On July 21, 1865, the dusty market square of Springfield, Missouri, became the unlikely stage for a deadly and historic confrontation. In a moment that would echo across dime novels, silent films, and American folklore, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok faced off against Davis…
Read More
By the summer of 70 AD, the city of Jerusalem—once the spiritual and political heart of the Jewish people—was under siege by the legions of Rome. Titus, the ambitious son of Emperor Vespasian, commanded the assault. After months of grueling encirclement, starvation, and attrition,…
Read More
On July 19, 1848, a modest Wesleyan chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, became the unlikely cradle of a social revolution. Over two humid summer days, nearly 300 women and men gathered to launch what would become the organized women’s rights movement in the…
Read More
On July 18, 2013, the city of Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, marking the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The filing was submitted by Kevyn Orr, the city’s state-appointed emergency manager, to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of…
Read More
In the midst of the First World War—a conflict that had engulfed the globe and pitted empires against each other—King George V of the United Kingdom took a decisive step to distance the British monarchy from its German roots. On July 17, 1917, he…
Read More
On July 16, 1861, at the direction of President Abraham Lincoln, thousands of Union soldiers crossed the Potomac River and began a grueling 25-mile march toward Manassas Junction, Virginia. The operation, undertaken with the hopes of swiftly crushing the Confederate rebellion, would culminate just…
Read More
On July 15, 2002, John Walker Lindh—the California-born man dubbed the “American Taliban”—pleaded guilty in federal court to two felony charges: supplying services to the Taliban and carrying explosives during the commission of a felony. The plea marked a stunning conclusion to one of…
Read More
On July 14, 1960, a 26-year-old British woman named Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania), launching what would become one of the most significant and enduring studies of animal behavior in history. With no formal scientific training…
Read More
On July 13, 2024, President Donald J. Trump was shot and wounded during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in what authorities have classified as an attempted assassination. The attack, which occurred just after 6:00 p.m. at the Butler Farm Show grounds, stunned the…
Read More
On July 12, 1543, in a private ceremony at Hampton Court Palace, King Henry VIII of England wed Catherine Parr, the sixth and final queen consort of his turbulent reign. A widow twice over and nearly a decade younger than the aging monarch, Catherine…
Read More
