On March 16, 597 B.C., the city of Jerusalem opened its gates to the armies of Nebuchadnezzar II. The Babylonian king had surrounded the hilltop capital of Judah after months of political rebellion and imperial retaliation. When the siege ended, the city was not…
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In 1916, tensions between the United States and Mexican revolutionary forces escalated dramatically, culminating in an unprecedented American military incursion into Mexico to pursue Francisco “Pancho” Villa. This operation, known as the Mexican Expedition or the Punitive Expedition, was led by General John J.…
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On March 15, 1783, in a small meeting hall in Newburgh, New York, General George Washington delivered one of the most consequential speeches in American history. With the Revolutionary War effectively won but the new nation still fragile, Washington confronted a crisis that threatened…
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On March 15, 1917 it was all over in Russia as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated the throne, marking the end of the 304-year reign of the Romanov dynasty. His resignation was the culmination of years of mounting political instability, social unrest, and…
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On March 14, 1900, President William McKinley signed the Gold Standard Act, ending one of the fiercest monetary fights in American history and formally placing the nation’s currency on the gold standard. The law did not invent America’s attachment to gold out of thin…
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On March 14, 1967, President John F. Kennedy’s remains were reinterred at their permanent resting place in Arlington National Cemetery in a meticulously planned and solemn ceremony. This event took place more than three years after his assassination in Dallas, Texas, on November 22,…
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On March 13, 2020, President Donald Trump stood in the Rose Garden and announced a step rarely taken in American history: the formal declaration of a national emergency in response to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic. What had begun months earlier as a mysterious…
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On March 13, 1639, Harvard College—America’s first higher education institution—was officially named in honor of John Harvard, an English clergyman whose generous bequest helped secure its future. Though founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the institution lacked a formal name until Harvard’s…
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On March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia, Juliette Gordon Low did something quietly revolutionary. She gathered a small group of girls—just eighteen in all—and introduced them to a radical idea for the early twentieth century: girls should learn leadership, self-reliance, and outdoor skills just…
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On March 12, 2009, Bernard L. Madoff, once a respected figure on Wall Street, pleaded guilty to orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. His admission in a Manhattan courtroom marked the downfall of a financier who had previously served as chairman of Nasdaq…
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