April 12
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Harry Truman letter written while Vice-President, but signed as President with "terrible responsibilities." Image: Harry Truman. Edmonston Studio. Library of Congress. Discover more on Day in History.
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Also on This Day in History, April 12
April 12, 1945
No one has ever taken history, or algebra, or Latin, and not at some point asked, querulously, “when am I ever going to need to use this?” The answer, according to Harry S. Truman, is when you are struck by lightning one day and wake up to find yourself president of the United States.
This Day In History Calendar
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January
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January 1
- 1700 Mourning And Black Edged Stationery
- 1700 When Vice Presidents Become President
- 1775 Primary Sources: Meaning, Reliability & Where To Find Them
- 1776 Halls (of Power) and Oaths
- 1780 Jewish Union Soldiers Who Fought In The American Civil War By Place Of Birth
- 1792 The Rivalry Between Napoleon and Britain’s Most Famous Admiral You’ve Never Heard Of
- 1798 Napoleon: The Original Fake News
- 1799 Napoleon in the Holy Land
- 1819 The Bicentennial of Herman Melville’s Birth
- 1829 The Dude President: Chester Arthur Accomplishments & Civil Rights
- 1836 Simon Wolf: Patriot, Activist, and Statesman
- 1839 A Radio Play Script: Cresson and the Dove, by Yaacov Shavit
- 1845 Map of Illinois, 1845
- 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, the Jews, and the American Civil War
- 1850 Abraham Lincoln and the Jews
- 1850 Medical Coverups and Non-Consecutive Terms: Grover Cleveland’s Secret Jaw Surgery
- 1850 Violence in the Capitol: The Caning of Charles Sumner
- 1852 Mark Twain and the Adams Colony
- 1857 Ida Tarbell’s Influence on Abraham Lincoln’s Legacy
- 1859 Enlistment Locations Of Jewish Soldiers Who Fought For the Union In The American Civil War
- 1859 Manuscripts Related To Jewish American Civil War Soldiers
- 1860 Religion in the Civil War: The Jewish High Holidays
- 1860 When Historic Figures Throw Shade
- 1860 Jewish Medal Of Honor Recipients From The Civil War
- 1860 The Most Common Surnames Of Jewish Civil War Soldiers In the Union
- 1860 By Regiment: Jewish Union Soldiers In The Civil War
- 1860 Unique Service Occupations: Jewish Union Soldiers In The American Civil War
- 1860 JewishGen & Shapell Roster Partnership For Jewish American Civil War Records Access
- 1860 Sir Charles Warren: Jerusalem, Jack the Ripper, And the Boer War
- 1861 International Man of Mystery — Colonel Frederick George d’Utassy
- 1861 1st Lieutenant Ferdinand Linz: Honoring His Contribution to Our Society
- 1861 Wyatt Earp & Josephine Marcus
- 1865 American Tourists in the Holy Land, 1865-1900
- 1865 John F. Kennedy and Service
- 1867 How Mark Twain Became Famous: Speak Your Truth
- 1882 Western Gambler “Ike” Isaacs’ Tombstone Gaming License Signed By Sheriff Johnny Behan
- 1887 Read Across America Day – Mark Twain Lists His Favorite Books For Children, and Himself
- 1892 Édouard Drumont, The Panama Affair, And French Antisemitism
- 1894 Camille Pissarro And The Dreyfus Affair
- 1908 The Wright Brothers: Biomimicry & the Birth of Aviation
- 1911 Theodore Roosevelt and the 1912 Election: What Happened & Why Did Roosevelt Run?
- 1912 Archibald Willingham Butt: Presidential Aide And Friend, Lost On The Titanic
- 1914 Herbert Hoover: Humanitarian Relief Administration and Jewish Communities Overseas
- 1916 T.E. Lawrence and Orde Wingate: British Soldiers in an Age of Middle Eastern Revolt
- 1918 The 1918 Flu Pandemic, Pres. Woodrow Wilson, and the Paris Peace Conference
- 1920 The Centennial of the Women’s Right to Vote: The Presidential Election of 1920
- 1925 Hebrew University and the Zionist Dream
- 1934 Jewish Literacy and the Attempt to Romanize Hebrew
- 1940 Franklin Roosevelt and the End of American Isolationism
- 1953 Truman-Acheson Correspondence: Primary Source Post-Presidential Letters
- 1980 Jimmy Carter, 39th US President
- 2018 Dankmar Adler: Courage, Architecture, and the American Dream
- 2018 Brother Against Brother: Abraham Jonas’s Sons
- 2018 Lost in Hebrew Translations
- 2018 Hiding in Plain Sight – Why Some Jewish American Soldiers Served Under an Alias
- 2018 Lincoln Reunites Immigrant Son with His Family
- 2019 August Bondi, Jewish Soldier and Fighter for Freedom
- 2020 Shapell Roster Contributor, Richard Kane of Wisconsin
- 2020 My Three Soldiers: Eliza Heilbrun’s Quest for a Pension
- 2020 Only 15-Years-Old and Anchors Aweigh: Lee Rothschild’s Escape Into the US Navy
- 2020 Little Phil: the Unseen Heroism and Struggles of a Civil War Soldier
- 2021 VIDEO: History Lessons – Working with Original Manuscripts in the Contemporary Classroom
- 2022 Field Trip: Research On Site At Jewish Cemeteries With The Shapell Roster Research Team
- 2022 President Hayes’s Lifelong Friendship With a Jewish Soldier
- 2022 Edmund Louis Gray Zalinski: Soldier, Scholar, Inventor
- 2022 Memorial Day 2022
- 2022 A New Book By Adam D. Mendelsohn – “Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army”
- 2022 Video Series: Introduction and Overview – The Shapell Roster of Jewish Service in the American Civil War
- 2022 Video Series: Soldier-Sailor Page, Part I – Overview and Military Service Section
- 2022 Video Series: Soldier-Sailor Page, Part II – Documentation and Sources Section
- 2022 Marcus Spiegel: From Conservative Democrat to “Strong Abolitionist”
- 2022 VIDEO: In Discussion with Professors Deborah Dash Moore and Adam D. Mendelsohn – Discoveries from the Shapell Roster
- 2024 William Jennings Bryan vs. William McKinley: Competing American Myths
- 2024 The Press vs. Theodore Roosevelt
- 2024 Refugees, Immigrants & U.S. Immigration Policy
- 2024 Truman-Acheson Friendship: Foreign Policy & Post-Presidency
- 2024 Theodor Herzl vs Isaac Mayer Wise: Opposing Ideas of Jewish Self-Determination
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January 5
- 1892 William McKinley Invites Old Friend to Go with Him to His Gubernatorial Inauguration: “Don’t fail me.”
- 1895 The Alfred Dreyfus Degradation Ceremony – Paris, France
- 1909 Mark Twain Excoriates Theodore Roosevelt as a Butcher, a Ruffian and a Bully
- 1984 President Ronald Reagan on Challenges: “The Best Days Are Always the Ones that Lie Ahead.”
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January 8
- 1864 Abraham Lincoln Carte-de-Visite Photo By Mathew Brady of Which Lincoln Said “I Look Most Like That One”
- 1864 Abraham Lincoln Signed Photo: The “Solitary Pine Pose,” From the January 8, 1864 Sitting
- 1865 Lincoln Interjects Himself Into a Case of Two Jewish Merchants Charged With Selling Goods to Blockaders
- 1868 Mark Twain on His Book “Innocents Abroad;” His Lectures, and Awful Photos of Him
- 1904 An Early and Rare Account by Orville Wright of the First Flight at Kitty Hawk
- 1956 Ben-Gurion: Had a Jewish State Been Established in 1937, Millions of Jews Would Not Have Died in the Holocaust
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January 9
- 1845 President-Elect James K. Polk Anxiously Queries His Tailor About New Clothes for His Inauguration
- 1898 Olivia Clemens Quotes “Mr. Clemens” – Mark Twain – About a Phrase in “Following the Equator”
- 1922 A Very Rare President Warren G. Harding Signed Check
- 1953 President Harry Truman Says “It Will Be a Relief to Get Out of Washington” At the End of His Term
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January 13
- 1743 Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday: JFK on Jefferson
- 1910 Alfred Dreyfus Writes to Emile Zola’s Widow to Commemorate the Anniversary of the Publication of “J’Accuse”
- 1919 The 100th Commemoration of the Death of Theodore Roosevelt
- 1955 At the End of His Life, Albert Einstein Writes Check to His Beloved Hebrew University
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January 14
- 1864 Abraham Lincoln Recommends a Franklin Pierce White House Appointee to General Benjamin Butler
- 1895 From Prison, a Defiant Alfred Dreyfus Writes to his Family Swearing to Clear His Name
- 1932 Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Tells Emanuel Hertz He Will Always Try to Justify His Good Opinion
- 1933 President Herbert Hoover and Antisemitic Violence Against Jews in Poland, 1933
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January 19
- 1865 Lincoln Asks Grant, Not As President But As a Friend, For a Favor: Find a Place For His Son, Robert, on His Staff
- 1865 Lincoln Asks General Grant as a Friend, for a Favor: Find a Place for His Son, Robert, on His Staff
- 1897 Mourning Daughter Susy, Mark Twain Describes His Family Life as Adrift, Indifferent, and Derelict
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January 22
- 1885 Herman Melville “Disinters,” a Rare Copy of “Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land” to Send it to an Admirer
- 1898 President William McKinley’s Appointment of the Antisemitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem
- 1959 Harry Truman, From His Place of “Terrible Responsibility,” Analyzes the Press
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January 23
- 1886 President Cleveland Supports Washington’s Leading Jewish Charitable Organization’s “Israelites Fair” – An Affair Headed by Simon Wolf
- 1936 Einstein: “Jewish Smarts Serve One Well”
- 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt Adjudicates an Intergovernmental Turf War
- 1941 Chaim Weizmann to Lorna Wingate on the Jewish Brigade: “There is No Shortcut to Jerusalem”
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January 31
- 1868 Twain Asks His Young “Quaker City” Shipmate & Favorite, Emma Beach, For Help With His Articles About the Voyage
- 1967 The Anniversary of the Funeral of the Apollo I Astronauts
- 1967 Lyndon B. Johnson on the Death of an Astronaut in the Apollo I Fire
- 1967 Lyndon B. Johnson Writes to the Parents of Astronaut Gus Grissom, Killed in the Apollo I Fire
February
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February 3
- 1887 Mark Twain, on the Heroic Writing, and Fantastic Success, of Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs
- 1913 Edith Roosevelt on Her Husband’s Recovery from an Assassination Attempt and the Bullet Left Inside Him
- 1975 Six Months After His Resignation, a Rare Richard Nixon Comment on Watergate: He Took One for the Team
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February 4
- 1837 President Andrew Jackson’s Big Cheese Tasting
- 1861 John Tyler, as President of the 1861 Washington Peace Convention, Certifies a Vermont Delegate
- 1861 John Tyler, as President of the 1861 Washington Peace Convention, Certifies a Delegate From Massachusetts
- 1874 Mark Twain Mourns an “Innocents Abroad” Companion
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February 9
- 1864 Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential Photo Used To Create The Lincoln Penny In 1909
- 1865 Booth Plans Ahead
- 1865 John Wilkes Booth Letter, Written Eight Weeks Before Lincoln’s Assassination, Mentions Ford’s Theatre
- 1895 “Truth,” Mark Twain Instructs, “Is the Most Precious Thing We Have. Economise It.”
- 1948 Palestine, Truman Says, is a “Matter of Considerable Disturbance” to be Determined by U.N.
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February 20
- 1851 A Handsome Autograph Sentiment from Millard Fillmore as President
- 1857 James Buchanan, Ill With Dysentry Before His Inauguration, Declines Jefferson Davis’s Invitation to Dine
- 1865 Abraham Lincoln’s Check to His Son, Robert Lincoln, to Equip Him For Service Under Grant
- 1893 Grover Cleveland Worries He Cannot Bring His Baby Into Recently Quarantined White House After His Inauguration
- 1923 President Warren G. Harding Acclaims Abraham Lincoln the Apogee of the Golden Age of American Statesmanship
- 1949 Chaim Weizmann Thanks Clark Clifford for His Help In Getting President Truman to Recognize Israel
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February 25
- 1847 Abraham Lincoln Arranges for the Anonymous Publication of His Famous Poem “My Childhood Home I See Again”
- 1888 30-Year-Old Theodore Roosevelt Declares His Affinity for the West, and His Identification with its Heroes
- 1901 Herzl Directs U.S. Zionists to Force McKinley to Protest Turkish Discrimination of Jews in Palestine
- 1914 Woodrow Wilson Explains That He Wouldn’t, and Couldn’t, Pardon Atlantic City Boss Kuehnle
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March
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March 3
- 1820 The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: States’ Rights and Slavery
- 1825 On His Last Day In Office, James Monroe Writes His Bank, Trying To Make Sense Of His Account
- 1853 On His Last Day in Office, the Bibliophilic Millard Fillmore Sends Thanks for a Book
- 1862 Millard Fillmore on Civil War: Abolitionists Pervert Cause and Lincoln Tempts Tyranny
- 1864 In Refusing a Parole, Lincoln Notes That Federal Prisoners Are Being “Frozen and Starved” in Libby Prison
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March 4
- 1849 President for a Day
- 1861 Abraham Lincoln’s Inaugural Ball , 1861: Invitation Printed By, and Naming as a Ball Manager, Adolphus S. Solomons
- 1865 Lincoln’s Last Days
- 1865 At the behest of President Lincoln, General Grant Decline’s Lee’s Suggestion of Armistice Negotiations
- 1865 Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address “With Malice Toward None” Original Autographed Quote
- 1865 Both Parties Deprecated War: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address Quote, In Autograph
- 1942 Roosevelt Advises Scapegoated Woodring On How To Handle Negative Press Following Pearl Harbor
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March 6
- 1845 Martin van Buren, Just Two Days Into James K. Polk’s Term, Prepares to Write His Political Antagonist
- 1861 Young Benjamin Harrison Writes President Lincoln About “Spoils” Due Indiana
- 1881 Former President Rutherford Hayes Expresses Satisfaction with Himself, His Successor, and John Sherman
- 1899 Beset By an Ally-Turned-Detractor, Theodor Herzl Says It’s a “Miracle” He Hasn’t Become an Antisemite
- 2016 The Death and Funeral of Nancy Reagan
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March 9
- 1854 President Franklin Pierce Warmly Endorses the Kansas-Nebraska Act as “Demonstrably Right and Patriotic”
- 1864 Jewish Confederate Hero Alexander Hart Grants Leave to Officers During a Brief Lull in the Civil War
- 1878 Ulysses S. Grant Comments on the Refugees Who Have Fled to Constantinople
- 1889 One of Benjamin Harrison’s First Personal Checks as President
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March 13
- 1862 Jewish Officer Ferdinand Levy Recruits a Soldier into the Famed Les Enfants Perdu Regiment
- 1864 Abraham Lincoln Suggests Suffrage for Some Louisiana Blacks: The “Very Intelligent” and Union Veterans
- 1944 Praising the United Jewish Appeal, FDR Mentions Suffering Brought on by the Nazis
- 1962 President John F. Kennedy Recalls Happy Palm Beach Memories With an Old Irish Friend
- 1978 President Gerald Ford Writes About His Admiration of Abraham Lincoln
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March 24
- 1862 Former President Franklin Pierce Defends Himself Against Treason Charges Brought by William H. Seward
- 1913 Abraham Lincoln Biographer Ida Tarbell Praises Isaac Markens’s “Abraham Lincoln and the Jews”
- 1944 The 75th Commemoration of the Death of Orde Wingate
- 1945 Hiding Two Deadly Illnesses, Franklin D. Roosevelt Dreams of a World Organization for Peace: The UN
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April
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April 4
- 1835 The Mortal Presidency
- 1841 John Tyler Becomes the First Vice President to Assume the Presidency
- 1841 William Henry Harrison’s Secretary Announces Harrison’s Impending Death
- 1889 The First Presidential Typed Letter
- 1889 Benjamin Harrison: The Earliest Known Example of a Typewritten Presidential Letter
- 1948 Young John F. Kennedy Condemns Harry Truman’s Reversal to Support the Partition of Palestine
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April 9
- 1854 Franklin Pierce on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and the Prelude to Civil War
- 1865 As Lee Surrenders, Abraham Lincoln Happily Grants a Favor to the Captain of the Riverboat Queen
- 1876 Just Weeks Before Little Bighorn, Custer Invites Robert Barnwell Roosevelt to Join Him in the “Great West”
- 1912 Major Archibald Butt, Military Aide to Roosevelt and Taft, Writes the Day Before Boarding the Titanic
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April 10
- 1846 James Buchanan Teasingly Laments His “Usual Hard Fate” With Ladies
- 1848 Abraham Lincoln Explains Why He Supports Zachary Taylor For President in 1848: Political Pragmatism
- 1886 Mark Twain on Ralph Waldo Emerson: His Grammar is Like Gravel in Bread
- 1914 “Big Bill” Taft, Happily Golfing, Relates His Post-Presidential Loss of Eighty Pounds
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April 11
- 1865 Three Days Before He is Assassinated, Abraham Lincoln Orders the Discharge of a Sickly Boy from the Army
- 1882 President James Garfield’s Assassin, Charles Guiteau, Convicted and in Jail, Declares He is Not a Lunatic
- 1912 Titanic Postcard: Rare Postcard From the Titanic – Sent at Beginning of Voyage; Ship “A Peach,” In NY “Next Tuesday”
- 1927 Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Lists Favorite Parts from “A Book of Jewish Thought”
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April 12
- 1922 John Martin, the Last Known Soldier to See Custer Alive, Reasserts His Being Tasked With Delivering Custer’s Desperate Last Message to Benteen
- 1945 Read Across America Day: It Was His Boyhood Reading, Truman Recalls, That Prepared Him for When His “Terrible Trial Came”
- 1945 Harry Truman Letter Written as Vice-President But Signed as President with “Terrible Responsibilities”
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April 14
- 1865 The Jewish Doctor at Lincoln’s Deathbed
- 1865 Lincoln Assassination at Ford’s Theatre: First Responder Reports
- 1865 The Anniversary of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
- 1865 The Night of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
- 1865 Unused Ticket for Ford’s Theatre April 14, 1865 – The Night Lincoln Was Assassinated There
- 1865 The Day He Dies, Lincoln Writes a Pass to Richmond for Wife of the Doctor Who Would Attend His Death-Bed
- 1865 A Millard Fillmore Letter Written on the Day of President Lincoln’s Assassination
- 1865 Gideon Welles is Summoned to Abraham Lincoln’s Last, and Prophetic, Cabinet Meeting
- 1951 Shortly After Firing General MacArthur, President Truman Writes of His “Trials and Tribulations”
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April 15
- 1865 Rutherford B. Hayes Responds to Lincoln’s Assassination: Now He is “The Darling of History”
- 1865 Abraham Lincoln’s Final Hours, Death, and Autopsy Report Documented by Dr. Robert Stone
- 1912 The Sinking of the RMS Titanic
- 1945 Eisenhower’s Trip to Ohrdruf Concentration Camp: “I Never Dreamed… It Was Horrible.”
- 1948 A Rueful Harry Truman on the 3rd Anniversary of his Presidency: “I don’t know whether I need congratulations or commiseration”
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April 18
- 1846 Abraham Lincoln Poem “My Childhood Home I See Again”
- 1846 Lincoln on the Early Deaths Of His Mother and Sister, as Expressed in His Elegiac Poem: “My Childhood Home I See Again”
- 1860 Pierce Defends the Democratic Party as Non-Sectional, Wonders About the Outcome of the 1860 Election
- 1906 The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
- 1906 Secretary of War William H. Taft Reports That San Francisco is Almost Destroyed in the Earthquake
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April 19
- 1799 Napoleon’s Siege of Acre
- 1861 “Honest Abe” Lincoln, Annoyed About an Unpaid Bill, Orders It Paid – On the Day He Effectively Declares War
- 1865 Pass to President Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral in the East Room of the Executive Mansion
- 1912 President Taft’s Eulogy for his Aide, Archibald Butt, Who Went Down with the Titanic Just Days Before
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April 20
- 1863 Lincoln Card: “Submitted to the Sec. of War”
- 1865 A Union Officer in the Field Describes the Reaction to News of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
- 1876 “Hoping That God Will Spare Me,” William A. Losee Writes From Fort Lincoln, “We Expect Trouble… So Farewell All… My Eyes Are Dim With Tears”
- 1967 Reagan, Arguing for Capital Punishment, Discusses the Rabbinic Interpretation of the Sixth Commandment
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April 30
- 1876 Just Two Months Before Little Bighorn, Custer, Briefly In Washington, Rushes to Return West Due to “Serious Indian Difficulties”
- 1893 Dr. Cyrus Adler Lectures in 1893 On His Presidentially-Mandated Tour of the Levant
- 1894 Mark Twain on the French: No Humor, No Depth, No Compass, No Balance, No…
- 1906 Mark Twain on the San Francisco Earthquake and a Picture He Cannot Get Out of His Mind
- 1945 Harry Truman Writes General Hap Arnold About FDR’s Death, Two and a Half Weeks Before, as “The Greatest Blow”
May
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May 8
- 1842 President John Tyler Says the Presidency is a Prison
- 1847 James K. Polk Gives Orders for a Fireproof Celebration for the Battle of Cerro Gordo in Washington
- 1851 President Fillmore Arranges to Attend Opening of the Railroad Line from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes
- 1863 “Doomed to the Gallows” By Public Opinion, James Buchanan Says History Will Vindicate Him
- 1878 A Little Bighorn Survivor – Private John Reed – Reports What an Indian Chief Told Him: Reno Was a Coward But Custer Brave & The Last to Die
- 1945 Victory in Europe Day
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May 16
- 1862 Contemporary Copy of Chase’s Letter to Abraham Lincoln in Support of General Hunter’s Emancipation Order
- 1864 Abraham Lincoln Appoints Henry Ernest Goodman as Surgeon of Civil War Union Volunteer Army
- 1961 John F. Kennedy: National Security and Future of the Space Program Depend on Ending Labor Strife Delays
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May 19
- 1863 Millard Fillmore Asks Lincoln for a Favor; On the Back of the Letter, Lincoln Takes Steps to Oblige Him
- 1864 The Death of Nathaniel Hawthorne
- 1864 Franklin Pierce Describes Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Last Night Alive on Their Trip to New England
- 1905 Theodore Roosevelt Inscribes Photo of His 1905 Inaugural Address With His Keystone “Square Deal” Credo
- 1934 Chaim N. Bialik on the Jewish Persecutions in the Diaspora and the Determination to Make a Home in Zion
- 1944 Rare, Seemingly Singular Evidence, That John F. Kennedy Knew How to Fly: His 1944 Flight Logbook
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May 23
- 1881 James A. Garfield’s Appointment of the Anti-Semitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem
- 1886 Grover Cleveland, the Only President to Be Married in the White House, Writes His Bride About Wedding
- 1890 President Benjamin Harrison Appoints a Commissioner for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago
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May 29
- 1797 Presidents’ Day: Newly Retired George Washington’s Daily Routine
- 1797 George Washington Describes His Daily Routine At Mount Vernon After 8 Years Of Neglect During His Presidency
- 1844 Dark Horse Candidate James K. Polk Receives the Democratic Nomination
- 1871 Governor Hayes, Five Years Away From the Presidency, Tells His Jewish Confidant that He is Quitting Public Life Forever
- 1873 President Grant Stays an Execution of African-American Who Murdered a Jewish Peddler
- 1917 The John F. Kennedy Centenary
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June
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June 1
- Thomas Cook, Holy Land Tourism Pioneer, Receives Testimonial
- 1838 American Travelers to the Holy Land in the 19th Century
- 1849 Campaigning for General Land Office Commissioner, Lincoln Asks Congressman to Write to “Old Zach” About Him
- 1865 Father’s Day
- 1867 Map of Mark Twain’s “Great Pleasure Excursion” to Europe and the Holy Land
- 1908 Father’s Day: Mark Twain to Daughter, Jean
- 1912 Presidential Enmity and Amity
- 1963 Kennedy on His Ireland Trip: “Couldn’t Have Been Better. We Loved It”
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June 5
- 1901 McKinley’s Last Tour: Cortelyou Thanks the Mayor of San Francisco for His Help
- 1962 President John F. Kennedy Polishes a Letter Declining to Write a Book on Thomas Jefferson
- 1962 President John F. Kennedy Says He’s Tempted to Write About Thomas Jefferson but His Current Job Takes Up All His Time
- 1967 The Anniversary of the Six-Day War
- 1968 The Assassination & Funeral of Robert F. Kennedy
- 1968 Ronald Reagan Offers Ethel Kennedy His Help as Robert F. Kennedy, Shot in Los Angeles, Lay Dying
- 2004 The Death of Ronald Reagan
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June 12
- 1861 Abraham Lincoln Appoints the Arabist Edward Joy Morris as Minister Resident to Turkey
- 1878 Young Congressman McKinley Regrets He is Unable to Attend Wedding of Simon Wolf’s Daughter: Mrs. McKinley Is Ill
- 1963 JFK’s Drafted Letter to Medgar Evers’ Widow, Myrlie, on Evers’ Assassination
- 1987 Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” Speech
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June 19
- 1903 Theodore Roosevelt Praises Jewish leader Simon Wolf, During the Kishinev Pogrom Crisis, “As Good an American Citizen as is to be Found”
- 1908 Mark Twain On His House “Innocence At Home,” President Grover Cleveland, and God
- 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt Fires His Isolationist Secretary of War During WWII
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June 20
- 1923 President Warren G. Harding: Possibly the Last Letter He Wrote from the White House
- 1937 Chaim Weizmann Analyzes British Partition Plans and Prerequisites for Statehood; Blasts American Jewry
- 1940 President Roosevelt Accepts With “Regret” Secretary Of War Woodring’s Resignation
- 1940 Secretary of War Woodring’s Handwritten Draft of His Controversial Resignation Letter to FDR
- 1940 FDR Assures Fired, and Fired Up, Isolationist Secretary of War: No War Unless Monroe Doctrine is Breached
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June 21
- 1865 Rabbi Sabato Morais Sends His Synagogue’s Contribution to the Lincoln Monument
- 1876 Four Days Before Little Bighorn: Riding With Custer, Lt. Reily Describes “Pretty Hard Times” & Expects “A Fight Inside of Four Days if We Have Any”
- 1915 Theodore Roosevelt’s Damning Charge: Wilson’s Weakness Made the Sinking of the Lusitania Possible
- 1915 Theodore Roosevelt on the sinking of the Lusitania
- 1984 President Ronald Reagan Defends George Custer Against Charges of Negligence at Little Bighorn
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June 25
- 1864 Rare Signed Copy of Lincoln’s Jewish Chiropodist and Spy, Dr. Issachar Zacharie’s Book
- 1876 Custer’s Last Stand – June 25, 1876
- 1876 The Battle of the Little Bighorn
- 1876 Marked “To Be Returned. Killed in the Battle on the Little Big Horn” – Envelope Addressed to Pvt. Hiley, a Scot Noble Fighting Under an Assumed Name
- 1876 Marching Toward Little Bighorn: What Custer and a Soldier Each Thought Lay Ahead
- 1901 Thedore Herzl Considers an American Lecture Tour
- 1940 Roosevelt Responds To Woodring Amidst The Intense Congressional Interest In Woodring’s Resignation
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July
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July 1
- 1863 The Battle of Gettysburg
- 1875 General Custer Signs Off on the Tobacco Allotment for Enlisted Men Who Died With Him at Little Bighorn
- 1880 James A. Garfield Writes: a “Streak of Sadness” in his Presidential Nomination
- 1893 The Birth of a Precedent: Cleveland’s Great Deception, His Secret Cancer Surgery
- 1894 Grover Cleveland Celebrates a Great Deception: The One Year Anniversary of His Secret Cancer Surgery
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July 2
- 1860 Abraham Lincoln in 1860: “Just Now, The Skies Look Bright. What Clouds May Hereafter Rise, We Know Not.”
- 1881 The Garfield Assassination
- 1890 President Rutherford B. Hayes Quotes Abraham Lincoln on Equal Opportunities for All
- 1912 Theodore Roosevelt on the “Treacherous Injustice at Chicago” and His New Bull Moose Party
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July 7
- 1857 Custer is Informed of His Acceptance to West Point, and Wished Health, Happiness, & Success in This Life
- 1863 Abraham Lincoln’s Order That Sparked the New York City Draft Riots of 1863
- 1865 Lincoln Assassination Conspirator Mary Surratt Becomes the First Woman Executed by the Federal Government
- 1924 Calvin Coolidge Jr.’s Death
- 1930 Einstein on the Proposal to Create a Jewish Homeland in Peru
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July 19
- 1829 President Andrew Jackson Writes of His Loneliness in the White House
- 1898 Theodore Roosevelt Decries the Deprivations Suffered by His Rough Riders After Battle of San Juan Hill
- 1919 Woodrow Wilson Lobbies for Ratification of the Treaty of Versailles – A Matter of Gravest Consequence
- 1950 A Historic Memo: Harry Truman Salutes Dean Acheson’s Crucial Role in Going to War With Korea
- 1967 David Ben-Gurion on the Pioneer Generations and the Need for U.S. Immigration
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August
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August 1
- 1828 John Quincy Adams Writes About John Adams
- 1861 A Fateful Appointment: Abraham Lincoln Makes William T. Sherman a General
- 1881 A Look at Presidential Vacations
- 1885 President Cleveland Love Letter to his Young Bride-to-Be
- 2022 International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Conference
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August 4
- 1882 Simon Wolf Writes President Arthur About Getting His Old Job Back, as Justice of the Peace
- 1904 Chaim Weizmann on the Assassination of Russian Pogrom Organizer Plehve: A Pity He Didn’t Die Years Ago
- 1967 Ronald Reagan Describes Himself as a “Crier of Doom”– And Claims Not to Aspire To the Presidency
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August 14
- 1861 Samuel Clemens – Mark Twain – Arrives in Nevada
- 1868 Ulysses S. Grant Tries to Lose the Anti-Semite Label Engendered to Him by His Infamous “Jew Order”
- 1883 General Charles “Chinese” Gordon Discusses His Discovery of “Calvary in Jerusalem”
- 1918 Theodore Roosevelt Bitterly Regrets Being Forced to Sit Through WWI At Home “In Comfort and Safety”
- 1963 President John F. Kennedy on the Death of His Infant Son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy
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August 19
- Herbert Hoover Describes Himself “Once of Washington D.C. Now Fortunately Elsewhere”
- 1875 Custer On Life at Extreme Edge of Frontier: “Hostile Indians Roam Over the Country West North & South of Us for Hundreds of Miles”
- 1922 T.E. Lawrence on Palestine: No One Trusts the British for More Than Two Minutes
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August 22
- 1901 Document Signed by President William McKinley Close to His Assassination
- 1902 Theodore Roosevelt: the First President to Ride in an Automobile
- 1921 President Warren G. Harding’s Love Letters: Released by the Library of Congress
- 1968 Reagan Promises To Work for Foe Nixon in ’68 : “We Haven’t Too Many More Chances in This Land of Ours”
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August 29
- 1861 Robert E. Lee’s Famous Letter Declining to Furlough, As a Rule, Jewish Confederate Troops for the High Holidays
- 1863 The Executions at Beverly Ford
- 1863 Account of Execution of Deserters at Beverly Ford Mentions Rabbi Praying With One of the Condemned Men
- 1897 The Anniversary of the First Zionist Congress
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September
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September 7
- 1853 President Franklin Pierce Sets in Motion the Recall of the American Minister Resident in Turkey
- 1867 Joshua Chamberlain and William Seward Assist the Jaffa-Adams Colonists in 1867
- 1901 Extraordinary Eyewitness Account of the Assassination of President McKinley-Dated One Day After
- 1917 T.E. Lawrence Wants to “Clear Up” The “Jewish Section” of Palestine in 1917
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September 14
- 1901 The Death of McKinley and the Presidency of Roosevelt
- 1901 On the Day of President McKinley’s Death, Asst. Secretary of State Cridler Writes of His Horror and Fury
- 1901 Newly Sworn-in Theodore Roosevelt Reacts with Foreboding: a Heavy and Painful Task Has Fallen Upon Him
- 1951 Frank Lloyd Wright on “Rampant” Hitlerism and Stalinism
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September 27
- 1852 Candidate Franklin Pierce Writes About Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Campaign Biography of Him
- 1861 Buchanan Approves Abraham Lincoln’s Ordering Fremont to Rescind His Emancipation Proclamation
- 1901 First Lady Edith Roosevelt, Two Weeks After McKinley’s Death: “Life Does Not Seem Very Simple Just Now”
- 1907 Theodore Roosevelt Writes “Bully For You”
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October
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October 12
- 1840 Edward Robinson Writes to His Publisher to Inquire About His “Biblical Researches in Palestine”
- 1860 Abraham Lincoln: “The Government is About to Fall Into Our Hands”
- 1938 Carl Sandburg: Walt Whitman “Strolls In and Out of the Pages Regularly” of His Lincoln Biography
- 1962 Former President Harry Truman on President John F. Kennedy’s Handling of Racial Violence and the Cuban Missile Crisis
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October 13
- 1860 On the Eve of Rebellion, Pierce Still Defends the Kansas-Nebraska Act
- 1860 Abraham Lincoln Declares He is Not a “Man of Great Learning, or a Very Extraordinary one in Any Respect”
- 1929 Benjamin Cardozo Expresses His “Sure Interest” In Essays Written About Lincoln
- 1961 President Kennedy Sends General Maxwell Taylor to South Vietnam to Appraise the Situation
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October 29
- 1854 Abraham Lincoln: He’ll Speak Where it will do Good – Not as a Compliment to Himself
- 1856 Millard Fillmore, Looks Forward, With Relief, To the End of the 1856 Election
- 1881 President Arthur Appoints Simon Wolf, the Foremost American Jewish Activist of the 19th Century, to the Ambassadorship of Egypt
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October 31
- 1881 The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: Shootout & Aftermath
- 1898 Theodor Herzl Sends Postcard From Jerusalem to Menachem Ussishkin Ahead of Meeting With Kaiser Wilhelm
- 1912 Taft, Running for President Against Theodore Roosevelt, Calls Him a “General Menace” To the Country
- 1917 The Anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba
November
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November 4
- 1856 1856 Poll Book Certifying Abraham Jonas, Lincoln’s Intimate Jewish Friend, an Elector
- 1862 “We Have Not Yet Appointed a Hebrew”
- 1862 Abraham Lincoln, Noting “We Have Not Yet Appointed a Hebrew,” Names C.M. Levy an Assistant Quartermaster
- 1888 Mark Twain to French Jewish Writer Marcel Schwob: “I Do Commit Crimes, But They Are Not of This Grade”
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November 10
- 1860 “All is Over and Lincoln Elected,” John Tyler Writes, “As Confidence Between Man and Man is Giving Way”
- 1880 Vice President-Elect Chester A. Arthur Accepts Congratulations on Winning His First and Last Election
- 1896 Theodore Herzl Admits to Exhaustion But Swears to Continue “The Great Campaign…As Long as I am Able”
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November 16
- 1858 And This Too Shall Pass Away
- 1858 Abraham Lincoln Comforts His Campaign Manager After Losing the Senate Race: “And This Too Shall Pass”
- 1880 James Garfield on Assassination: “It Can No More Be Guarded Against Than Death By Lightning”
- 1880 President-Elect Garfield Turns Down a Loan to Tide Him Over Until Assuming the Presidency
- 1899 McKinley is Comforted to Learn That His Gravely-Ill Vice President is Improving – 5 Days Before Hobart Dies
- 1906 Theodore Roosevelt Writes From “The Canal Zone” to Panama’s President Amador
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November 19
- 1881 Lucretia Garfield On How Her Husband’s Portents at Chicago Convention Foreshadowed His “Fateful Ending”
- 1919 Former President William Howard Taft Rejoices in Averting Another Run: “I Have Served My Time”
- 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt, as President-Elect, Recognizes the “Grave Responsibility” He is About to Undertake
- 1935 Josephine Earp, Wyatt Earp’s Jewish Widow, Admits Her Destitution to Earp’s Biographer
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November 22
- 1963 The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- 1963 A Photo Taken on the Day of His Death: President Kennedy, Flanked by Vice-President Johnson, Gives a Speech in the Rain
- 1963 Invitation to Texas Breakfast With John F. Kennedy on the Day of His Assassination
- 1963 Rare Ticket to “Texas Welcome Dinner” for President Kennedy, November 22, 1963, at 7:30 PM
- 1963 A Last Thing Signed: John F. Kennedy Autographs a Dallas Newspaper on the Morning of His Murder There
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December
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December 4
- 1827 Excessively Rare Presidential Check Signed by Zachary Taylor
- 1901 Former First Lady Frances Cleveland Reports Ailing Grover Cleveland is “Breaking Up Generally”
- 1909 Max Nordau Exchanges Photos, in English, With an Admirer
- 1919 Extraordinary Orville Wright Letter Discussing the Birth of Manned Flight at Kitty Hawk
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December 12
- 1868 Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon: Twain Writes Ecstatically On The Pursuit Of His Future Wife
- 1874 General Custer Gives an Order to His Loyal Adjutant Cooke, Who Would Die Next to Him at Little Bighorn
- 1928 1861 Col. Max Friedman Cameroon Dragoons Patriotic Cover
- 2022 Live Event: Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War Book Launch & Panel Discussion
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December 13
- 1862 Lincoln Directs His “Loyal and Sensible” Jewish Friend, Abraham Jonas to Review a Case of Disloyalty
- 1867 Mark Twain Discovers His Newfound Celebrity Status Upon his Return from His “Quaker City” Voyage
- 1878 An Autograph Innovation: President Rutherford B. Hayes Signs an Executive Mansion Card
- 1885 About to Marry, President Grover Cleveland Longs to Live Away from the White House “Like Other People”
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December 20
- 1860 “The Union is Dissolved!”
- 1860 “Union is Dissolved!” – South Carolina Secession Ordinance Poster
- 1863 Lincoln Swears to Uphold the Emancipation Proclamation
- 1863 Abraham Lincoln Swears That He Shall Not Retract or Modify the Emancipation Proclamation
- 1865 Robert E. Lee, Charmingly, and Piously, Responds to a Young Girl’s Gift of Socks in 1865
- 1962 Harry Truman Refers to Himself as an “Old Man Who – By Accident Became President of the United States”
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