today in history

April 13, 2017

Today in History: Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday

Three Surprising Facts About Thomas Jefferson APRIL 13 – On this day, in 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia. Despite being the third president of the United States, second vice-president […]

July 4, 2016

Today in History: The United States Declaration of Independence (1776)

240 years ago today, in the midst of the American Revolutionary War, one of the greatest and most inspired documents of all time was adopted by the United States Congress: The Declaration […]

May 12, 2016

Today in History: Berlin blockade lifted

On this day in 1949 the Soviet Union ended its 11-month blockade of capitalist West Berlin restoring much needed flows of food and other goods into the besieged city-within-a-city. While the Cold […]

April 27, 2016

Today in History: Tea Act passed by British Parliament (1773)

Cronyism at its finest! On this day in 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, once again lowering the taxes paid by the now-failing East India Company and giving it a […]

July 4, 2015

Happy Independence Day!

We tend to think of them as a monolithic force. “The Founding Fathers” we say, “would have wanted this.” We say that “they” would have been opposed to that. With fire in […]

June 23, 2015

Today in History: The “Smoking Gun”

On today’s date in 1972, President Richard Nixon sat down with White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and a tape recorder to discuss the recent Watergate break-in. In the resulting tape, […]

June 17, 2015

Today in History: Major Gains for Women’s Rights

June 17th was an exciting day for women’s rights! On this day in 1873, Susan B. Anthony was standing trial for a heinous crime: she had attempted to vote in the previous […]

June 12, 2015

Today in History: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

On this day in 1987, Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and delivered an ultimatum to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. […]