Never bring a gun to a cane fight: the almost assassination of President Andrew Jackson

The first ever assassination attempt on a president took place on January 30, 1835. Richard Lawrence hid behind a pillar at the capital, awaiting President Andrew Jackson. The 67-year-old president emerged from the House chamber and Lawrence took his shot. What he hadn’t planned was for his gun to misfire.  Lawrence was born in England

Special post: Juneteenth

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The document declared that as of January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in the confederacy “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in the confederacy, not in any states that remained loyal to the United States, but

A series of unfortunate events: the almost failed assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

This is the last photo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie, before they were assassinated in 1914. The event would be the catalyst that plunged Europe in World War I, but it almost didn’t happen.  The story does not begin with Bogdan Žerajić, but it’s a good place to start. Žerajić had planned

The Night Witches That Terrified The Nazis

German soldiers stand watch, fighting the cold temperatures of the Russian winter. They can hear the planes before they can see them, the sound of the propellers indicating an attack. Taking the bait laid out in front of them, the soldiers shine the spotlights up to the sky, unwittingly giving the Russian pilots a better