This Day, 1865
At President Grant’s urging, Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act - this day in 1871. The KKK Act allowed the president to use federal troops and suspend the writ of habeas corpus to ensure that civil rights were upheld
President McKinley asked Congress to declare war on Spain - this day in 1898 - two months after the U.S.S. Maine blew up in Havana harbor. “Remember the Maine!” was the battle cry as America went to war with Spain. But... (more)
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the navy later determined that an on-board accident, not a Spanish attack, blew up the battleship. The Spanish-American war was fueled by sensationalist newspaper coverage from tycoons like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. A term was born: yellow journalism (more)
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"Yellow journalism," as practiced by Hearst and Pulitzer, meant an emphasis on scandals, exaggerations and stirring up of drama (it's certainly a good thing that this doesn't exist today)
President Reagan agreed to raise payroll taxes this day in 1983 - when he signed a $165 billion Social Security bailout bill
This Day, 1999:
President Clinton said he was “profoundly shocked and saddened” by a massacre at Colorado’s Columbine HS. Thirteen people were murdered (the two killers, both students, committed suicide). The killings shocked Americans, sparking calls for stricter gun laws (more)
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After the Columbine massacre, calls for tighter gun control were met with calls by gun rights activists who said it wasn't the right time to discuss such things. This line has been repeated countless times over the past 22 years

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More from @WestWingReport

19 Apr
The shot heard 'round the world: the opening salvos of the battles of Lexington and Concord - this day in 1775 - which began the American Revolutionary War
This Day, 1809:
The father of the Constitution - President James Madison - purchased a slave to work in the White House. The seller: the father of the Declaration of Independence, former President Thomas Jefferson. Even more ironic was the name of the slave: John Freeman
This Day, 1861:
President Lincoln ordered a blockade of Confederate ports. It was a tall order: There were 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline, and the navy, in 1861, had just 42 ships. But the blockade eventually weakened the South by stopping imports of supplies from Europe
Read 12 tweets
9 Apr
An overjoyed Abraham Lincoln learned - this day in 1865 - that the South had surrendered, bringing the Civil War to a close. The Civil War remains by far the bloodiest war in U.S. history: 750,000 Americans were killed—the equivalent of 7.7 million Americans today (more)
2/
Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant is captured wonderfully in this painting by Gen. L.M.D. Guillaume. Occurred at McLean House Appomattox, VA - this day in 1865. America's worst war, mercifully, was over
The original Mercury 7 astronauts only appeared together in their space suits once: this day in 1959. In back, L-R: Shepard, Grissom, Cooper. Front: Schirra, Slayton, Glenn, Carpenter. (for PR purposes, Slayton and Glenn wore spray-painted work boots)
Read 6 tweets
7 Apr
Image
One of the worst scandals in American history: This day in 1922, Warren Harding’s Interior Secretary, Albert Fall, leased government oil reserves -in Teapot Dome, WY- to companies at low rates with no competitive bidding. Fall was convicted of accepting bribes and went to prison Image
2/
Teapot Dome was one of several scandals that tainted the Harding administration - arguably (even today) the sleaziest and most corrupt in American history. Harding - whose 1920 election win remains one of the biggest blowouts in U.S. history - died after 2 1/2 years in office
Read 6 tweets
9 Mar
Two presidents died on March 8. Millard Fillmore in 1874 was the first. The 13th president (1850-53) and sixth in nine years, he was the last Whig POTUS, and regarded as one of the worst for his failure to heal the deepening north-south divide over the issue of slavery (more)
2/
Fillmore earned his fate as one of the worst presidents for his support of the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), which required that all escaped slaves, if captured, be returned to their masters—and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate with this law (more)
3/
Abolitionists called the Fugitive Slave Act the “Bloodhound Law” for the dogs that were used to track down runaway slaves. After his presidency, Fillmore opposed Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War
Read 7 tweets
6 Mar
Mini-Thread
March 6th played a big role in the decades-long buildup to the Civil War. This day in 1820, James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state, but Maine and part of Massachusetts as a free state (more)
2/
The bill banned slavery in territories north of a line drawn at Missouri’s southern boundary—except in Missouri itself. It was also an attempt to equalize the number of slave-holding states and free states in the country (more)
3/
Although President Monroe did not support limiting slavery, he backed the Missouri Compromise because he thought it would help keep the Union together. The Missouri Compromise was largely the work of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, “the Great Compromiser.” (more)
Read 9 tweets
5 Mar
James Monroe was inaugurated for his second term as the fifth president - this day 1821 (not Mar. 4, which was a Sunday)
Zachary Taylor was inaugurated as the 12th president - this day 1849. He would die after just a year and a half in office (perhaps because of the bad White House water supply)
Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in publicly - this day 1877. He had actually been sworn in three days before, in a secret White House ceremony because there were fears of a coup against the government
Read 9 tweets

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