On September 27, 1822, Jean-François Champollion, the brilliant and tireless French philologist, stood before the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and announced what scholars had dreamed of for centuries: the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script had at last been deciphered. His declaration, brief and…
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On September 27, 1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for one day, served as the capital of the United States after Congress fled Philadelphia due to the advancing British army. The British had set their sights on Philadelphia, then the largest city in the colonies and home…
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On this day in 1933, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, one of America’s most notorious gangsters, surrendered to federal agents in Memphis and gave the FBI its enduring nickname. Surrounded and with no way out, Kelly raised his hands and cried: “Don’t shoot, G-Men!” The…
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On September 26, 1687, the Parthenon, a symbol of ancient Greek civilization and architectural brilliance, suffered catastrophic damage during the Siege of the Acropolis in Athens. At the time, Athens was under Ottoman rule, and the Parthenon, originally a temple dedicated to the goddess…
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On September 26, 1905, Albert Einstein published the third and final portion of what’s been called the Annus Mirabilis papers, a collection of groundbreaking scientific papers that revolutionized the world of science and had a profound impact on our understanding of the universe. These…
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On September 25, 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to ten years in a Pennsylvania state prison for aggravated sexual assault—a stunning reversal for a once-revered entertainer who built his persona as America’s avuncular moralist. The punishment closed a protracted legal saga arising…
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It’s a day that changed the game of baseball forever, but few know its anniversary. On September 25, 1974, Dr. Frank Jobe performed the first-ever ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) replacement surgery on Major League Baseball pitcher Tommy John, revolutionizing the world of sports medicine.…
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On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed to the state legislatures twelve amendments that would enshrine American freedoms directly into the Constitution. Soon to be called the American Bill of Rights, ten were later ratified by the states and…
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower took the extraordinary step of ordering federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, today, deploying the 101st Airborne Division to enforce desegregation at Central High School. The move marked one of the most dramatic assertions of federal authority over states’ rights…
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On September 24, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt made a historic proclamation that forever changed the way America conserves its natural beauty. On that day, the president declared Devil’s Tower, a stunning geological wonder located in northeastern Wyoming, to be the first national monument in…
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