The worst tornado in U.S. history passes through eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, killing 695 people, injuring some 13,000 people, and causing $17 million in property damage. Known as the “Tri-State Tornado,” the deadly twister began its northeast track ...read more

In England, six English agricultural laborers are sentenced to seven years of banishment to Australia’s New South Wales penal colony for their trade union activities. In 1833, after several years of reductions in their agricultural wages, a group of workers in Tolpuddle, a small ...read more

After four months of widespread protest in America, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. The Stamp Act was passed on March 22, 1765, leading to an uproar in the colonies over an issue ...read more

On March 18, 1962, France and the leaders of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) sign a peace agreement to end the seven-year Algerian War, signaling the end of 130 years of colonial French rule in Algeria. In late October 1954, a faction of young Algerian Muslims established ...read more

On this day in 1852, in New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake business. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 prompted a huge spike in the demand for cross-country shipping. Wells and Fargo decided to take ...read more

U.S. B-52 bombers are diverted from their targets in South Vietnam to attack suspected communist base camps and supply areas in Cambodia for the first time in the war. President Nixon approved the mission–formally designated Operation Breakfast–at a meeting of the National ...read more

Returning to Cambodia after visits to Moscow and Peking, Prince Norodom Sihanouk is ousted as Cambodian chief of state in a bloodless coup by pro-western Lt. Gen. Lon Nol, premier and defense minister, and First Deputy Premier Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak, who proclaim the ...read more

On this day in 2002, 13-year-old Brittanie Cecil dies, two days after being struck in the head by a puck at a Columbus Blue Jackets ice hockey game. Cecil’s death forced the National Hockey League to take new precautions regarding fan safety. Cecil was struck by a puck that had ...read more

On this day in 1837, Grover Cleveland, the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms in the office, is born. Cleveland served as the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889 and as the 24th president from 1893 to 1897. As a young man, Cleveland left his native New Jersey to ...read more

Businessmen in New York establish Wells, Fargo and Company, destined to become the leading freight and banking company of the West. The California economy boomed after the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1849, spurring a huge demand for shipping. Henry Wells and William ...read more

A century ago, even before the phonograph had become a common household item, there was already a burgeoning music industry in the United States based not on the sale of recorded musical performances, but on the sale of sheet music. It was in the medium of printed paper, and not ...read more

On this day in 1932, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike is born in the small town of Shillington, Pennsylvania. The only child of a math teacher father and aspiring writer mother, Updike developed an early love for reading and drawing and won a scholarship to Harvard. He ...read more

On this day in 2008, the Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella dies at the age of 54 in a London hospital, one week after undergoing surgery to treat tonsil cancer. Minghella grew up on the Isle of Wight, off the English coast; his parents were Italian immigrants who ran an ...read more

On this day in 1999, the bodies of Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso are found in a charred rental car in a remote wooded area of Long Barn, Califonia. The women, along with Sund’s daughter Juli, had been missing since February when they were last seen alive at the Cedar Lodge near ...read more

In a surprise raid on the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC), military forces of the Nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan invade the mainland and capture the town of Sungmen. Because the United States supported the attack, it resulted in even deeper tensions and ...read more

On this day in 1864, the U.S. Sanitary Commission Fair in Washington, D.C., closes with President Abraham Lincoln commending the organization for its work on behalf of Union soldiers. Established in 1861 as a federal government agency, the Sanitary Commission was responsible for ...read more

On this day in 1933, American automaker Studebaker, then heavily in debt, goes into receivership. The company’s president, Albert Erskine, resigned and later that year committed suicide. Studebaker eventually rebounded from its financial troubles, only to shut down the assembly ...read more

On this day, the War Relocation Authority is created to “Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war.” Anger toward and fear of Japanese Americans began ...read more