January 28
Between the Lines
33 years since the Challenger Disaster. Image: AP Photo/Bruce Weaver. Discover more on Day in History.Read More
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Also on This Day in History, January 28
January 28, 1986
Schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe Writes About Her Excitement Going into Space on the Ill-Fated Challenger.
On January 28, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 11:38 EST and, 73 seconds into its flight, exploded nine miles above the Atlantic Ocean. All seven crew members were killed, including 37 year-old McAuliffe, who had been selected from 11,000 applicants to be a “Teacher in Space.” Largely because of her presence, some 17% of Americans watched the live coverage of the launch.
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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