Each spring, the National Council for History Education holds a national conference. NCHE chooses a conference site which parallels the anniversary of a significant event in American and World history. The national conference is a place where everyone who loves to teach and learn history can come together and share. NCHE encourages conference proposals that illustrate collaboration and history education.

In April of 1861, Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and there followed the American Civil War. Does it matter who fired the first shot? Did that shot make the war inevitable? The example of Sumter raises all kinds of other questions about how and why civil wars begin and end.

This year's conference will be held in Charleston, SC from March 31-April 2, 2011.