On May 30, 1431, a nineteen-year-old peasant girl from Lorraine was burned at the stake in the market square of Rouen, France. Joan of Arc, who had led French armies to remarkable victories against England during the Hundred Years War, met her death as a condemned heretic. Her execution by the English and their Burgundian…
On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing tens of thousands of people and hastening the end of World War II. This devastating attack came just three days after the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, and together these two bombings remain the only use of…
On the evening of August 8, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon addressed the nation from the Oval Office to announce his resignation from the presidency, becoming the first and only U.S. president in history to resign from office. Facing near-certain impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate for his role in…
On May 29, 1953, New Zealand beekeeper Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first human beings confirmed to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth at 29,032 feet above sea level. Their achievement, coming after decades of failed attempts that had claimed numerous lives, captured the world’s imagination…
On August 7, 1782, General George Washington made a decision that would forever change the way the United States honors its military personnel. At his headquarters in Newburgh, New York, Washington issued a general order establishing the Badge of Military Merit, a purple heart-shaped cloth badge to recognize enlisted soldiers and non-commissioned officers who demonstrated…
On April 28, 1789, crew members of HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from Captain William Bligh in one of the most famous mutinies in naval history. The dramatic events that unfolded that morning in the South Pacific would capture the public imagination for centuries, inspiring countless books, films, and…
On April 28, 1789, crew members of HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from Captain William Bligh in one of the most famous mutinies in naval history. The dramatic events that unfolded that morning in the South Pacific would capture the public imagination for centuries, inspiring countless books, films, and…
On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic, marking the completion of what was then the longest and tallest suspension bridge in the world. Spanning the treacherous strait connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, the bridge was a triumph of engineering that many had deemed impossible. Its distinctive International…
On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic, marking the completion of what was then the longest and tallest suspension bridge in the world. Spanning the treacherous strait connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, the bridge was a triumph of engineering that many had deemed impossible. Its distinctive International…
In the early hours of April 26, 1986, a catastrophic explosion and fire at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine released massive amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere, creating the worst nuclear disaster in history. The accident exposed millions of people to dangerous radiation levels and rendered a vast area uninhabitable, with…