Also on this day
Lead Story
1932
On this day in 1932, in a crime that captured the attention of the entire nation, Charles Lindbergh III, the 20-month-old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family’s new mansion in Hopewell, New Jersey. Lindbergh, who became an international celebrity when he flew the first solo...
American Revolution
1781
On this day in 1781, the Articles of Confederation are finally ratified. The Articles were signed by Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification on November 15, 1777, after 16 months of debate. Bickering over land claims between Virginia and Maryland delayed final ratification for almost...
Automotive
2005
On this day in 2005, at an auto expo in Geneva, Switzerland, Honda debuts the Civic Concept, a five-door hatchback. The Japan-based automaker launched the first Civic in the early 1970s and the compact, affordably priced car went on to become a best-seller in the U.S. auto market.
Soichiro Honda founded...
Civil War
1864
On this day in 1864, President Abraham Lincoln nominates Ulysses S. Grant for the newly revived rank of lieutenant general. At the time, George Washington was the only other man to have held that rank. Winfield Scott also attained the title but by brevet only; he did not actually command...
Cold War
1961
Newly elected President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. It proved to be one of the most innovative and highly publicized Cold War programs set up by the United States.
During the course of his campaign for the presidency in 1960, Kennedy floated the idea that...
Crime
1932
Charles Lindbergh Jr., the twenty-month-old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family’s new mansion in Hopewell, New Jersey. Lindbergh, who had become famous around the world five years earlier when he flew The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic, and his wife Anne discovered a...
Disaster
1910
Two trains are swept into a canyon by an avalanche in Wellington, Washington, on this day in 1910, killing 96 people. Due to the remote location of the disaster and the risk of further avalanches, efforts to rescue survivors and find the bodies of the dead were not completed...
General Interest
1692
In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados, are charged with the illegal practice of witchcraft. Later that day, Tituba, possibly under coercion, confessed to the crime, encouraging the authorities to seek out more Salem witches.Trouble in the small...
1961
On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency within the Department of State. The same day, he sent a message to Congress asking for permanent funding for the agency, which would send trained American men and women to...
1966
Venera 3, a Soviet probe launched from Kazakhstan on November 15, 1965, collides with Venus, the second planet from the sun. Although Venera 3 failed in its mission to measure the Venusian atmosphere, it was the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. Four years earlier, the...
Hollywood
1971
On this day in 1971, in the latest development in a Hollywood-style family feud, Warner Brothers announces that it has hired Richard Zanuck (son of Darryl F. Zanuck, chairman and chief executive officer of 20th Century Fox) and David Brown, both of whom were forced out at Fox in a...
Literary
1921
Forty-one-year-old British writer E.M. Forster embarks on his second trip to India after an absence of eight years. Forster would turn his observations of the country into his fifth and most critically acclaimed novel, A Passage to India, published in 1924. The novel explored racism and colonialism through the story...
Music
1971
James Taylor’s self-titled 1968 debut album, which featured the gorgeous, downbeat ballads “Carolina in My Mind” and “Sweet Baby James,” earned him a small but dedicated following among the collegiate liberal-arts set. But as the 60s counterculture burned itself out and the 70s began, his second album made him a...
Old West
1872
President Grant signs the bill creating the nation’s first national park at Yellowstone.
Native Americans had lived and hunted in the region that would become Yellowstone for hundreds of years before the first Anglo explorers arrived. Abundant game and mountain streams teaming with fish attracted the Indians to the region,...
Sports
1969
On March 1, 1969, New York Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle announces his retirement from baseball. Mantle was an idol to millions, known for his remarkable power and speed and his everyman personality. While “The Mick” patrolled center field and batted clean-up between 1951 and 1968, the Yankees won 12...
Vietnam War
1965
Ambassador Maxwell Taylor informs South Vietnamese Premier Phan Huy Quat that the United States is preparing to send 3,500 U.S. Marines to Vietnam to protect the U.S. airbase at Da Nang.
Three days later, a formal request was submitted by the U.S. Embassy, asking the South Vietnamese government to “invite” the...
1968
Clark Clifford replaces Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense. McNamara, who had first taken office under President John F. Kennedy, left amid a debate over Vietnam policy precipitated by the Tet Offensive. In the summer of 1967, McNamara had become convinced that the United States should seek an end...
1971
A bomb explodes in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., causing an estimated $300,000 in damage but hurting no one. A group calling itself the “Weather Underground” claimed credit for the bombing, which was done in protest of the ongoing U.S.-supported Laos invasion.
The so-called Weathermen were a radical faction of...
World War I
1917
On this day in 1917, the text of the so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from the German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the case of war between the United States and Germany, is published on the front pages of newspapers...
World War II
1941
On this day, the southeastern European nation of Bulgaria joins the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact.
When the Second World War broke out, Bulgaria declared its neutrality. But Bulgaria’s King Boris was eager to expand his country’s borders, and Germany had already coerced Romania to restore south Dobruja—which had...
