Death Came by Ice Axe in Mexico
Leon Trotsky spent his last free hours at his desk while a trusted visitor waited for the perfect moment to strike.
This Day In History
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The Three Days That Killed the Soviet Union
Hardliners sealed Mikhail Gorbachev inside his Crimean holiday house and cut every phone line. By the time they let him out, the country they had moved to save was already coming apart.
Only the Word CROATOAN Remained
On August 18, 1590, governor John White stepped back onto Roanoke and found every colonist gone
Clinton's Four-Minute Confession
On August 17, 1998, the president admitted an improper relationship and told the nation he had misled them
They Found Elvis on the Bathroom Floor at Graceland
He was forty-two, and he was due at the airport that evening to open another tour. The official cause of death was an irregular heartbeat, which was true and told you almost nothing.
The Mayflower Turned Back Twice Before It Ever Crossed
Two ships left Southampton on August 15, 1620. One of them was leaking, and the five weeks it cost them put the crossing into the autumn gales and the landing into winter.
The Coup That Nearly Stopped Japan's Surrender
On the night of August 14, 1945, Major Kenji Hatanaka and his men stormed the Imperial Palace to seize a recording and keep the war going.
No One Has the Intention of Building a Wall
Walter Ulbricht said that to a room full of reporters in June 1961. Eight weeks later, at one in the morning on a Sunday, his soldiers began sealing Berlin.
The Surgeon They Named Listerine After
On August 12, 1865, a cart wheel crushed an eleven-year-old boy's leg. The standard treatment was amputation, and amputation killed close to half of Joseph Lister's patients.
The Movie Star Who Invented Your Wifi
On August 11, 1942, the US Patent Office granted patent 2,292,387 to a composer and to the woman MGM was billing as the most beautiful in the world. The Navy filed it away.
Magellan Never Came Home
On August 10, 1519, five ships left Seville with 270 men aboard to find a western route to the spice islands. Three years later one ship came back, carrying eighteen.