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Press photograph of the crowded House chamber at the swearing-in of Speaker Nicholas Longworth, opening the 69th Congress

Today in history · 96 years ago · November 4, 1930U.S. History

Republicans Won the House in 1930 and Lost It to 14 Funerals

Republicans won the House by one seat in November 1930. Fourteen deaths and three special elections later, Democrats ran it.

Priya Raman · November 4, 2026

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Photograph of the old town of Aden, with white mosque minarets in front of the dark volcanic cliffs of the crater

Aden Fell to Britain in 1839 Over a Looted Ship and a Need for Coal

November 4, 2026

Coloured painted view of Renaissance Florence after the Pianta della Catena of about 1470, showing the walled city along the Arno

World Figureheads

Florence Tried a Wealth Tax in 1427. The Medici Turned It Into a Weapon

November 4, 2026

Black and white photograph of a Qantas Boeing 707, registration VH-EBA, on the ground at Heathrow in 1961; a sister ship of the jet in the 1971 ransom

Strange History

A TV Movie Taught a Sydney Man to Hold a Qantas Jet to Ransom in 1971

November 4, 2026

Coloured 1823 print by William Clark showing enslaved people cutting sugar cane on an Antigua estate under a mounted overseer

World Figureheads

Antigua's Enslaved Crowned a King in 1736. The Island Executed 88 in Reply

November 4, 2026

Photograph of a Greenlandic dog team pulling a sled across sea ice near Thule, with a flat-topped mountain behind

Denmark Moved 116 Inughuit in 1953 to Clear Space for a US Greenland Base

November 4, 2026

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Studio photograph of Annie Oakley in a wide hat and long dress, holding a shotgun, her chest covered with shooting medals

Annie Oakley Died 100 Years Ago. Her Longest Fight Was 55 Libel Suits

Priya Raman · November 3, 2026

Thomas Nast cartoon from Harper's Weekly, 1874: a White League man and a Klansman shake hands above a shield showing a Black family kneeling beside a burned schoolhouse

Election Day 1874 in Alabama: Gunfire at the Polls, 700 Ballots Burned

Priya Raman · November 3, 2026

William Hogarth's 1740 engraving The Distrest Poet: a writer at a desk in a shabby attic room, a milkmaid demanding payment at the door while his wife mends clothes by the fire

Strange History

The Man From Formosa Had Never Seen It: Psalmanazar Fooled London in 1704

Jonah Okafor · November 3, 2026

Wood engraving of the Pied Piper in a dark cloak and feathered cap playing his pipe as a crowd of children follows him out of a walled town

Strange History

The Pied Piper Is a Fairy Tale. Hamelin's 130 Missing Children Were Not

Jonah Okafor · October 31, 2026

Photograph of British paratroopers landing at Gamil airfield near Port Said in November 1956, with smoke rising behind them

70 Years Ago Tonight, Britain and France Bombed Egypt. They Lost in a Week

Marcus Delacroix · October 31, 2026

Photochrom print of Tiflis (Tbilisi) around 1890 to 1900, showing the old fortress on its ridge above the town and the river

Lenin's Party Robbed a Bank With Bombs in 1907 and Couldn't Spend a Rouble

Marcus Delacroix · October 31, 2026

Black and white photograph of a farmer tuning a large wooden console radio with his young daughter on his lap, California, 1940

The Great Martian Panic of 1938 Was Mostly Invented by Newspapers

Jonah Okafor · October 31, 2026

Photochrom print of about 1905 showing the bronze statue of King Alfred in Winchester, sword raised, on a granite plinth

World Figureheads

In 878 Every Other English King Had Fled or Submitted. Alfred Went Into a Swamp Instead

Tomás Ferreira · October 30, 2026

Wood engraving of a family carving the turkey at a Thanksgiving dinner table, from Harper's Weekly, 1858

America's First Cookbook, 1796: An Orphan, a Pumpkin Pie and the Word 'Cookie'

Priya Raman · October 30, 2026

Stereograph photo of the Acropolis of Athens seen from the south-west in 1900, with a man in a hat sitting on a rock in the foreground

World Figureheads

Athens Imposed the First Recorded Trade Embargo in 432 BC. It Got a 27-Year War

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 30, 2026

Hand-coloured etching by Thomas Rowlandson, 1800, of a London night watchman in a greatcoat holding a lantern and a rattle

Strange History

A Man Shot a Ghost in Hammersmith in 1804. The Law Took 180 Years to Decide If He Was Guilty

Jonah Okafor · October 30, 2026

Postcard photograph of the finish of the 1905 Melbourne Cup at Flemington, with the crowd in the foreground

The First Melbourne Cup Had 4,000 People, a Gold Watch and a Horse Who Came by Boat

Hannah Lindqvist · October 30, 2026

Photo of Patrick Stewart on a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2013

Patrick Stewart Was the Captain Star Trek's Creator Refused to Have

Hannah Lindqvist · October 30, 2026

Photograph of Royal Marines lined up at English Camp on San Juan Island before leaving in 1872

Strange History

Britain and America Nearly Went to War Over One Pig and Stayed Twelve Years

Marcus Delacroix · October 30, 2026

Photograph of the white stone obelisk of the Governor Sevier Monument in Knoxville, Tennessee, about 1900

Franklin Was a 14th State for Four Years. Congress Said No by Two Votes

Priya Raman · October 30, 2026

Photograph of the Tsar Bomba fireball over Novaya Zemlya on 30 October 1961

Sixty-Five Years Ago Today the Soviets Set Off a Bomb Too Big to Use

Marcus Delacroix · October 30, 2026

Photograph of Obispo Street in Havana around 1906, with shop awnings, signs in Spanish and English and people on the pavements

The United States Has Governed Cuba Twice. The Second Time, Almost Nobody Remembers

Tomás Ferreira · October 30, 2026

Photograph of the Pantheon in Rome from the piazza, with its portico, dome and fountain, about 1910

Why All Saints' Day Is 1 November: From a Roman Temple to a Frankish Decree

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 30, 2026

Chromolithograph of about 1872 showing a boy carving a face into a pumpkin while a small girl watches

Why We Carve Pumpkins: An Irish Turnip, a Man the Devil Would Not Take, and a Bigger Vegetable

Jonah Okafor · October 30, 2026

Albumen photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan, 1867: two men of Clarence King's Fortieth Parallel Survey sit and stand among knobbly tufa rock formations at Pyramid Lake, Nevada

Strange History

Two Prospectors Salted a Mesa With Diamonds in 1872 and Fooled Tiffany's

Priya Raman · October 29, 2026

Photograph of Miller Park in Milwaukee, now American Family Field, under a clear blue sky in 2016, with its arched roof trusses and brick facade

Milwaukee's Last Title Was 1957. Eight Years Later the Braves Were Gone

Priya Raman · October 29, 2026

Johannes Vermeer's painting Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (about 1662): a woman in a white headdress and a deep blue ultramarine skirt stands by a window holding a brass pitcher

The Blue That Cost More Than Gold Came From One Valley in Afghanistan

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 29, 2026

William Hogarth's 1755 engraving An Election Entertainment: a crowded tavern feast, with a placard reading Give Us Our Eleven Days lying under a man's foot at bottom right

Why the Year Begins on 1 January, and Why Britain's Tax Year Doesn't

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 29, 2026

Engraving from 1896 of a British cruiser firing on the sultan's palace in Zanzibar harbour, with smoke rising from the waterfront and the lighthouse behind

Strange History

The Shortest War in History Lasted 38 Minutes, and Zanzibar Was Billed for the Shells

Marcus Delacroix · October 28, 2026