Good morning, it’s Wednesday, December 12, 2018. On this date in 1799, George Washington did what he did on most days since retiring from the presidency: He toured his sprawling estate on horseback to examine and direct Mount Vernon’s myriad farming activities. It was a Thursday and the weather was nasty. Snow was falling as Gen. Washington began his rounds […]

Good morning, it’s Monday, December 11, 2018. Eighty-two years ago today, a thin and handsome man known to his beloved as “David,” but to the British people as Edward VIII, became the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He did so for love, which seems quaint today. As Tina Turner might say, what’s love got to do with […]

Good morning, it’s Thursday, December 7, 2018. Whatever is happening today in our nation’s fractious capital, or in violent hotspots around the world, today’s date is a reminder that this country has experienced truly dark and frightening days and that we saw our way through even if it took a long time. For Americans living on this date 76 years […]

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, December 6, 2018. On this date in 1910, Theodore Roosevelt was uncharacteristically idle. He’d returned in late summer to the United States after a year on safari in Africa and touring the capitals of Europe, then embarked on an American speaking tour, and now was home at Sagamore Hill contemplating the next phase of his life. […]

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, December 4, 2018. On this date in 1783, George Washington bade a tearful farewell to his fellow Continental Army officers before decamping for his beloved Mount Vernon. In late November, the last British troops had been removed from New York City, as the Colonists’ war for independence came to its successful conclusion. General Washington resigned as […]

On this date in 1942, the 1,500-seat Hollywood Theatre premiered a new Humphrey Bogart motion picture directed by Michael Curtiz. It must have been something for the moviegoers fortunate enough to be in attendance that night. Co-starring Ingrid Bergman, the film was a wartime tale that closely adhered to the plot, setting, theme, music, and characters that sprang from the […]

Good morning, it’s  November 22, 2018. The images from Dallas on this date in 1963 fade just a little bit each year. And for those old enough to remember, those images seemed indelible: the faces of the Dealey Plaza crowd turning instantly from happy to horrified; the mortally wounded president lurching forwards in his convertible; the protective reaction of the […]

Good morning, it’s Monday, November 20, 2017. On this date in 1963, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, a restless Texan with too much energy and too little to do in his professional life, spent the day making sure his ranch house was ready for a presidential visit. It was a full-court press led by Lady Bird Johnson. Jacqueline Kennedy, who’d […]

Good morning, it’s Friday, November 16, 2018. On this date 100 years ago, Woodrow Wilson issued a Thanksgiving proclamation to a grateful nation. “This year we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to rejoice,” the 28th U.S. president told a war-weary nation. “God has in His good pleasure given us peace.” He continued: “Complete victory has brought […]

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, November 14, 2018. Fifty-nine years ago today, TV Guide published an essay written by an ambitious young U.S. senator from Massachusetts. The provocative piece would prove to be a predictive roadmap for future American political campaigns. John F. Kennedy was a war hero who’d risen quickly through Boston politics and arrived on the national stage in […]

Good morning, it’s Thursday, October 26, 2017. If you live on the East Coast and went to bed at a reasonable hour last night, you missed one hell of a World Series Game 2. If you stayed up late, as I did, you’re probably dragging a bit this morning, so I’ll keep today’s missive relatively short. On this date in […]

Good morning. It’s Thursday, October 25, 2018. America is less than two weeks from the midterm elections, a biannual exercise that, regardless of the outcome, reminds us of the strength of our system of self-government. Unfortunately, this year is having almost the opposite effect: the stalking and harassment of members of Congress at their homes and in restaurants; physical and […]

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, September 25, 2018. On this date in 1867, Texas cattleman Oliver Loving died at Fort Sumner in territorial New Mexico after being wounded by a Comanche arrow along the Pecos River. Texas’ agriculture had been devastated by the Civil War — the Confederacy left vast unpaid debts to the state’s ranchers — but business improved afterward […]

Good morning. It’s Friday, September 14, 2018. On this date in 1959, at a few minutes after midnight Moscow time, a rocket named Luna 2 crash-landed on the moon. Why do we care what time it was in Russia? Here’s why: Luna 2 was created in the Soviet Union and launched from the massive Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility on the […]

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, September 5, 2018. On this date in 1847, the Rev. Robert S. James and his wife, Zerelda, welcomed their second son into the world. The infant’s older brother was named Alexander Franklin. The baby was christened Jesse Woodson. The world would come to know them as Jesse James and Frank James — or, sometimes, just the […]

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, August 29, 2018. Fifty-five years ago today, an impressive collection of Hollywood stars made their way back to Los Angeles. These A-listers had come to the nation’s capital in support of civil rights. At the March on Washington, some had performed songs, others had given interviews, and all had listened to Martin Luther King Jr. and […]

Good morning. It’s Friday, August 24, 2018. On this date in 1979, two Las Vegas-based defense lawyers filed an emergency application for a stay of execution in the case of a Western outlaw and gunsel named Jesse Walter Bishop. “Stay of execution” is legal jargon, but in this case it was literal language: The state of Nevada intended to send […]

Good morning. It’s Monday, August 20, 2018. On this date in 1804, a U.S. Army sergeant in his early 20s named Charles Floyd died and was buried on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River in present-day Sioux City, Iowa. The first U.S. military man to give his life in service to his country west of the Mississippi, Floyd was laid […]

Good morning. It’s Thursday, August 9, 2018. On this date in 1791, an aspiring American author was putting the final touches on a book that would introduce him to the world as a man of science — and much more. But the budding writer would need help getting his work into print, and so he sent the manuscript — an […]

Good morning, it’s Friday, August 3, 2018. On this date in 1981, America’s 13,000 air traffic controllers went on strike. Four hours later, Ronald Reagan walked into the Rose Garden flanked by Attorney General William French Smith and Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis to announce that any controller who did not return to work in 48 hours would be fired. […]