Nigel Hamilton— Nixon’s emotional outburst, claiming at a press conference in Florida that he was not a crook, forty-one years ago today, gave Freudian psychologists their best insight into the mind of a most complicated president—both then and a year later, when he became only the second president to be
Paul Barber— On November 8, we celebrate the birthday of Bram Stoker. Stoker’s novel Dracula, published in 1897, had a tremendous influence on vampire-novels although, like other fiction of this sort, it owed little to the folk-beliefs on which it was based. The vampire lore was a belief among peasants
Lee Jackson, author of Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth, wrote a series of posts for the Yale University Press London Blog to explain how the inventors of ‘sanitary science’ nevertheless lived in what remained a notoriously filthy city. Some of these entries will be appearing here on the
Anna Harvey— On October 19, 1789, John Jay took the oath of office to begin serving as our nation’s first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The canonical story about Jay’s service as Chief is that he resigned from the bench in 1795 to serve as New York’s second governor (after
On this day in 1923, Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded the Walt Disney Company, launching what would become an important part of the U.S. entertainment industry and business world. Richard Foglesong, author of Married to the Mouse, has written a piece on the complexities of Disney’s legacy and practices for the occasion.
Michael Penman— Scotland’s medieval icons William Wallace and Robert the Bruce and their military encounters with England only occasionally reared their heads during the party leaders’ recent campaigning for and against Scottish independence. In January 2012, former Scottish Secretary and Stirling MP, Michael Forsyth, charged that SNP leader and Scottish
Lorri Glover— Today is Constitution Day, not that you would know it. The anniversary has never sparked the public imagination. Forget rivaling the 4th of July. Constitution Day doesn’t garner the publicity or even the retail sales of Presidents’ Day. This blasé attitude toward Constitution Day runs counter to Americans’
Paul Begg— If it seems too good to be true—it probably is. Over the last few days the newspapers and television have become very excited over a claim that DNA tests on a silk shawl of scarf had identified Jack the Ripper, the uncaught Victorian serial killer who murdered several
On this day in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave what is widely hailed as the best political speech of the twentieth century. King famously departed from his prepared text to expound upon his dream, a vision of a nation living in racial harmony. Folk history has it that Mahalia
Adrian Goldsworthy— Maybe sometimes a person can be too successful, or at least you are tempted to wonder this when you think about how Augustus is scarcely remembered these days. We have all heard of Julius Caesar, and we have all heard of Antony and Cleopatra—in each case their names