London in the 1760s was a city in the midst of profound commercial and cultural transformation. The Seven Years’ War had recently concluded, redirecting wealth and attention back toward domestic pursuits; aristocratic collections, gentlemanly libraries, and cabinets of curiosity were flourishing; and the city’s…
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During the winter of 1775-1776, General George Washington faced a dire need for artillery to break the British siege of Boston. That’s when Brigadier General Henry Knox, Washington’s Chief of Artillery, proposed a daring plan to transported “the guns of Ticonderoga” to Beantown, covering…
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On December 5, 1848, President James K. Polk delivered a message to Congress that changed the nation forever. He said gold had been found in California. His declaration set in motion one of the most transformative episodes in American history: the California Gold Rush.…
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In the winter of 1861, as the Union cracked under the pressure of secession and the first year of civil war drew to a close, the Confederate States of America undertook a ritual of nationhood it hoped would signal permanence. On December 4, 1861,…
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On December 4, 1783, General George Washington stood before his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City to bid them farewell. The event marked the end of the American Revolutionary War and symbolized the transition from a nation in conflict to one embarking…
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On the fateful evening of December 4, 1956, an unassuming recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, bore witness to a historic gathering of musicians that would only ever happen once. Sun Studio, under the proprietorship of the visionary Sam Phillips, became the unexpected stage for…
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On December 3, 1775—six months after Lexington and Concord, and amid the halting, improvisational birth of a Continental Navy—the newly commissioned USS Alfred unfurled a banner no American warship had ever carried. It was not yet the “Stars and Stripes,” nor anything immediately recognizable…
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On December 3, 1989, the world learned that the most protracted, most potentially destructive cold war between the United States and the USSR was on the verge of coming to an end. Held just a month after the tearing down of the Berlin Wall,…
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The United States presidential election of 1800 remains one of the most dramatic and pivotal in the nation’s history. At its core was the Electoral College, the mechanism by which the president and vice president are formally elected. On December 3, the electors cast…
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The first generation of Americans to witness commercial aviation mature from barnstorming spectacle to intercity utility could hardly miss the symbolism of December 2, 1939, when New York City formally opened its new municipal airport on the shoreline of Flushing Bay. In an era…
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