On this day in 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Gagarin, a Soviet Air Force fighter pilot, was 27 years old when he orbited the earth […]

On this day in history, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his last public address, covering the complex topic of reconstruction. Two days after the surrender of Confederate forces, virtually ending the […]

On this day in history, tropical cyclone Olivia crossed over Barrow Island off the western coast of Australia, producing the world’s strongest non-tornadic wind gusts at 254 miles-per-hour. Olivia, a […]

On this day in 1939, Marian Anderson sang before an audience of 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. With the statue of the  16th President looming behind […]

On this day in 1945, pastor-theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged in Flossenburg, a concentration camp in the forests of Bavaria. The  39-year old Lutheran, indicted as a co-conspirator in the  […]

On this day in 1891, the famous showman, P.T. Barnum, passed away at the age of 81. Though critically ill, Barnum requested that the New York Sun run his obituary […]

On this day in 1896, the Olympic Games were reinstituted after a 1500 year hiatus. Held in Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics, King George I welcomed 60,000 spectators and […]

On this day in 1955, Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister of Great Britain. This was his second time to serve in the position. He was 80 years old and […]

On this day in 1983, the Challenger space shuttle blasted off on her maiden voyage from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On the same mission, astronauts Donald Peterson and F.S. […]

On this day in 1860, the first Pony Express ride took place. Conceived as a rapid mail delivery system, the Pony Express route was a string of over 160 stations […]