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Oil painting by Edward Moran of the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty in 1886, with the statue above a crowd of flag-decked boats and gun smoke in New York Harbor

Today in history · 140 years ago · October 28, 1886U.S. History

The Statue of Liberty Was Unveiled 140 Years Ago Today in Fog, Rain and a Mistimed Speech

On 28 October 1886 the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in fog so thick nobody could see her face, and the sculptor dropped the flag before the speech was over.

Priya Raman · October 28, 2026

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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

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Hellenistic bronze statue of a sleeping winged boy lying on a rock, 3rd to 2nd century BC, of the kind the divers mistook for drowned bodies (this one is in New York, not from the wreck)

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Divers Raised the Antikythera Mechanism in 1901. It Sat on a Shelf a Year

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Studio photograph of Rear Admiral William B. Caperton of the US Navy in full dress uniform with epaulettes and sword, around 1915

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Woodblock print by Kawanabe Kyōsai, about 1863, showing two long-necked goblins frightening a customer at a noodle stall

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Black-and-white photograph of Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres sitting side by side in the Knesset in the 1980s, Peres reading a note

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Blue and white porcelain bowl from Joseon-dynasty Korea, dated 1847, with floral panels and an inscription incised around the foot

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King Sejong Invented an Alphabet in 1443. His Scholars Begged Him to Stop

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William Hogarth's etching Cunicularii, or the Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation (1726): doctors gather round Mary Toft's bed while rabbits run across the floor

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Mary Toft Gave Birth to 17 Rabbits in 1726. The King's Surgeon Believed Her

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Photograph of Adolf Hitler saluting the Olympic flag at the Berlin Games in 1936, the year the Peace Prize went to Carl von Ossietzky

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The Cloisters Playing Cards, a complete hand-painted deck of 52 made in the Burgundian Netherlands around 1475 to 1480, laid out in four rows

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Colour photochrom print of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) seen from the coast road, with the walled old town on its headland and a man sitting on the hillside, about 1890 to 1900

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Black-and-white photograph of Washington pitcher Walter Johnson walking across the infield past a row of press photographers during the 1925 World Series

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Black-and-white photograph of a packed crowd of men in dark suits on the floor of the London Stock Exchange, between 1910 and 1920

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Catherine the Great Took Russia in One Morning in 1762 and Kept It for 34 Years

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Lithograph of 1835 showing winged bat-people, unicorns and other animals beside a lake and waterfall on the moon, sold by the New York Sun as a view of Herschel's discoveries

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The New York Sun Found Bat-Men on the Moon in 1835 and Sold Out Every Day

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Black-and-white night photograph of three children on a New York street at Halloween in 1964, two of them in moulded plastic masks, one a grinning space monster and one a blonde woman's face

Halloween (1978) Cost $300,000 and Its Killer Wore a $2 Captain Kirk Mask

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Mughal miniature of about 1618 showing the emperor Jahangir seated beside Shah Abbas I of Persia, in orange, at a table of gifts

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Hormuz Fell in 1622 When a Shah Hired the English Fleet to Evict Portugal

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Photograph of the painted food counter in Regio V at Pompeii, with jar openings set into the top and frescoes of hanging ducks, a rooster and a dog on a leash

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Black-and-white photograph of a worker in a hard hat on scaffolding in dry dock, inspecting the buckled hull of the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts after it struck an Iranian mine in April 1988

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Lithograph of a Salem witch trial courtroom scene, a young woman standing accused before the judges, published in 1892

The Salem Witch Trials Ended With a Fast Day, a Jury's Apology and One Accuser Standing Up in Church

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Police photograph of the five lines of pencilled capital letters found on the back cover of the Rubaiyat linked to the Somerton Man

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The Somerton Man Lay Unnamed for 73 Years, Then a Hair in a Bust Named Him

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Hand-coloured print of a crowded London barber's shop in 1811, with men being shaved and wigs dressed

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Why the Barber's Pole Is Red and White: It Was Once Covered in Real Blood

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A 1778 Continental Congress thirty-dollar note, printed in Philadelphia, promising the bearer thirty Spanish milled dollars

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Thomas Nast's two-page Harper's Weekly cartoon Andy's Trip, October 1866, with Andrew Johnson in a central medallion surrounded by scenes from his speaking tour

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Andrew Johnson's 1866 Midterm Tour Ended Up in His Impeachment

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A baker in white overalls cutting up a pumpkin for pies on a stool in a bakery back room, with pumpkin halves and a bucket of peeled pieces, 1939 photograph

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Photograph of Anwar Sadat, pipe in mouth, and Menachem Begin standing at a bank of microphones in the late 1970s

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Reading room of the Kansas City Central Library in Missouri, with wooden tables, lamps and bookshelves, photographed in 2021

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Oil painting of Princess Caraboo by Edward Bird, 1817: a young woman in a white turban with feathers and a yellow dress, standing on a shore

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Princess Caraboo of Javasu Was a Cobbler's Daughter From Devon

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Albrecht Dürer's 1514 engraving of a peasant couple dancing, arms flung out and feet kicking

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Strasbourg's 1518 Dancing Plague: The Council Hired a Band

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Sixth-century mosaic of the Empress Theodora in a jewelled crown and purple robe, from the church of San Vitale in Ravenna

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In 532 Justinian Had the Ships Loaded to Flee. Theodora Told Him to Stay

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