On May 23, 1430, amid the brutal and grinding wars that had ravaged France for nearly a century, the woman who had once turned the tide of battle at Orléans found herself surrounded, outnumbered, and—most damning of all—abandoned. Joan of Arc, the teenage peasant-turned-warrior…
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Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, better known as Bonnie and Clyde, are among the most infamous figures in American criminal history. Their violent escapades during the Great Depression era captivated the nation and etched their names into the annals of American folklore as legendary bank robbers.…
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On May 22, 1804, the boats pushed off from the banks of St. Charles, Missouri, and the United States crossed a threshold. What lay ahead was not merely a geographic expedition but a test of national ambition—a collision of science, sovereignty, and myth. The…
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On May 22, 1856, the United States Senate chamber witnessed a shocking and violent episode that reflected the intense sectional tensions of the antebellum era. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina brutally assaulted Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane, an event that…
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On May 21, 1856, the town of Lawrence, Kansas—a fledgling stronghold of free-state resistance on the contested frontier—was looted and burned by a posse of some 800 proslavery partisans under the authority of a federal marshal. Though often recast in summary as a mere…
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The American Red Cross, an iconic humanitarian organization, was established by Clara Barton on May 21, 1881, in Washington, D.C. Its inception marked a significant development in American charity work, dedicating itself to providing emergency assistance, disaster relief, and education in the United States.…
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Operation Redwing was a series of 17 nuclear test detonations conducted by the United States at the Pacific Proving Grounds on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls in the Marshall Islands, between May and July of 1956. The operation, overseen by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and carried out…
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May 19, 1780 started like any other day. The sun rose, farmers went to work, shopkeepers opened their stores, and people moved about their morning routines. But by late morning, across much of New England and parts of eastern Canada, something strange began to…
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On May 19, 1883, Buffalo Bill Cody, an iconic figure of the American West, unveiled his grand spectacle, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, in Omaha, Nebraska. This event marked the beginning of a revolutionary form of entertainment that combined elements of theater, circus, and historical…
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On May 18, 1933, as the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression continued to erode confidence in the American system, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Tennessee Valley Authority Act—a legislative cornerstone of the New Deal and a radical assertion of federal…
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