Dec. 2, 1948: The ‘Pumpkin Papers’ incriminate Alger Hiss

On Dec. 2, 1948, Whittaker Chambers led a group of congressional investigators from the House Un-American Activities Committee to his farm about 60 miles outside Washington, D.C. There, in dramatic fashion, Chambers walked them to his garden, where from a hollowed-out pumpkin he retrieved five canisters of film that he claimed proved Alger Hiss, a highly regarded official during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, was a communist spy.

Oct 1, 2025 12:05 AM CDT

Sept. 8, 1935: Huey P. Long is shot

On the evening of Sept. 8, 1935, U.S. Sen. Huey P. Long was working late at the Louisiana state Capitol in Baton Rouge doing what he loved: hectoring the Louisiana legislature—whether it was to improve lives in the state or to settle a personal grievance.

Aug 1, 2025 12:05 AM CDT

June 6, 1957: Book dealer charged for publishing ‘Howl’

Beat writing became literature with the publication of the poem “Howl”—a stunning, unsettling, raw and rhythmic epic of anguish written by Allen Ginsberg.

Jun 1, 2025 12:05 AM CDT

April 13, 2005: Olympic Park bomber pleads guilty

Eric Rudolph had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since May 1998, identified as a prime suspect in a string of bombings that began in July 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics with a blast that killed one person and injured 100 others.

Apr 1, 2025 12:05 AM CDT

March 1, 1828: Sojourner Truth goes to court

Before she became Sojourner Truth—and a symbol of feminism and abolition—she was Isabella Baumfree, born into slavery in New York’s Hudson Valley around 1797.

Feb 1, 2025 12:40 AM CST

Dec. 22, 1984: ‘Subway Vigilante’ Bernhard Goetz wounds 4 in NYC

Three days before Christmas 1984, New Yorker Bernhard Goetz was riding south on a subway train in lower Manhattan when he was approached by four teens. After one asked him for $5, the 37-year-old self-employed engineer pulled a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver from a waistband holster and fired five times, leaving each of them wounded.

Dec 1, 2024 12:10 AM CST

Oct. 26-31, 1948: A deadly fog kills 20 in a Pennsylvania company town

On Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1948, a peculiarly dirty mist settled over Donora. Smog was a fact of industrial life. And in Donora, seated low in the Monongahela River Valley, heavy smog sometimes required streetlamps at midday. But this fog, stalled by a stubborn cold front, grew viscous and increasingly toxic as the week wore on.

Oct 1, 2024 12:10 AM CDT

Sept. 24, 1962: Estes scandal goes to court

Aug 1, 2024 12:10 AM CDT

June 20, 1981: Guilty verdicts in ‘Bayou of Pigs’ plot

Jun 1, 2024 12:10 AM CDT

May 8, 1867: Trolley segregation ends in New Orleans

Since their inaugural service in the 1830s, streetcars were a source of both convenience and resentment for the Black citizens of New Orleans. With their access limited by local “Black codes” only to “star cars”—segregated trolleys emblazoned with a black star—even free Black workers, housewives and shoppers found a daily reminder that their freedom bore scant resemblance to that of whites.

Apr 1, 2024 12:05 AM CDT

March 28, 1898: Supreme Court affirms birthright citizenship of Wong Kim Ark

Although it took them more than a year to decide U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, the justices ruled 6-2 on March 28, 1898, that the 14th Amendment means what it says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside.”

Feb 1, 2024 12:05 AM CST

Dec. 8, 1993: Supreme Court listens to John Fogerty

In late October 1988, John Fogerty—the voice and focus of the meteoric rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival—took the witness stand in a San Francisco courtroom. He also took his guitar.

Dec 1, 2023 12:10 AM CST

Nov. 28, 1953: LSD and the death of a CIA scientist

The mystery began in the early morning hours of Nov. 28, 1953, soon after Frank Olson plunged onto the pavement in front of New York City’s Hotel Statler. Two decades later, the mystery surrounding Olson’s death would result in a lawsuit, a presidential apology and a six-figure settlement.

Oct 1, 2023 12:10 AM CDT

Sept. 25, 1930: U.S. names its first drug czar

Even before the end of Prohibition in 1933, public concern about narcotics addiction had been mounting. In the latter half of the 19th century, various opioids and cocaine were used in “patent medicines” and were widely available for sale, with drug laws and their enforcement deferred to the states.

Aug 1, 2023 12:10 AM CDT

June 3, 1943: The zoot suit riots begin

On June 3, 1943, an estimated 50 sailors stationed in Los Angeles crammed into taxis and swarmed into the nearby Alpine Street neighborhood of East LA, where they began beating a group of teens, several dressed in zoot suits—the loose-fitting bib and tucker associated in the local press with Mexican American youth gangs.

Jun 1, 2023 12:05 AM CDT