On September 14, 1814, the gray half-light of dawn, after a night of fire and thunder, the smoke parted over Fort McHenry to reveal what the British had failed to erase. The flag—thirty by forty-two feet, stitched in Baltimore only weeks earlier—still flew defiantly…
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On September 14, 1741, George Frideric Handel completed one of the most celebrated pieces of music in history: the oratorio Messiah. This monumental work, which has become a cornerstone of Western choral literature, was composed in a remarkably short span of just 24 days.…
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On September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt truly became “the man in the arena” after the death of his predecessor, William McKinley. The assassination of President William McKinley on September 6, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, marked a tragic and pivotal moment in American history.…
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On a cool September morning in 1609, an English mariner in Dutch employ guided his ship into the mouth of a vast and unfamiliar waterway. Henry Hudson, sailing under the flag of the Dutch East India Company, had been searching in vain for a…
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On September 13, 1848, in the small town of Cavendish, Vermont, a seemingly ordinary day of railway construction would soon give rise to one of the most extraordinary cases in medical history. Phineas Gage, a 25-year-old foreman overseeing a crew of railroad workers, would…
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Super Mario, the beloved Italian plumber, made his debut in the world of video games in 1981, but it wasn’t until September 13, 1985, that he truly solidified his place in gaming history with the launch of Super Mario Bros. It all started a…
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On September 12, 2013, NASA announced what many had long awaited but few dared to fully believe: Voyager 1, the space probe launched in 1977, had officially crossed the threshold into interstellar space. After nearly 36 years in flight, the little spacecraft that once…
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The Battle of Marathon, fought on September 12, 490 BC, is one of the most significant military engagements in ancient history. This clash between the Athenian forces, supported by the small city-state of Plataea, and the invading Persian army marked a turning point in…
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On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy set the course for American explanation in a way that had never been done before. His iconic “We Choose to Go to the Moon” speech at Rice University on set the stage for the 21st century…
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On September 11, 1776, in the brief lull following the Battle of Long Island, a small boat ferried three American delegates across the waters of New York Harbor. Their mission was audacious, if not quixotic: to test whether a negotiated peace with Britain might…
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