The failure of grand juries in St. Louis County, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, to indict white police officers for the deaths of African-Americans Michael Brown and Eric Garner has prompted calls to abolish the grand jury.
January, 2015
The Tragic Life and Cold Death of Schuyler Colfax
On January 14, 1885, the New York Times carried a headline that read “Schuyler Colfax Dead; He Drops Down in a Railway Station.” While this would be a sad headline to describe anyone’s death, it was made a bit more awful by the fact that Schuyler Colfax was a former Vice President of the United States and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
From Pirates to Presidents: The Long Reach of America’s Illegal Slave Trade
On January 1, 1808, a new United States law prohibiting the international slave trade went into effect. The same law also strengthened punishments for Americans caught participating or financing the international trade.
The Fateful Night of January 22, 1854: When Congressmen Pressured the President to Sign a Measure that Would Destroy the Nation
January 22 was a Sunday in 1854. The President was Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire.
The King Holiday and Its Opponents: The Struggle Continues
Every January since 1986, when the Martin Luther King Holiday Act went into effect, Americans have taken a day off to ski and shop.
Securing Paradise at the Point of a Bayonet
On January 17th, 1893, more than 120 marines and sailors from the U.S.S. Boston helped thirteen powerful American business and political leaders calling themselves the Committee of Safety to overthrow Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani and install a new provisional government led by Sanford Dole.
Inspiring Yosemite
For the past three weeks, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson have been free climbing the “Dawn Wall” in Yosemite Park.
A California Rebel in Napoleon’s Court
As his forces wore down the last of Confederate resistance around Petersburg, Virginia, General Ulysses S. Grant contemplated launching another invasion – this time thousands of miles to the west.
Presidential Press Conferences, Women, and Vera Glaser
During his December 2014 White House press conference, President Obama called exclusively on female reporters.
The Temporary Insanity Defense Comes to America
Political sex scandals are as old as politics and so commonplace that even in the internet age we can barely keep up with developments in the latest salacious story.