in history class:

All the presidents' children: triumph and tragedy in the lives of America's first families by Doug Wead

American heroes: profiles of men and women who shaped early America by Edmund S. Morgan

American history revised: 200 startling facts that never made it into the textbooks by Seymour Morris

America's hidden history : untold tales of the first pilgrims, fighting women and forgotten founders who shaped a nation by Kenneth C. Davis

The bonfire: the siege and burning of Atlanta by Marc Wortman

Chancellorsville, 1863: the souls of the brave by Ernest B. Furgurson

Dissonance: the turbulent days between Fort Sumter and Bull Run by David Detzer

Donnybrook: the Battle of Bull Run, 1861 by David Detzer

From Winchester to Cedar Creek: the Shenandoah Campaign of 1864 by Jeffry D. Wert

Gettysburg: a testing of courage by Noah Andre Trudeau

America's great debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the compromise that preserved the Union by Fergus M. Bordewich

Bound for Canaan: the underground railroad and the war for the soul of America by Fergus M. Bordewich

Days of defiance: Sumter, secession, and the coming of the Civil War by Maury Klein

Escape on the Pearl: the heroic bid for freedom on the Underground Railroad by Mary Kay Ricks

Midnight rising: John Brown and the raid that sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz

All the daring of the soldier: women of the Civil War armies by Elizabeth D. Leonard

Civil War wives: the lives and times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant by Carol Berkin

Daughters of the Union: northern women fight the Civil War by Nina Silber

Full metal corset [videodisc]: secret soldiers of the Civil War by Indigo Films for the History Channel; A&E Television Networks

Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: the remarkable story of the friendship between a first lady and a former slave by Jennifer Fleischner