Prologue: Pieces of History

It had not yet been 24 hours since President Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination attempt—wounds far more serious than the public was told at the time. But on the morning of March 31, 1981, the three men he relied on most in these early days of his administration came to see him in [...]

When Ronald Reagan survived the attempt on his life on March 30, 1981, and went on to serve two full four-year terms, he broke what some people call “the year-ending-in-zero” curse. It goes like this: Every President elected in a year ending in zero since 1840 had died in office. William Henry Harrison, elected in [...]

Today marks 100 years since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire—a blaze that lasted 18 minutes and left 146 workers dead. Among the many in New York City who witnessed the tragedy was Frances Perkins, who would later become FDR’s Secretary of Labor, making her the first woman to serve in a Presidential cabinet. As Secretary [...]

Victory tastes as sweet as Guinness to Laura B, whose caption referencing both the Irish holiday and the lingo of LOL cats won her 15% off at our eStore. Slainte to you, Laura B! And for once, the caption to our mystery photo shows things are just as they seem: “A patron of Sammy’s Bowery Follies, a downtown [...]

Someone who read my post on Squirrel Appreciation Day alerted me to World Sparrow Day, which was Sunday, March 20. This inspired me to dive back into Online Public Access (OPA) on the National Archives web site. I typed in “sparrow,” and amid many references to the U.S. Marines, missiles, and Sparrows Point shipyard were a couple of photographs of the [...]