Also on this day
Lead Story
1876
On this day in 1876, Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River.
Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, leaders of the Sioux tribe on the Great Plains,...
American Revolution
1745
On this day in 1745, future Patriot physician and U.S. Treasurer Thomas Tudor Tucker is born to a prominent family in Port Royal, Bermuda.
After completing medical studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Tucker spent time in Virginia before opening a practice in Charleston, South Carolina–a city favored by...
Automotive
1956
The last Packard–the classic American luxury car with the famously enigmatic slogan “Ask the Man Who Owns One”–rolls off the production line at Packard’s plant in Detroit, Michigan on this day in 1956.
Mechanical engineer James Ward Packard and his brother, William Dowd Packard, built their first automobile, a buggy-type vehicle...
Civil War
1864
On this day, Pennsylvania troops begin digging a tunnel toward the Rebels at Petersburg, Virginia, in order to blow a hole in the Confederate lines and break the stalemate.
The great campaign between Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac ground...
Cold War
1950
Armed forces from communist North Korea smash into South Korea, setting off the Korean War. The United States, acting under the auspices of the United Nations, quickly sprang to the defense of South Korea and fought a bloody and frustrating war for the next three years. Korea, a former Japanese...
Crime
1910
Congress passes the Mann Act, also known as the White Slave Traffic Act, which was ostensibly aimed at keeping innocent girls from being lured into prostitution, but really offered a way to make a crime out of many kinds of consensual sexual activity.
The outrage over “white slavery” began with a...
Disaster
1957
A hurricane watch is declared for the Texas and Louisiana coastlines as a tropical depression from the Gulf of Mexico heads toward the United States. The storm quickly becomes Hurricane Audrey, which kills 390 people.
A day after the watch was declared, the residents of Louisiana near the Gulf of...
General Interest
1942
Following his arrival in London, Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower takes command of U.S. forces in Europe. Although Eisenhower had never seen combat during his 27 years as an army officer, his knowledge of military strategy and talent for organization were such that Army Chief of Staff General George C....
1993
In Ottawa, Kim Campbell is sworn in as Canada’s 19th prime minister, becoming the first woman to hold the country’s highest office.Born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, in 1947, Campbell studied law and political science before entering Canadian politics during the 1980s. In 1986, she was elected to the British...
Hollywood
2009
On this day in 2009, Michael Jackson, one of the most commercially successful entertainers in history, dies at the age of 50 at his home in Los Angeles, California, after suffering from cardiac arrest caused by a fatal combination of drugs given to him by his personal doctor.
Michael Joseph Jackson...
Literary
1857
One of the most influential French poets of all time, Charles Baudelaire publishes his book Les Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil), leading to his conviction on charges of blasphemy and obscenity.
Baudelaire was born into great expectations, anticipating a large inheritance. He studied law until 1840 but abandoned it to...
Music
1988
Contrary to what some critics of teen pop might imagine, pop sensation Debbie Gibson saw herself not as the next Madonna, but as the next Carole King. And when her single “Foolish Beat” reached the top of the Biilboard Hot 100 on this day in 1988, she achieved something very...
Old West
1876
Determined to resist the efforts of the U.S. Army to force them onto reservations, Indians under the leadership of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wipe out Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and much of his 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Sioux Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse...
Presidential
1942
On this day in 1942, General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes commander of all U.S. troops in the European theater of World War II, continuing the steady ascent in military rank that would culminate in his appointment as supreme Allied commander of all forces in Europe in 1943. As U.S. commander,...
Sports
1948
On June 25, 1948, Joe Louis defeats Jersey Joe Walcott to retain the heavyweight championship.
Louis’ challenger, Jersey Joe Walcott, was a veteran fighter who was finally getting a shot at the title. Born Arnold Cream, he started his boxing career at the age of 16 in his native New Jersey,...
1950
On this day in 1950, an American team composed largely of amateurs defeated its more polished English opponents at the World Cup, held in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Dubbed the “Miracle on Green,” the game is considered one of the greatest soccer upsets of all time.
The English team at the time,...
Vietnam War
1969
The U.S. Navy turns 64 river patrol gunboats valued at $18.2 million over to the South Vietnamese Navy in what is described as the largest single transfer of military equipment in the war thus far. The transfer raised the total number of boats in the South Vietnamese Navy to more...
World War I
1915
On this day in 1915, the German press publishes an official statement from the country’s war command addressing the German use of poison gas at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres two months earlier.
The German firing of more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French...
World War II
1900
On this day in 1900, Lord Louis Mountbatten, British admiral and second cousin to King George VI, is born.
Louis Mountbatten was born in Windsor, England, the fourth child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife, Princess Victoria, granddaughter of Queen Victoria. He entered the Royal Navy at age 13....
