Susan Smith reports a false carjacking to cover killing her kids

On October 25, 1764, future President John Adams marries Abigail Smith. This devoted couple’s prolific correspondence during their married life has provided entertainment and a glimpse of early American life for generations of history buffs. Future first lady Abigail Adams was the daughter of a parson. She was home-taught and read everything from the classics […]

In an event alternately described as one of the most heroic or disastrous episodes in British military history, Lord James Cardigan leads a charge of the Light Brigade cavalry against well-defended Russian artillery during the Crimean War. The British were winning the Battle of Balaklava when Cardigan received his order to attack the Russians. His […]

On October 25, 1920, Greece’s King Alexander dies from wounds he received after a monkey attacked him earlier in the month. He was 27 years old. The incident leading to King Alexander’s death occurred while he was walking on the grounds of the castle outside of Athens. A Barbary macaque that belonged to a resident […]

On October 25, 1944, during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deploy kamikaze (“divine wind”) bombers against American warships for the first time. It will prove costly—to both sides. This decision to employ suicide bombers against the American fleet at Leyte, an island of the Philippines, was based on the failure of conventional […]

The Atomic Age sci-fi thriller “The Amazing Colossal Man” premieres in New York City on October 25, 1957. The film was one of many from the era to exploit cultural anxieties over atomic weaponry.

U.N. representatives vote to seat the the People’s Republic of China as a permanent member and expels Taiwan, led by the Chinese Nationalist Party.   The U.S.—which had unsuccessfully proposed seating both the PRC and Taiwan—was interested in seeking the PRC’s help in resolving the sticky Vietnam situation, using influence with the PRC as diplomatic leverage […]

President Ronald Reagan, citing the threat posed to American nationals on the Caribbean nation of Grenada by that nation’s Marxist regime, orders U.S. forces to invade and secure their safety. There were approximately 1,000 Americans in Grenada at the time, many of them students at the island’s medical school. In little more than a week, […]