On August 22, 1642, King Charles I, beleaguered and defiant, stood before his dwindling court and supporters on the windswept hill at Nottingham. That day, he ordered his royal standard raised—a symbolic gesture that declared open war upon his own Parliament. Though the flag…
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On August 22, 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, made history by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to publicly ride in an automobile. This event was more than just a personal milestone for Roosevelt; it was a symbol of…
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On August 22, 1791, “The Pearl of the Antilles,” the French colony of Saint Domingue erupted in flames. The Haitain Revolution had begun as the enslaved held in bondage on the world wealthiest colony fought for their freedom. Spanning from 1791 to 1804, The…
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On the morning of August 21, 1911, the Louvre awoke to a scandal that would forever change the way the world viewed art, museums, and security. The Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic portrait of Lisa Gherardini, vanished from its place in the Salon…
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The Second Battle of the Somme, commencing on August 21, 1918, marked a significant phase of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which ultimately led to the end of World War I. This battle, fought in the Somme region of France, was a vital part…
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On August 21, 1858, in Ottawa, Illinois, two leading figures in American democracy launched a series of debates over a Senate seat, debating what it means to be free, democracy, and the purpose of the United States. The National Parks Service states that the first debate…
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By mid-August 1988, the vast wilderness of Yellowstone National Park was already under siege. Months of drought, coupled with unusually strong winds, had turned the forests of lodgepole pine into tinder. What began earlier that summer as scattered blazes—some ignited by lightning, others sparked…
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On August 20, 1911, one of the most famous paintings in the world went missing from the Louvre Museum in Paris. Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” renowned for its enigmatic smile and exquisite artistry, was stolen in an audacious heist that stunned the art…
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On August 20, 1920, seven men, including one of America’s greatest athletes of all time, Jim Thorpe, held a meeting to organize what may be the most pivotal moment in sports history. Coming together in a local auto dealership in Canton, Ohio, the National…
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The Roman Republic, still reeling from the assassination of Julius Caesar the previous year, faced another constitutional crisis in the summer of 43 BC. Caesar’s designated heir—his great-nephew Gaius Octavius, now calling himself Caesar—was only nineteen years old. Yet by August 19 of that…
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