Discover the global events and personal stories of July

The Birth of a Precedent: Cleveland’s Great Deception, His Secret Cancer Surgery

The public’s right to know versus a President’s responsibility to protect. Just when, exactly, is secrecy warranted?

General Custer Signs Off on the Tobacco Allotment for Enlisted Men Who Died With Him at Little Bighorn

James A. Garfield Writes: a “Streak of Sadness” in his Presidential Nomination

Grover Cleveland Celebrates a Great Deception: The One Year Anniversary of His Secret Cancer Surgery

The Battle of Gettysburg

170,000 men fought for three days, often hand-to-hand, in encounters so epic they are known by name.

President Rutherford B. Hayes Quotes Abraham Lincoln on Equal Opportunities for All

The Garfield Assassination

The assassin Charles Guiteau fired, twice, into his back. “My God!” the President cried, “What is this?”

Theodore Roosevelt on the “Treacherous Injustice at Chicago” and His New Bull Moose Party

Abraham Lincoln in 1860: “Just Now, The Skies Look Bright. What Clouds May Hereafter Rise, We Know Not.”

An Eerie Prescience: James Garfield Finds a “Streak of Sadness” in His Nomination as President

Dark-Horse James K. Polk Expresses Surprise at His “Wholly Unexpected” Nomination

Letter From Gettysburg Battlefield, July 4th, 1863: Union Soldier Hopes “This Battle Will End the War”

The United States of America’s Independence Day: A Surprising Parallel 180 Years Later

In 1956, Israel’s Prime Minister looks to George Washington’s army for inspiration.

Harry Truman Seeks to Protect His Legacy

Union Soldier After Gettysburg: “We Will Whip Lee’s Army So That He Will Not be Fit to Do Anything More”

Woodrow Wilson on the Emotional Impact WWI Has Had on Him – Which Led to His Devastating Stroke

Calvin Coolidge Jr.’s Death

A heart-broken president mourns his teenage son.

Lincoln Assassination Conspirator Mary Surratt Becomes the First Woman Executed by the Federal Government

Mary Surratt’s daughter petitions Andrew Johnson for the return of her mother’s remains.

Einstein on the Proposal to Create a Jewish Homeland in Peru

Abraham Lincoln’s Order That Sparked the New York City Draft Riots of 1863

After His “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” Speech, JFK Thanks the Overseas Military for Making His Visit a Success

President John F. Kennedy On His Historic Trip to Ireland: “It Couldn’t Have Been Better. We Loved It.”

Fresh From His Capture of Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant Reports From Gettysburg: “Meade Whipped Lee Badly”

President Gerald R. Ford’s Birthday

President Gerald Ford, never elected to the office – nor, uniquely, to that of the Vice President – wanted to be remembered, he said, as a dedicated, hardworking, honest person who served constructively.

President James Buchanan, Strained in the Summer of 1860, Writes He Hasn’t Time for His Friends

Abraham Lincoln Appoints Edward Joy Morris Minister to the Ottoman Empire – and by Extension, Palestine

Abraham Lincoln, in a Prelude to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Agrees to Follow Douglas to Bloomington

President Abraham Lincoln Thanks a Jewish Philadelphian for the Gift of a Suit

President Benjamin Harrison is “Lonesome” in the White House

Anniversary of Apollo 11, the Mission That First Put a Man on the Moon

Just three months into his presidency, Kennedy pledged, in his address to Congress on May 25th, 1961, ”that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” To which he added “No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

In 1851, Rabbi Gotthelf’s Louisville Congregation Votes to Send $100 Per Year for Jerusalem’s Poor

Having Ascended to the Presidency Just a Week Before, Millard Fillmore Orders a New Black Hat

Calling Himself a “Wandering Jew” Chaim Weizmann Dreams of a Jewish University “Of Our Own” In Jerusalem

David Ben-Gurion on the Pioneer Generations and the Need for U.S. Immigration

President Andrew Jackson Writes of His Loneliness in the White House

A Historic Memo: Harry Truman Salutes Dean Acheson’s Crucial Role in Going to War With Korea

Theodore Roosevelt Decries the Deprivations Suffered by His Rough Riders After Battle of San Juan Hill

Woodrow Wilson Lobbies for Ratification of the Treaty of Versailles – A Matter of Gravest Consequence

Einstein, Working to Save Jews from Hitler, Discusses “Brown Book of Hitler Terror” and Personal Risk

David Ben-Gurion on God’s Promises to His People: Strength and Peace – One Given, the Other, Coming

Millard Fillmore in Defeat: “I Would Rather be Right Than President”

Mark Twain Eulogizes General Grant, Whose Memoirs He Would Publish

Twain on the heroic writing, and fantastic success, of Grant’s memoirs – Grant’s fame, he predicts, will last two-thousand years.

Horatio Nelson Rejoices at the Raising of the Siege of Acre – And Napoleon’s Fleeing

Rutherford B. Hayes Announces He Will Attend Ulysses S. Grant’s Funeral

Theodore Roosevelt: a Condolence Letter on the Death of a Friend’s Father

President Rutherford B. Hayes Salutes Service of U.S. Commissioner of Education John Eaton

Heartsick, Max Nordau Writes About the Death of Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl Writes of a Matter Unknown, He Says, Even to His Editor, Amidst the Dreyfus Affair

The Korean War Armistice

A war that ended in deadlock, starting something that would last for thirty-five years: the Cold War.

With World War I Still Raging, Theodore Roosevelt Mourns His Fallen Son

President Benjamin Harrison: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America

The McKinley Assassination Plot

Assassin Czolgosz, calling himself “Fred Nobody,” writes of Buffalo – the place he will murder McKinley in 5 weeks time.

Incredibly Rare Czolgosz Letter – 5 Weeks Before He Assassinated McKinley – as “Fred Nobody”