This Day In History: December 11, 1792 On August 13, 1792, during the height of the French Revolution, Louis XVI was arrested. He was taken to a Paris fortress being used as a prison called the Temple to await his fate. (He probably had a pretty good idea of what it would be; it was more a matter of when […]

This Day In History: December 10, 1907 On December 10, 1907, a reported thousand men, many medical students, marched through London defending the practice of surgery on live animals (vivisection). This demonstration ended in Trafalgar Square when the police charged the rioters on horseback, culminating in a street battle of several hours’ duration. Incredibly, all of this ire was directed […]

This Day In History: December 9, 1992 “’Well, there were three of us in the marriage so it was a bit crowded.”- Princess Diana It was an announcement that would have been no surprise at all had they been any other British couple. Even after all the very public tiffs and extramarital dalliances, the House of Commons let out a […]

This Day In History: December 8, 1980 It was the last thing people expected. On December 8, 1980, Howard Cosell announced during Monday Night Football that John Lennon, legendary musician and peace activist, had been shot and killed outside his home in New York City. The shooter, 25-year-old Mark David Chapman, made no attempt to flee the scene or resist […]

This Day In History: December 5, 1901 On December 5, 1901 Walter Elias Disney, the man who would turn a rodent into a beloved icon and go on to create a global empire of family-friendly movies, merchandise and theme parks, was born in Chicago, Illinois. Always the artist and entrepreneur, he used to sell his drawings to his neighbors to […]

This Day In History: December 3, 1947 On December 3, 1947, a young Marlon Brando first delivered the anguished cry “STELLA” across the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during the debut performance of Tennessee Williams’ drama A Streetcar Named Desire. The play explores the tension between tough, working class Stanley Kowalski (played by Marlon Brando), and Blanche Dubois, a genteel Southern belle […]

This Day In History: December 2, 1814 “Either kill me or take me like this, for I will not change.” The Marquis de Sade, a notorious libertine whose deeds are linked forever with his name in the term “sadist”, wrote these words to his wife in 1783 while serving an 11-year prison term. For de Sade, who would be convicted […]

This Day In History: December 1, 1955 When Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American seamstress, climbed aboard a bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, she had no intention of striking a blow for the civil rights movement. After a long shift at work, Parks just wanted to get home to her family and unwind from her day. The […]

This Day In History: November 28, 1925 On November 28, 1925 at 8 p.m., George D. Hay, who dubbed himself “The Solemn Old Judge”, and an 80-year-old fiddler named “Uncle” Jimmy Thompson launched the inaugural broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry, the longest continuously running radio program in history. As you might have guessed from the date, the Grand Ole […]

Today in History: November 27, 602 “He was a better judge of policy than of men.” – Previté-Orton On November 27, 603, the 20-year reign of Byzantine Emperor Maurice came to a most violent conclusion when he was forced to watch his five sons beheaded, and was then executed himself. Maurice’s road to the throne began when he was serving […]

This Day In History: November 26, 1922 “You can’t create humor out of happiness” – Charles Schulz Charles Schulz’s life-long relationship with comic strips began within days of his birth on November 26, 1922 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His uncle nicknamed him “Sparky” after the horse, Spark Plug, from the Barney Google strip when he was two days old, and it […]

This Day In History: November 25, 1990 On November 25, 1990, the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge broke into pieces and sank to the bottom of Lake Washington. After a week-long windswept rainstorm, the old bridge succumbed to the forces of nature and gradually disappeared beneath relentless waves. Since the bridge’s demise was a gradual process, the local media could […]

Today in History: November 24, 1859 When Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species” was published on November 24, 1859, it sold out that same day. That’s not as impressive as it may initially seem as only 1,250 copies were available for purchase. The truly remarkable thing was the ground-breaking subject matter contained within its pages. Like Galileo two centuries earlier, Darwin […]

This Day In History: November 21, 1922 In November 1922, Georgia Governor Thomas Hardwick found himself in quite the quandary. He desperately wanted to run for the Senate seat left empty due to the death of Thomas Watson in September – but he had actively opposed the passage of the 19th amendment. Now that it was law, how could he […]

This Day In History: November 20, 1969 Most people remember Alcatraz Island off the California coast as the location of the country’s most notorious and isolated federal prison housing the most dangerous inmates. It closed in 1963, and the empty prison complex stood silently against the rocky, grey landscape. That is, until November 20, 1969, when a group of Native […]

This Day In History: November 19, 1990 There were red faces all around as the Grammy Award for best new artist was stripped from pop duo Milli Vanilli on November 19, 1990, when it was revealed that they hadn’t warbled a single note on the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences explained […]

This Day In History: November 18, 326 C.E. Ever since the apostle Peter was crucified in Rome during the reign of Nero in 65 C.E., Christians have venerated the spot where he was martyred and buried. Peter had only been dead a few decades when Pope Anacletus built an oratory over his tomb to honor the deceased saint. When Constantine […]