On October 26, 1892, Ida B. Wells—teacher, journalist, and civil rights crusader—published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, one of the most searing indictments of racial terror ever printed in the United States. In just thirty pages, Wells exposed the grotesque machinery…
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On October 25, 1924, just four days before Britain’s general election, The Daily Mail published a sensational document that would become one of the most infamous political forgeries in modern history—the so-called Zinoviev Letter. Purporting to be a directive from Grigory Zinoviev, head of…
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The signing of the Peace of Westphalia on October 24, 1648, marked one of the most transformative moments in European—and indeed world—history. Concluded in the German cities of Münster and Osnabrück after years of painstaking negotiation, the treaties ended two interconnected conflicts that had…
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On October 23, 2001, Apple Computer unveiled a pocket-sized device that would redefine the way the world listened to music. Weighing just 6.5 ounces and small enough to slip into a jeans pocket, the iPod promised “a thousand songs in your pocket.” Few outside…
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For over a decade, Lance Armstrong had stood as the most celebrated name in cycling—a symbol of grit, endurance, and improbable redemption. A cancer survivor who conquered the sport’s most punishing race seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005, Armstrong was hailed as an…
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On the morning of October 21, 1797, the people of Boston gathered along the harbor to watch a ship—three years in the making—slip into the Atlantic. The 44-gun frigate USS Constitution rested poised on the greased ways of Edmund Hartt’s North End shipyard, its…
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When Queen Elizabeth II stood before the glittering waters of Sydney Harbour on October 20, 1973, to declare open the Sydney Opera House, the moment carried a symbolism that extended far beyond architecture. It marked the culmination of one of the most ambitious public…
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On October 19, 1943, in a modest laboratory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, a quiet scientific revolution took place. A research team led by microbiologist Selman Waksman and his graduate student Albert Schatz successfully isolated streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against…
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When U.S. troops marched through the cobbled streets of San Juan on October 18, 1898, the red and gold flag of Spain was lowered for the last time over the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. In its place rose the Stars and Stripes, signifying…
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On October 17, 1907, the world awoke to a quieter revolution—one not of engines or empires, but of invisible waves crossing the Atlantic. That day, Guglielmo Marconi’s transatlantic wireless telegraph service officially began operations, linking Clifden, Ireland, with Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. For the…
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