What Happened Today

When President of the United States of America Harry S. Truman addresses Congress in March of 1947, he focused on the need to protect Greece and Turkey from Communist influence. Greece was facing an internal insurrection from a Communist Party, while Turkey was facing more obvious threats from the Soviet Union over access to the Bosphorous and the Dardanelles. What Truman really wanted was to avoid having the spreading Soviet sphere of influence include Greece and Turkey. In asking Congress to provide financial aid in this approach, Truman laid out what would be known as the "Truman Doctrine." The Truman Doctrine said that America would seek to help any nation from becoming a Communist-ruled country. This would then influence American foreign policy for the rest of the Cold War.

Rudolf Höss became notorious during World War II as the Commandant of the concentration and death camps at Auschwitz in Poland. After the war ended, this made him one of the key leaders among the Third Reich that was wanted by Allied leaders. While he managed to blend into the civilian population initially, Rudolf Höss was given up by his family less than a year after the fall of the Third Reich. What made Höss' capture so notable was that he seemed to have no issue with fully describing his actions during the War, including his system of extermination at the Auschwitz camps. Rudolf Höss was the most efficient leader of any Nazi concentration camp, and he personally oversaw the deaths of millions of people, mostly Polish Jews, but also gypsies and political prisoners. Under arrest, Rudolf Höss was able to give evidence against some of his fellow Nazis, but it did nothing to stop his own execution. In April 1947, Rudolf Höss was hanged at a specially constructed gallows at the former site of the Auschwitz gas chamber.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed by representatives of Soviet Russia and representatives from the Central Powers, effectively ended World War I on the Eastern Front. In order to do this, Russia had to accept extremely harsh terms regarding territorial claims and concessions. Yet the government of Russia was not the one that had been prosecuting the war, because Russia had undergone two revolutions in 1917, the February Revolution that overthrew the Tsar and the October Revolution that replaced the Provisional Government with a Communist one. The Bolsheviks now in charge of Russia, especially Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky wanted most of all to end the war. More radical Bolsheviks thought eventually revolution would overthrow the governments of the Central Powers. Instead, Soviet Russia agreed to a harsh peace, to focus on a still raging Civil War. Remarkably, the German Empire would quickly cease to exist, which made the historical legacy of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk much less impactful than it seemed at the time.

Roderick McLean approached Queen Victoria's carriage as it left Windsor Castle with a pistol, because she had given a curt reply to some poetry he had sent her. It turned out McLean was more unimpressive as an assassin than a poet. His shot missed the Queen's carriage completely, and he was brought to the ground by boys wielding umbrellas. McLean was the eight man in forty years to try to assassinate Queen Victoria, and met the fate many of his forebears experienced when he was adjudged "Not Guilty, but Insane." This was a massive issue for Queen Victoria, who wished for a different outcome for her would be killer, and pressured her government to do something about it. Therefore, the most inept and hapless of all of her possible assassin's had the largest effect on Victoria's reign and the British criminal justice system.

When the 20 month old Charles Lindbergh, Jr. was taken from the crib in his upstairs bedroom, the crime was destined to become the "Crime of the Century."His father was perhaps the most famous man in America, the aviator Charles Lindbergh. Initially, the clues led to a variety of possibilities, but then a kidnapper was revealed to be seeking the ransom through a random intermediary. Once a man known only as "Cemetery John" received $50,000 in ransom money, the case went cold. Over two years later, a gold certificate that was part of the ransom money was traced to a German immigrant named Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Hauptmann was found to have a large chunk of the ransom money in his possession, as well as many things that pointed to him being Cemetery John. After being handed to New Jersey authorities, Hauptmann was tried in what become known as the "Trial of the Century," after which he would be sentenced to death and executed. The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby would remain the most significant criminal case in America for decades.

Byron De La Beckwith was found guilty of the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1994, 31 years after the crime was actually committed. De La Beckwith was arrested and brought to trial twice in the 1960s, but both times all-white juries deadlocked on a verdict. The evidence in the case was actually quite good, as De La Beckwith's gun was found near the crime scene with his fingerprint on it. De La Beckwith was also a prominent White Citizens' Council member, who was annoyed at the lack of direct action taken by the group in their efforts to preserve segregation. Yet De La Beckwith would not be convicted of Evers' murder in the 1960s. He would brag at Klan rallies and Christian Identity meetings that he killed Medgar Evers. After the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported on state sponsored activities to protect in the late 1980s and 1990s, authorities bring De La Beckwith to trial for a third time. Finally, a jury of eight African-Americans and four whites find him guilty.

When a large number of states had seceded from the Union after the election of Abraham Lincoln, they quickly realized they needed to band together in a larger government. So delegates from South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas met in Montgomery, Alabama, they knew they had to work fast. Although they were working a month before Lincoln's inauguration, they wanted to make sure they were ready to go. They had two advantages in working quickly, namely that they knew the United States Constitution well and that they were united on the issue of protecting slavery. Therefore, the provisional government could be formed almost immediately, with Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander Stephens as Vice President. It would be Stephens, in a speech one month later, who would clearly elucidate the reason for forming a government, that they were built on the "cornerstone" of white supremacy and the defense of slavery.

In 1959, Buddy Holly was one of the biggest Rock 'n' Roll stars, the Big Bopper was a chart topper, and Richie Valens was a 17 year old sensation. They all were on a Midwest tour, playing small venues throughout the early part of 1959. The winter tour was poorly planned and saw a series of bus problems and health issues from the cold among the musicians. Therefore, after a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly arranged for a plane to take him and his band to their next stop. Shortly after takeoff, however, the young pilot lost control of the plane, and all four people onboard died instantly. This would seem to be a groundbreaking moment in Rock 'n' Roll's arc, with the musicians involved seeming to have been snuffed out with so much work ahead of them. It also came at a time when much of the rock world was suffering from other losses. The event would later be christened as "The Day the Music Died," but actually it was a setback and Rock 'n' Roll would pick right back up with groups influenced by Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended hostilities in the Mexican-American War, although the United States of America had effectively ended the war by taking over much of Mexico. This meant that the terms of the Treaty were largely America's and had to be accepted by Mexico. The war began in 1846 as a border dispute around the newly annexed Republic of Texas, but after America sent troops to the disputed area, they invaded Mexico. With astonishing speed, the northern areas of Mexico were taken over by America, with California seeing a revolt by American settlers. Eventually, an Army under General Winfield Scott would march from Veracruz on the coast to Mexico City, easily taking over the capital. As a result, Mexico lost most of its northern territory to the United States, and faced many more political issues at home. America was further placed on the path towards Civil War and disunion. 

Nguyễn Văn Lém was a Viet Cong captain who was arrested by the South Vietnamese Army after leading a raid on a camp and killing a large number of civilians. Upon being taken in front of Brigadier General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, Lém was summarily executed by Loan with a revolver. By all rights, this would have been one of many such incidents in the complicated conflict that was the Vietnam War. Yet the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém became something the world knew about because the Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams managed to snap a picture at the moment the gun was fired. Nguyễn Văn Lém's face as he was dying was seen by millions, and the photograph became an iconic image of the Vietnam War. The photo would win Adams a Pulitzer and help galvanize the anti-Vietnam War movement in America. Adams would feel sorry for what became of Loan, while also regretting he was most well known for the image of the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém.

"The Battle of May Island" was not actually a battle at all, but the macabre name given by sailors to a catastrophic accident involving a number of K-class submarines. On that night, two submarines were lost, while five others were significantly damaged, and 104 sailors lost their lives. The K-class submarine was a steam powered submarine which invited so much disaster it was said the K stood for "Kalamity." Yet the Battle of May Island was the worst incident in the history of the Royal Navy's submarine program. It was supposed to be a fleet exercise, but the heavy and difficult to manage submarines ended up running into each other as they were leaving the Firth of Forth for the North Sea. Once the first ships ran into each other, then other ships couldn't get out of the way, and the cruisers accompanying the submarines turned back to help, but only created more issues. Within less than two hours, two submarines were at the bottom of the seabed, with much of their crew lost.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was such an influential figure as a leader of the Indian independence movement that as India gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, he was universally known as "Mahatma," the great soul, and widely called "Bapu," an endearing term for father. Yet the independence of India had seen what was British India split into two, with Muslim majority areas in the East and West becoming Pakistan. This then led to mass migration, violence, and intense conflicts. Gandhi tried to ease the suffering of all people and resolve the disputes. For that, he raised the ire of many right-wing Hindu nationalists, such as Nathuram Godse. Godse followed Gandhi for weeks, seeking to assassinate him because of what Godse saw as a betrayal of Hindus. Finally, on the next to last day of January 1948, Godse was able to approach Gandhi as he walked to prayers and fired three shots at point blank range. Gandhi would die that evening, and Godse would be executed for the assassination.

During his first State of the Union Address after the September 11th terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush specifically cited the threat of an "Axis of Evil," which consisted of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Other than all seeking chemical or nuclear weapons, these states had very little in common. More strikingly, none of them had anything to do with the September 11th attacks. Instead, speechwriter David Frum was given the brief of detailing an argument for going to war against Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq. He made a larger point, making an ominous warning about possible future, unknown attacks from state actors. Just a little over a year later, fueled by the emotions generated by the September 11th attacks, the Bush administration led the country into a war with Iraq. Osama bin Laden, the actual mastermind of the terror attacks, would not be killed until 2011.

The Franco-Prussian War was not a large scale war in terms of its casualties, engagements, or scale. It was massive in the geopolitical results in the aftermath of the war, however, and a large reason was that it ended with a months long siege of Paris. Before that siege had even begun, the Empire of France had lost its Emperor, Napoleon III, after he lost the Battle of Sedan. Now France was facing a large Prussian Army staring down its capital, while its government was a provisional one known as the Government of National Defense. This government tried its best to hold on, but also was trying to argue for peace. Eventually, after a few small skirmishes on the outskirts of Paris, the leaders of the French government agree to Armistice terms with Otto von Bismarck, newly christened Chancellor of Germany. The former King of Prussia had also been turned into the German Kaiser, gaining acclaim and territory as the French have to rebuild a Republican government.

The Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam, better known as the Paris Peace Accords, were what officially ended the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. The Paris Peace Accords only came together after a long, drawn out negotiation process. Although the Vietnam War had seemed problematic and unwinnable since 1968 and the Lyndon Johnson administration, the task of working out the Paris Peace Accords fell to President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. In fact, domestic American politics seemed to drive the American willingness to move talks forward. For the Vietnamese, the issue was including the revolutionary National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, as well as the official governments of South Vietnam and North Vietnam in talks. Eventually,, a willingness to simply end the conflict meant America was willing to pull out if the North Vietnamese simply kept their lines where they were. Just two years later, they would conquer South Vietnam and take Saigon.

The Spanish Civil War was a complex conflict, featuring the right-wing Nationalists fighting against the left-wing Republicans. The conservatives were the rebels, the socialists were fighting for the legitimate government, and both sides were hodge-podge groups of various loyalties. Yet the war was also one featuring back and forth fighting in its early years. In 1938, everything changed. Under Francisco Franco and the backing of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the Nationalists won the Battle of the Ebro and cut the Republican territory in two. At that point, Franco targeted Catalonia, the autonomous, distinct region around Barcelona, which was a Republican stronghold. From Christmas 1938 to late January 1939, the Nationalist forces pushed back Republicans in Catalonia, collapsing the Republican government. After the city was abandoned, Nationalists rolled into the city, effectively ending serious opposition by Republican forces and allowing Francisco Franco to take control of the entire nation.

Nellie Bly was just 25 years old in 1890, but she had already written a well regarded travel book called Six Months in Mexico that revealed the problems with Porfirio Diaz's government and a series of articles in the New York World that exposed the Blackwell's Island Women's Asylum as an undercover reporter. So when she suggested she beat Jules Verne's fictional record of traveling Around the World in 80 Days, her editor let her go ahead with just two days' notice. She traveled with just one dress and one satchel. She mostly completed the voyage on a combination of trains and steamships. Throughout her trip, Nellie Bly could send back telegraphs to the New York World, updating readers of her trip's progress. It looked like she would not make it when she arrived two days late to San Francisco after a rough trip on the Pacific Ocean. At that point, Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, chartered a record-breaking train just so Nellie Bly could make it back to New York in time. In the end, she had eight days to spare, making the trip in 72 days.

When Marion Barry was arrested after being caught on videotape smoking crack in an undercover sting operation, he was also in his third term as the Mayor of Washington, D.C. He was arrested with a girlfriend who had asked him to come and persuaded him to smoke the crack she had brought. Still, Barry had been dogged by rumors of drug use and sexual scandals since he took office in 1979. As Mayor, Barry was more of a character than an effective reformer. A former civil rights advocate and City Council member, Barry's best attribute was simple politicking. After being reelected twice, the effects of his serious drug and alcohol addictions began to show, but Marion Barry managed to survive. In fact, his arrest didn't even end his career. The obvious entrapment meant Barry was only convicted on one earlier possession charge, which led to a 6 month sentence in Federal Prison. He would be out of jail in 1992, returning almost instantly to his position on the City Council. In 1994, he was elected to an unprecedented fourth term as Mayor. When that term was over, he would remain on the City Council until his death in 2014, but he would always be most famous as the Mayor caught smoking crack on videotape.

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish special envoy to Hungary who devoted himself in the last few months of 1944 to save many Jews from being deported to concentration camps. Wallenberg was a businessman who could come and go between Sweden and Hungary, as Sweden was neutral in World War II. Hungary was technically an ally of Nazi Germany under the rule of Miklos Horthy, then became an uneasy ally, then became a puppet state of the Nazis in 1944, after Horthy sought peace terms with the Allies. In the summer of 1944, under the leadership of Adolf Eichmann, Nazis in Hungary deported over 400,00 Jews in just a few months. Raoul Wallenberg came in July of that year specifically to help Jews, which he did by giving them special passports in the name of Sweden. He was remarkably successful, helping thousands, Yet, for reasons that might forever remain unknown, once the Soviets took over Budapest in December 1944, he was seen as a problem and Wallenberg was never seen after visting Soviet Authorities.

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was a direct reaction to the assassination of President James Garfield, who was killed by Charles Guiteau because Guiteau believed he deserved a government appointment. The issue of civil service reform was a long simmering political issue, with the main ire being directed at the spoils system, which gave jobs to political donors. Despite the assasination of Garfield, a bill for civil service reform seemed unlikely to be signed by the new President, Chester A. Arthur. Arthur was a "Stalwart," one of the chief opponents in the Republican Party to reform, and a former Collector of the Port of New York, a job he got through the spoils system. Yet Arthur seemed to see the need for change, and passed the law initiated by Ohio Senator George Pendleton. After that, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act would drastically change the way the American government worked.

No one called her the Black Dahlia when she was living, but shortly after Elizabeth Short's body was found cut in two and mutilated, Elizabeth Short forever after was known as the Black Dahlia. Her body was posed in an empty lot, and she had clearly been tortured for some time. Immediately, the press went crazy about the story, not only giving her her nickname, but also speculating wildly about what she had done in the days and weeks leading to her murder. This made the case impossible to solve for authorities, who had a tough time solving a random murder with a woman who know one had seen for awhile. Although almost every notable or strange person living in Los Angeles at the time has become a suspect in the Black Dahlia's murder, it is highly unlikely anyone will be able to absolutely pinpoint Elizabeth Short's killer.

When US President Franklin Roosevelt and UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at Casablanca, their ostensible agenda were the immediate war plans. By early 1943, the British had repelled Nazi Germany's intended invasion, the Russians had the German Army bogged down on the Eastern Front, and the Allies had together cleared the Axis powers out of North Africa. There were some thorny issues, notably how to invade mainland Europe and what to do with the Free French Forces, but instead of simple tactical steps, the main result of the conference was a declaration that "unconditional surrender" was the only way that the war would end. This meant the Axis powers had to be defeated and no negotiated peace could be had.

Johnny Cash is an American cultural icon, and a large part of his mystique is the fact that one of his best, most famous albums was recorded at a maximum security prison. Yet when that fact is reflected on, the idea of recording an album in prison becomes more remarkable, which is only enhanced by the fact that it was his comeback album after getting over drug and alcohol addiction. The actual concert and album only adds to the strangeness of the event. Cash mostly sang songs about crime or murder, most notably "Greystone Chapel," which was actually written by a prisoner at Folsom named Glen Sherley. This attitude about prisoners, that they were flawed humans to be bonded with, straddled a weird divide in 1968, but is largely absent from society today.

When Hattie Caraway became the first woman to win an election to the US Senate, she actually was elected to a seat she already held. Just a few months before, her husband, Senator Thaddeus Caraway, had passed away, and the Governor of Arkansas appointed her to the seat. Then when a special election was called for just a short time later, most politicians in Arkansas let Hattie Caraway finish the rest of the term that would expire in less than a year. Hattie Caraway ran again, though, and would win reelection in 1932 and 1938. Hattie Caraway was not a legendary Senator, based on her floor speeches, committee assignments, or legislation sponsored, and she was a fairly representative and capable Southern Democrat at the time. Still, she did it, and used her specific politics to build her own career.

In 1964, many people knew that there were serious health risks associated with smoking tobacco, but many people also kept smoking. Tobacco was so part and parcel of American life and culture that it basically made Jamestown a worthwhile colony, and cigarette and tobacco ads were everywhere, featuring celebrities and other notables promiting tobacco products. Yet through the 1950s and early 1960s, people became increasingly aware of a link between smoking and health problems such as bronchitis and lung cancer. Then Surgeon General Luther Terry led a committee on the links between smoking and health. Their report made larger claims about overall health being compromised by cigarette smoking, as well as simply being a large report from a public health official warning of the dangers of tobacco. This made smoking much less prevalent in American culture and a well known public health risk.

In one of the most famous declarations in history, Julius Caesar announced his intention to take on the Roman establishment by saying "The Die is Cast." Or at least that's the story, and it certainly is an appropriate reflection of his intentions. Caesar was not really launching an overwhelming invasion or seeking a military solution. Instead, he was playing a political game. He knew that his political opponents, led by Pompey, would be panicked, but that the population of Rome would stand behind him. The initial movements went just as Caesar predicted, but it launched a years long Civil War that stretched all over the Mediterraean. Nonetheless, Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon was something Caesar, Rome, and world history could never turn back from.

An income tax is a defining feature of modern government policy and economics. Yet it is, by necessity, a modern invention, as it requires most people to have a consistent income and a government that can track incomes and taxation. It also had to be brought about by someone with a willingness to change the way taxation works and in a situation that needed more govermental revenue. Thus, it is perfectly sensible that a Prime Minister as forward looking and efficient as William Pitt the Younger would introduce the first modern income tax during the French Revolutionary Wars. Pitt's successor, Henry Addington, would end the war and repeal the tax, but have to reintroduce the income tax when war returned. From that point on, income tax was always an option, and would become a feature of the British government (and most other governments) within one hundred years.

The Fourteen Points, US President Woodrow Wilson's plan for peace negotiations at the end of World War I, were an incredibly audacious statement of idealistic foreign policy principles. Most audacious of all was that Wilson announced the Fourteen Points in a speech to Congress just months after America entered the war and well before the war was actually over. Yet Wilson was outlining a way to prevent another World War by focusing on the ideals of national determinism, free trade, and open diplomacy. Wilson also outlined a plan for a League of Nations to watch over the international community. Largely, these ideas all were kept in the Treaty of Versailles when peace negotiations really were made after the war, but the hope that they would prevent another world war was tragically misguided.

The very first casualty by an Air National Guardsmen took place just after World War II in Kentucky when Captain Thomas Mantell crashed while chasing an unidentified flying object. UFO stories usually center on aliens or the supernatural, but the basic fact of the crash that killed Captain Mantell is a reflection of real world anxieties and priorities. The object he was chasing was described initially as an odd disk, but when he and three other pilots flying P-51s began following it, they realized it was gaining altitude. Mantell was the only pilot who decided to chase it all the way, which is when he blacked out and his plane went into a tailspin. Mantell's death made the story an official government problem, as well as reflecting the basic facts of living in the new culture of the Cold War.

When reigning U.S. Women's Figure Skating Champion Nancy Kerrigan was attacked before the 1994 U.S. Championships, the whole event became front page news. Then it was discovered that the men who planned and carried out the attack were associated with Tonya Harding, Kerrigan's chief rival and the winner of the 1994 Championship. Both Harding and Kerrigan would wind up on the 1994 Olympics Team, which took place a month later. Harding's husband and bodyguard were easily arrested and convicted for the assault. Then Tonya Harding had to plead guilty to hindering prosecution, which meant she was banned for life from the United States Figure Skating Association. After that, Harding became a byword for trash, celebrity culture, and bad life decisions, while Nancy Kerrigan became the leading female figure skater and an icon of the sport.

In 1967, it appeared that hardline Communist government of Antonin Novotny would rule Czechoslovakia as long as Novotny wanted. Then economic downturns and unpopular political actions made people dissastisfied with the government, and the Slovak leader Alexander Dubcek became Secretary of the Communist Party in January of 1968. More importantly, Dubcek's willingness to limit censorship, open up political participation, and pursue economic reforms led to the Prague Spring. The Prague Spring was a large scale reform movement, which sought to modernize and democratice Communism rather than overthrow it. That still made Leonid Brezhnev, Premier of the Soviet Union, quite nervous, so he led the other Warsaw Pact countries in an invasion of Czechoslovakia in August of 1968. This effectively ended the Prague Spring and would directly lead to the removal of Alexander Dubcek from power.

Topsy the Elephant was a female Asian elephant who had been performing in circuses, but got a reputation as a "bad elephant" and so her owners decided to euthanize her. They also decided to make a public spectacle of hanging her at their amusement park at Coney Island in Brooklyn. After a large outcry, the owners of Luna Park agreed to make it an electrocution done only for ticketed guests and the media, including cameramen from the Edison Manufacturing Company. The whole event seems somehow other, or like it could not have happened in the same universe that modern people live in. Yet it is precisely these sort of macabre mass spectacles that reveal the most about the early 20th century, rather than the accounts of battles, elections, or trade negotiations.

For 250 years, Japan was shut off from foreigners, ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate, and revered the Emperor as a figurehead and symbol. That all changed in the mid-19th century, when the Emperor Meiji declared that the authority and powers of the shogun now belonged to him. This was largely accomplished through minor lords who wished to Westernize and modernize Japan against the Tokugawa shogun's policies, especially the Satsuma and the Chosu. Really, the teenaged, recently crowned Emperor was simply a vessel for these changes, but he embraced it wholeheartedly and took his own authority. After a civil war and negotiations with the Tokugawa power structure, the Emperor Meiji was able to take all of the powers accumulated by the shogunate under his own authority.

For nearly 800 years, the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula were fighting the Muslim invaders that held much of the land in modern day Spain and Portugal. This all changed in 1492, when armies of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, finally took the city of Granada, the last Muslim-ruled area of Spain. This was in some ways a foregone conclusion, as the unification of Ferdinand and Isabella's kingdoms meant that the Christian kingdoms were prosecuting a war for nearly a decade to slowly chip away the lands controlled by Muslim rulers. By 1491, Boabdil, the last Emir of Granada, knew that his time was up and negotiated a treaty to give up Granada. Nonetheless, the final reconquest of Spain by Christian armies changed the world, leading to the Spanish Inquisition, the voyage of Christopher Columbus, and a New World Empire for Spain.

Reginald Fessenden was a long term electrical and radio researcher, so when he transmitted a radio broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1906, it wasn't all that surprising. Yet he was the very first person to send out a radio broadcast featuring music and clear audio when he played a phonograph of a Handel piece, performed two hymns on a violin, and read a Bible verse. Most people at the time thought his particular form of broadcasting radio was a complete waste of time, so his transmission was also a technological breakthrough based on years of work by Fessenden. More importantly, Fessenden's broadcast would set a template for future uses of radio by making it about something more than reports, news, or weather forecasts.

When the USS Pueblo, an American naval spy ship, was captured by North Korean vessels in January 1968, officials in Washington were unsure precisely what to do. The crew was all unharmed, but now a Communist nation had spy equipment. Almost immediately, it became apparent that the crew would be returned if the US agreed to apologize for spying and promised to never spy on North Korea again. Meanwhile, the crew of the Pueblo was being tortured and the negotiations between the governments were a confusing, circular mess. The crew decided to occasionally play along with their captors, but used prepared statements and photo opportunities to mock the North Korean government right under their noses. Finally, eleven months after its capture, the crew was released into South Korea. That did very little to sort out what actually went on with the capture of the Pueblo.

In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus was simply a junior artillery officer in the General Staff of the French Army. Then, he was accused of being the person responsible for passing secrets onto the German military attache in Paris. In a quick, closed military tribunal, Dreyfus was easily convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island in French Guiana. The fact that Dreyfus was Jewish inflamed the anti-Semitic French press, and his Alsatian background meant he was fluent in German. Yet his family began working to prove his innocence, helping a new investigation to finger the real culprit, Major Ferdinand Walsy Esterhaszy. Esterhaszy began to be protected by military leadership, which only heightened tensions among Parisian society. The novelist Emile Zola would explode the case once Esterhaszy was acquitted and went into self-imposed and well-funded exile. Zola's actions, along with the agitation of Parisian intellectuals, caused Dreyfus to face a new trial, where he was once again convicted. The entire case, known as the Dreyfus Affair, had become so problematic, a pardon was offered Alfred Dreyfus in 1899. By 1906, he would be fully exonerated and his commission was reinstated.

The Plymouth Colony began in the middle of winter in New England, after a poorly prepared trip and with limited supplies that was supposed to land much further south of where it actually did. The Mayflower had been wandering around the Cape Cod area for over a month before its passengers settled on Plymouth. Plymouth had a few advantages, as it was easily defended and on already cleared land because it was the site of a recently abandoned village. The people who settled Plymouth Colony were ardent separatists, English Christians who sought a separation from the Church of England. After they could not find refuge in Holland, they decided to go to America. This plan was almost disastrous, as over half the settlers died within six months. They managed to persevere, though, largely because Native Americans decided to help out.

In late 1924, Adolf Hitler was a former soldier, right wing agitator, and prisoner most well known for leading his National Socialist party in a disastrous coup attempt. In November of 1923, Hitler attempted, with his paramilitary the Sturmabteilung, or SA, to take over the Bavarian government by interrupting a speech at a beer hall. Instead, he was arrested and put on trial for high treason, receiving a sentence of five years. Adolf Hitler, in the eyes of 1924 Germany, could not have been seen as much of a threat. He was already, in many ways, a failure, and the Weimar Republic was actually becoming a successful state. Instead, the Nazis were easily able to keep the party going with their leader in captivity. Hitler himself met with his associates while in prison, and he was able to write his biography/ideological guide Mein Kampf. Therefore, when he was released after serving nine months of a five year sentence, Hitler actually could set himself on a path to boosting the Nazi Party, taking power in Germany, and building towards World War II and the Holocaust.

The Eighteenth Amendment officially banned the sale and manufacture of intoxicating liquors, and more strikingly came about quite quickly. The measure sped through Congress in a matter of months, from August to December of 1917. In a radical measure, the language of the Amendment said it was required to be passed within seven years, or it could not be ratified. This made the drama around its ratification by the states a little more intriguing. On the other hand, the political landscape was ripe for such actions. Under the leadership of Wayne Wheeler, the Anti-Saloon League had mobilized around the single issue of prohibition. The Anti-Saloon League was the politically engaged part of the longstanding temperance movement, and had so mobilized temperance activists that Wheeler could guarantee anyone opposing Prohibition would be voted out of office. Many people also were not bothered because they thought there would only be prohibition of liquor, not beer, wine, or cider. So the Eighteenth Amendment sped through the states and came into being by 1920.

In 1862, Union General Ulysses S. Grant was faced with taking his Army to Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, controlling the recently conquered territory in Western Tennessee and Mississippi, and dealing with traders trying to sell cotton on the black market. In order to face the last problem, Grant issued General Order No. 11. General Order No. 11 expelled all Jews from the territory in Grant's military district, from Kentucky to Mississippi. This was done by Grant because some of the traders were Jewish, but it was a bizarre and hugely problematic decree. Not all illicit traders were Jews, and most Jews living in the area played no part in the black market. Grant's order sparked outrage throughout the American Jewish community and severe annoyance from his superiors. President Abraham Lincoln immediately commanded Grant, through General-in-Chief, to rescind General Order No. 11. Officially, the order was only in place for a month, as Grant did rescind the order. Yet General Order No. 11 would become one of Grant's lowest moments in the Civil War and a political millstone when he ran for President in 1868.

Robert Smith Vance was a Federal judge on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which meant that when he opened a mailbomb in his home and died many people were extremely worried. A long-term civil rights advocate and important appellate justice, Vance was someone whose killer could have been many people. Then an African-American civil rights lawyer in Savannah, Robert Robinson, opened a similar mailbomb and was instantly killed. Two defused bombs were then found sent to the NAACP in Jacksonville and the Eleventh Circuit headquarters in Atlanta. These bombs were similar to one in a 1972 case where a woman opened a package bomb her husband had prepared. The husband, Walter Leroy Moody, became the prime suspect, when it was discovered all of the bombs could be traced to his vicinity. Moody was a con-man with a variety of schemes, but his exact motivation for the bombings was unclear. Clarification never came during his trials, as he would decry the justice system, switch lawyers multiple times, and assert his innocence. Nonetheless, he was easily convicted in both Federal court and Alabama state court, where he would be sentenced to death.

Roald Amundsen made history by being the leader of the first expedition to reach the South Pole. He was not well recognized for this effort, though, for a wide range of reasons. Amundsen's rather utilitarian approach, which included eating some of his sled dogs, did not endear him to many people, especially the British. The other reason many Brits were unhappy with Amundsen was that he beat Robert Falcon Scott's simultaneous British expedition. Then a strange circumstance happened. Instead of being lauded for finding the best method for reaching the South Pole, Amundsen fell well behind Scott in many appreciations, despite the fact that Scott perished on his return. Scott became a martyr, while Amundsen became the nasty, underhanded trickster. This odd view of the two expeditons would hold for decades, despite Amundsen being objectively much more successful.

The Battle of Fredericksburg was perhaps the worst defeat for the Union Army in the Virginia Theater of the Civil War, which is saying quite a bit. Certainly, it was one of the worst performances by a Union General, as the day saw a series of odd strategic choices from General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside had been named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia after General George B. McClellan refused to follow-up his victory at Antietam with a pursuit of General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Forces. So Burnside began his command by trying to outmarch Lee and cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Instead, he was stalled out waiting for pontoon bridges to make his crossing, and Lee fortified on heights above the town. In a series of charges, the Union continually faced an army on superior ground, with heavy guns, and in position to fire on them. The Union troops stood little chance, and most of the Battle of Fredericksburg was a slaughter. Although it was an embarrassing and overwhelming defeat for the Union, it would also prove the lowpoint from which the Union would begin to move on from to eventual victory.

When the Metropolitan Police entered a flat on Balcombe Street after a six day standoff, they successfully arrested the four men who were holding the couple who lived in the flat hostage. The four, Joe O'Connell, Hugh Doherty, Edward Butler, and Harry Duggan, were also members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who had been conducting a series of bombings and assassinations in and around London for fourteen months. This seeming victory for authorities in Britain proved a bit fleeting. Although the men were willing to acknowledge their culpability and were initially chased to Balcombe Street after being seen firing guns into a restaurant, they also told their lawyers that there were innocent people in jail for some of their crimes. Specifically, the "Guildford Four," four young people who were arrested for bombing a pub in Guildford, were pointed to as completely innocent. This proved highly problematic for the British authorities, who celebrated their victory in placing the Guildford Four in jail. This also made the actual arrest of the four men in the Balcombe Street siege more troubling than it should have been.

Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago Maroons was honored by the Downtown Athletic Club as the best collegiate football player east of the Mississippi for the 1935 season, which makes him stand as the very first Heisman Trophy winner. Although this would seem to place Berwanger in a line with subsequent winners and NFL legends, really Berwanger stands out to modern eyes for the difference between his game and the modern game. Berwanger didn't even, technically, win the Heisman, as the trophy only was named after John Heisman after his death the next year. Berwanger was known as the "one man football team" for being not just a capable runner at halfback, but also a passer, kicker, punter, and notable defensive player. Berwanger played before face masks, racial integration, or even a significant pro football culture. Although he was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles as the first selection in the first NFL draft, Berwanger never played in the NFL, even after being traded to the Bears. Instead, going into business and seeking to compete in the decathlon in the Olympics, Berwanger would end his football career with winning the Downtown Athletic Club's honor.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor sunk multiple ships and killed over 2,000 people at the Naval Base on Oahu. As soon as it happened, it appeared that Japan had brought America into World War II. Yet America's formal declaration of war was so important and crucial that President Franklin Roosevelt went before a joint session of Congress to urge a declaration of war the next day. Roosevelt's speech, in which he famously said that the Japanese attack would make December 7, 1941 "a date which will live in infamy," built a case for America already being at war with Japan. After dealing with a significant isolationist movement in America and a disinterest in participating in a second World War, Roosevelt's urging was key. Immediately after his 7 minute speech, the Senate and the House took up the vote. The Senate unanimously voted for the Declaration of War by a margin of 82-0; the House voted for it by a margin of 388-1. Only the pacifist Jeannette Rankin refused to vote for the declaration. The entry of the United States of America would turn the tide of the war significantly, changing the shape of the conflict.

The Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia promoted itself as being "Absolutely Fireproof," so much so that it was put on the hotel stationery. Despite that, a massive fire broke out in the early morning hours of December 7, 1946, when a mattress placed in the one stairway in the hotel caught fire. The smoke and fire shot through the stairwell, spreading to upper floors. Above the fifth floor, every single person was trapped. While a large number of people died from the fire, both because they were burned alive and from smoke inhalation, many others died from jumping out of windows to their deaths. The fire would kill 119 people, including the hotel's owner and his wife as well as a large number of teenagers from around Georgia who were attending a YMCA program. One of the people who jumped was Daisy McCumber, who would be captured by Georgia Tech graduate student Arnold Hardy in a photograph that would win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography that year. In the aftermath of the Winecoff Hotel fire, fire codes throughout the nation were drastically changed to prevent something similar fro ever happening again.

When the New Model Army's leaders wanted the English Parliament to put King Charles I on trial for treason, they faced the problem that most Members of Parliament did not want to put the King on trial. So Colonel Thomas Pride and his Regiment of Foot were placed on the steps of Parliament, only allowing sympathetic members inside. Essentially, Pride's Purge was a coup d'etat which happened so easily no one even fought back. Partly, this was because Parliament had been fighting the King for eight years. In a Civil War, England had seen pitched battles where Parliament's New Model Army, led by Oliver Cromwell, beat the Royalist forces of Charles I. Officially, Charles had accepted Parliament's demands, until he decided to flee. That led to a second Civil War, which saw a military occupation of London, where Thomas Pride was a commander. That's why the New Model Army stationed his Regiment of Foot in the way of Parliament. The strategy worked so well that only 200 of the 471 Members were left in what became known as the "Rump Parliament." It was that Parliament that would subsequently and swiftly try King Charles and execute him.

When Londoners woke up on December 5 in 1952, they found the entire city covered in a mass of smog. London had been battling pollution from coal burning since the 13th century, and large smog events had taken place elsewhere in the world in the preceding two centuries. Yet the Great Smog of London, as it would become known, was something truly different. It occurred because of an anticyclone, a spinning of air that actually creates a layer of still, unmoving air and a dense fog. When that fog mixed with the ever present pollution in London, a special kind of "pea soup fog," so called for its resemblance to the foodstuff, had overwhelmed the entire city. Visibility was reduced to just a few metres, and very few events took place outside. Trains could only run with the help of loud auditory aids. At the time, hospitals recorded 4,000 deaths, but that was low because ambulances were not running. Most likely, something like 12,000 people passed away from breathing problems and visibility related deaths. In 1956, Parliament passed the Clean Air Act, which helped to ensure that no further great smogs could take place.

On a December day in 1956, Carl Perkins had a recording session at Sun Records, which label owner Sam Phillips wanted Jerry Lee Lewis at to play piano, when Elvis Presley came in to visit the studios and Johnny Cash popped in from the next room. These four men would become known as "The Million Dollar Quartet" by Sam Phillips, who brought in a reporter to highlight the session in a local paper. Presley, Perkins, Cash, and Lewis would all become legendary early rock 'n' roll artists, with Presley already a megastar and Perkins holding a number one hit. Cash was a hit recording artist who would go on to bigger things, while Jerry Lee Lewis was waiting for his first record to come out. Despite their individual abilities, the Million Dollar Quartet only recorded the one time in what was really an informal jam session that was only captured because producer Jack Clement flipped the "Record" switch. The session would nonetheless reveal the nature of early rock 'n' roll, as the four men swapped songs from the pop charts, Southern gospel, traditional African-American music, and country music.