With war looming in Europe, Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler appealing for peace - this day in 1938. FDR was worried about German threats to invade a part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudentenland (more)
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Hitler scoffed publicly at FDR’s letter—but soon did exactly what Roosevelt feared: take over the Sudentenland, and in March 1939 all of Czechoslovakia itself. World War II, already underway in Asia, would officially begin in Europe six months later
The Warren Commission report on the assassination of President Kennedy was made public - this day in 1964. It said that a lone gunman, 24-year old Lee Harvey Oswald, was solely responsible for the president's murder (more)
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Chaired (reluctantly) by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Warren Report also said that Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner with ties to the Mafia, also acted alone when he killed Oswald two days after the president's murder
What did Jacqueline Kennedy think of the Warren Report? She never bothered to read it - she had no reason to, she had lived it - and didn't care. It wouldn't change, she always said, the cruel, central fact that her husband and the father of her two children was gone (Here: 1966)
Jacqueline, who had contemplated suicide in the spring of 1964, knew the Warren Report was coming out and planned to cancel her newspaper subscriptions for that week - but forgot to. At her hair salon, she was traumatized by seeing images of the Zapruder film on the cover of LIFE
Jackie was further traumatized when she came face to face with images of her husband's killer - like this Oct 2, 1964 cover of Time. While the term "post-traumatic stress disorder" did not exist in those days, that is what Jackie had - and would have - until her own death in 1994
The 1963-1968 period of Jacqueline Kennedy's life - often overlooked by historians - is the subject of my latest book (also a podcast now airing on Apple, Spotify, etc.). Colorful, dramatic, packed with anecdotes you've probably never heard before amazon.com/Jackie-Her-Tra…
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One of our greatest presidents: Dwight D. (“Ike”) Eisenhower - born this day in 1890. The 34th president, he served 1953-61 (more)
2/ Eisenhower was a Republican when that meant putting country first. The GOP platform when he won re-election in 1956: 1. Provide aid to low-income communities 2. expand social security 3. asylum for refugees 4. make it easier for workers to join a union 5. raise minimum wage
3/ A 2021 survey of historians by CSPAN (I was honored to participate) ranked Eisenhower the 5th greatest president. His greatest qualities: "Moral Authority" and "Administrative Skills" (both 4th) worst: "Vision/Setting an Agenda" (16th)
Construction began on the White House this day in 1792 - with the laying of its cornerstone. The oldest federal building in Washington, it was first known as the “Presidential Palace,” and later the “Executive Mansion,” until Theodore Roosevelt changed it to “White House” in 1901
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The White House was the first public building to be erected in Washington. In 1790, Commissioners of the District of Columbia offered a $500 prize for the best design. Hundreds of proposals were submitted, including one from Thomas Jefferson, who submitted his anonymously
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But the Commissioners chose instead the blueprint of a young Irish immigrant, James Hoban. Hoban modeled it after one of the grandest buildings in Dublin, the Leinster House - you can still see it today
A short thread on the #EspionageAct, now linked to the court-approved search warrant of former President Trump's Florida home:
2/ The espionage act goes back more than a century to World War One — it’s a sweeping, very broad statute that’s aimed at individuals who, the government claims, undermine the government by disclosing secrets that could harm national security
3/ The list of those who have been charged with violating the Espionage Act is long. Examples include Julius and Ethel Rosenberg — executed in the 1950s for being atomic spies
Mini-Thread: Were it not for two events that are marking major anniversaries this weekend, our world, our place in it, and much that we take for granted, might be quite different:
2/ It's the 80th anniversary of one of the most momentous naval battles in history - certainly in U.S. history - one that turned the tide of the Pacific War: Midway. In one day, the United States got swift revenge for Pearl Harbor, sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers (more)
3/ Luckily for the U.S., its aircraft carriers were not at Pearl Harbor six months earlier, when Japan's sneak attack pushed America into the war. They got revenge at Midway. Here: "Famous Four Minutes" by R.G. Smith, showing the U.S. attack on the carriers Akagi and Kaga
Min-Thread:
There is always confusion about energy prices, so if you'll indulge WWR for a moment, he (Paul) will try and clear up a few common (and understandable) misconceptions:
1) The United States does not import and export energy. Private sector companies do, with prices set by the free market. Producers (drillers and frackers) sell to the highest bidder - and often the highest bidder is overseas (more)
2) but U.S. refiners also import oil, which sometimes is cheaper - the market bounces up and down, as it does for any commodity. Futures prices (what a company will pay at a future date) are one way to lock in price, but futures have been rising for weeks in anticipation...
Thread
Putin has called the fall of the Soviet Union the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. Not World War II, when tens of millions of Soviets citizens were killed. Not the horrors of Soviet totalitarianism (thanks to his hero Stalin) that killed millions more
2/ Not the Holocaust, which began in force on Soviet territory itself. No, Putin said, the greatest catastrophe was the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet empire, which gave tens of millions their first exposure to true freedom That, he thinks, is the real tragedy
3/ The mindset of this lifelong KGB man is that the Soviet empire must somehow be restored. Prior to invading Ukraine, he sent, just weeks ago, troops into another former Soviet republic — Kazakhstan — to help thwart “outside interference.” And Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014