A Defiant Dreyfus, Publically Degraded, Swears to Clear His Name From the Unjust Stain of Treason
When a Jewish French Army officer was publicly humiliated in a degradation ceremony, cries of “Judas” and “Kill the Jews” rained down upon him. In the crowd was Theodor Herzl...
Read moreLincoln's Birthday
In the film Lincoln, Lincoln's wearing gloves seem to be a symbol. These two letters explain that symbolism, and Lincoln's peculiar use of the phrase "In our hands"...
Read moreLincoln Declares He is Not a “Man of Great Learning, or a Very Extraordinary One...”
Presidents look to Lincoln as a model of virtue and dedication. This letter demonstrates that he saw himself as completely unexceptional; just a common man.
Read moreIt Was His Boyhood Reading, Truman Recalls, That Prepared Him for When His "Terrible Trial Came"
Harry Truman might well serve as poster boy for the idea that the habit of reading, lasts long, and yields unexpected consequences - both for the reader, and all around him.
Read moreMark Twain Lists His Favorite Books For Children - and Himself
The great American humorist Mark Twain was vitally interested in reading, and here lists these books - for young people - which he felt most likely would keep them at it.
Read moreThe Infamous "Jew Order" - the most sweeping anti-Jewish regulation in American history
New to bookstores this week is a landmark work about General Grant’s infamous 1862 Order No. 11.
Read moreHad Even a Tiny Jewish State Been Established in 1937, Ben-Gurion Laments, Millions of Jews Would Not Have Died in the Holocaust
What Ben-Gurion was referring to was the British Peel Commission which had proposed, in 1937, the partitioning of the Mandate into Jewish and Arab states...
Read morePresident William Howard Taft, Heartbroken at the Loss of His Military Aide on the Titanic, Writes An Emotional Eulogy
Shortly before midnight on the fourth day of its maiden voyage, the greatest ocean liner in the world, built to be unsinkable, hit an iceberg...
Read morePresidential Enmity: Taft on Roosevelt and Roosevelt on Wilson
The idea of a Presidents Club, wherein the spirit of Kumbaya prevails, is a new notion, as these spirited Presidential letters reveal...
Read moreLincoln's Famous Letter to Young Fanny McCullough About Death, Loss & Memory
“All that I am or hope ever to be,” Abraham Lincoln famously said, “I get from my mother – God bless her.”
Read moreTheodore Roosevelt, Horseman, Disparages the Motor Car
Despite standing tall for all that was new in the century, fabulously young and eminently modern President Theodore Roosevelt hated motor cars.
Read moreDoctor’s Report on Lincoln Assassination Discovered by Researcher
In this weeks’ coverage of the discovery at the National Archives of the report written by the first doctor to reach Lincoln after he was shot, an oversight was made...
Read moreRonald Reagan at the Berlin Wall
Ronald Reagan, standing in front of the Berlin Wall that divided Germany into free and communist sectors, spoke four words which would forever be identified with his legacy...
Read moreA Band of Brothers: Custer and the Little Bighorn
When General Custer’s Cavalry was decimated by 1,000 Plains warriors– no one knows exactly how - at the Battle of Little Bighorn, an entire field of historical endeavor rose up.
Read moreAt a Critical Moment Ben-Gurion Compares, Favorably, the Fledging IDF to Washington’s Revolutionary Army
Ben-Gurion, taking a moment to answer a letter about the “deficiencies” of the fledgling IDF, looked to American history to explain the moment...
Read moreCzolgosz, Calling Himself “Fred Nobody”, Mentions Buffalo - The Place He Will Murder the President
Wildly popular McKinley scoffed at precautions: “Who will attack me, I haven’t an enemy in the world?” This letter by his assassin tells the story of McKinley’s date with disaster.
Read moreSamuel Clemens Defines "Mark Twain"
Had the Civil War not interrupted Samuel Clemens' idyllic days as a Mississippi River boat pilot, it’s unlikely he ever would have lit out for the West – and become Mark Twain.
Read morePolk, Surprised To Be Nominated, Says That the Presidency is Too Important an Office To Be Sought or Declined
James Knox Polk did not seek the nomination but when chosen, he promised to serve only a single term. Why? The presidency, he believed, was above personal ambition...
Read moreVice President Roosevelt Wires for News…. And Predicts McKinley’s Recovery
McKinley's assassination shocked everyone. Here, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, though stunned, immediately wired for more information before rushing to the President’s side.
Read moreOn The Day He Suddenly Becomes President, Roosevelt Writes of His Heavy and Painful Task
When McKinley succumbed to an assassin’s bullet, his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, was shocked - and shocking: as one elder lamented, “'Now that damned cowboy is president.”
Read moreLincoln, in a Prelude to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Shadows Douglas Around the State
Lincoln in 1858, challenged Douglas "for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences." What came of their debates, is the story told Between the Lines here...
Read moreThomas Edison: “I am Busily Engaged on the Electric Light”
When visionary Steve Jobs died, he was repeatedly compared to one person: Thomas Edison. Here Edison writes about the work that lit up the world on the very day it was invented.
Read moreWyatt Earp: An Incredibly Rare Letter
The most famous gunfight in Western history was at the OK Corral, Tombstone. That epic shootout was the reason why Wyatt Earp, 40 years later, wrote this incredibly rare letter.
Read moreLincoln Asks Grant, Not As President But As a Friend, For a Favor: Find a Place For His Son, Robert, on His Staff
Spielberg's film Lincoln has opened, raising some questions. One is about the relationship of Lincoln to his son, Robert - which looks difficult and strained. But was it?
Read moreWeizmann Thanks Clark Clifford for His Help In Getting Truman to Support and Recognize Israel
With U.S. recognition of the Jewish state on the line, little-known White House aide Clark Clifford worked tirelessly behind-the-scenes to bring about the creation of Israel.
Read moreAn Extraordinary Orville Wright Letter: How Watching Birds Led to Manned Flight at Kitty Hawk
How the Wright brothers invented the first airplane is told in this incredible letter, but an even more fantastic tale emerges: their success came from watching birds…
Read moreLincoln Writes the head of the New England Anti-Slavery Society
When on New Year’s Day, 1863, Lincoln signed his Proclamation of Emancipation, he was sure that he had done the right thing. If slavery was not wrong, he said, nothing was wrong.
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