Turning Points in History

Every year National History Day frames students' research within a historical theme. The theme is chosen for the broad application to world, national or state history and its relevance to ancient history or to the more recent past.

2024's theme invites you to consider questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. A turning point in history is more than just an important event that happened a long time ago. It is more than a new idea or a particular action taken by an individual. A turning point is an idea, event, or action that directly, or sometimes indirectly, causes change.

The NHD theme provides a focused way to increase students' historical understanding by developing a lens to read history, an organizational structure to contextualize information and the ability to see connections over time.