Library of Congress
Congress.gov: Senate Floor Today Update

Prison Staff Safety Enhancement Act (04/29/2025 legislative day)

A resolution (04/29/2025 legislative day)
Federal Appellate Court Dismisses Ancestral Claim to New Orleans Saints’ Fleur-de-lis Trademark Rights

04/30/2025 07:00 AM EDT

A summary of recent trademark litigation involving a genealogical claim to the fleur-de-lis symbol.

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Today in History - April 30

Today in History - April 30

On April 30, 1789, George Washington delivered his first inaugural address to a joint session of Congress, assembled in Federal Hall in the nation’s new capital, New York City. Continue reading.

Click here to search Today in History for other historic moments.

 

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Poetry 180: Poem 155 - "A Walk in Kensington Gardens"

Poem 155 - "A Walk in Kensington Gardens"

A poem by Dorothy Porter from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

 

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A Second Stradivari Viola Finds a Home at the Library of Congress

04/30/2025 08:30 AM EDT

The Library of Congress Music Division announces in the acquisition of the 1690 Tuscan-Medici viola made by Antonio Stradivari. Now rechristened Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1690, viola, Fulton, ex Baird, Tuscan-Medici, the acquisition was made possible through an extraordinary gift to the nation from David and Amy Fulton and the Baird family’s Tuscan Corporation. Learn about this historic addition to the Library's instrument collection.

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Documenting Industry in a Changing World: Inside the Industry Associations Web Archive

04/30/2025 09:00 AM EDT

In this interview, Natalie Burclaff describes the Industry Associations Web Archive and the variety of content it preserves. She also offers insights into the challenges of curating the collection and explains why it serves as a crucial resource for understanding how industry has evolved and responded to global events. This is part of a series …

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Our Best Resource for Historic American Architecture, Engineering, and Landscapes

04/30/2025 09:23 AM EDT

The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. Do you need ideas for fixing up an old house? Close-up views of the Statue of Liberty? The dimensions of a Spanish mission? All that information and more is ready for you in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection with 450,000 drawings, photographs, and …

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Enjoy a Musical Family Day on May 17th!

04/30/2025 10:00 AM EDT

Join us at the Library of Congress on Saturday, May 17, 2025 to explore the Library’s musical collections.

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Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers: Improving Machine-Readable Text for Newspapers

Improving Machine-Readable Text for Newspapers

Back in 2005, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress launched the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), the program that supports Chronicling America and its keyword-searchable access to now over 23 million newspaper pages. The Library is excited to announce a new effort to reprocess some of the newspapers that we digitized in the early years of the program. The reason behind this effort is to improve the machine-readable text that powers the keyword search of this rich content.

A lot has changed in 20 years, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is no exception. By taking advantage of these improvements, the Library will provide a higher-quality search experience. Better OCR yields more accurate search results for users and a cleaner full-text index for our servers.

To date, we have reprocessed over 170,000 newspaper pages and the next phase is already underway. You can track the progress at the Improved Machine-Readable Text for Newspapers page on the Chronicling America research guide. Additionally, the improved text is available now for searching in the new interface of Chronicling America.

Click here for more information.

 

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Poet Laureate Spotlight: Fresno Poet Laureate Joseph Rios

04/30/2025 03:05 PM EDT

The third of three interviews with Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellows from across the country, to celebrate the end of National Poetry Month. Today's post features Joseph Rios, poet laureate of Fresno, CA.

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The Revolutionary Smith Sisters of Glastonbury

04/30/2025 03:14 PM EDT

100 years after the events of the Boston Tea Party, two wealthy septuagenarian sisters from Glastonbury, CT found themselves fighting against taxation without representation. The curious case involves the seizure and auctioning of their pet cows, including two calves named Martha Washington and Abigail Adams.

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Liberia: President Extends Task Force Mandate to Recover Public Assets

04/30/2025 10:13 AM EDT

On March 5, 2025, Liberian President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr. signed Executive Order No. 145, renewing the term of the Asset Recovery Task Force. The task force has the legal mandate and authority to reclaim all improperly acquired government assets.The task force was established a year earlier under Executive Order No. 126, which was amended …

 

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Congress.gov: House Floor Today Update

Providing congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "California State Motor Vehicle and Engine and Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; The 'Omnibus' Low NOX Regulation; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision". (04/30/2025 legislative day)