This Day In History: July 24, 1938 Although instant coffee had been around before this date, the instant coffee we know and love – or revile – today was introduced on July 24, 1938. The Nescafe (a combination of the words “Nestles” and “café”) brand was the result of a more sophisticated coffee refining process than earlier versions of the […]

This Day In History: July 23, 1918 On July 23, 1918, an infant named Viola Cooper died from unexplained causes, and during the next several years there were several more unexplained deaths in Dannebrog, Howard County, Nebraska. Many of the deceased were children, though one was an elderly woman and another was a young man. All of the victims had […]

This Day In History July 22, 1991 “I have to question whether there is an evil force in the world and whether or not I have been influenced by it. Although I am not sure if there is a God or if there is a Devil, I know that as of lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about […]

This Day In History: July 21, 356 BCE On July 21, 356 B.C.E., a man named Herostratus deliberately set fire to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in modern-day Turkey, a beloved architectural marvel that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Herostratus did not try to evade capture for his heinous act, rather he openly bragged […]

This Day In History July 18, 1984 On July 18, 1984, 21 people lost their lives and another 19 were injured when James Oliver Huberty went on a shooting rampage in a McDonald’s just outside of San Diego, California. Huberty kept shooting for 77 minutes until a sniper’s bullet pierced his heart and killed him. James Oliver Huberty brought his […]

This Day In History: July 17, 1917 By the summer of 1917, the British Royal family was in quite a pickle. Although King George V was the reigning monarch of the Great Britain, his ancestry was almost entirely German, and during World War I anti-German sentiment among the British people was verging on hysteria. German-owned stores were destroyed, and the […]

This Day In History: July 16, 1999 Friday, July 16, 1999 was one of those hazy, hot and humid July evenings in the northeast that everyone remembers fondly when buried in January snowdrifts. It’s great beach weather but not the best conditions for flying, especially for a relatively inexperienced pilot. John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy […]

This Day In History: July 15, 1099 “Christians, hasten to help your brothers in the East, for they are being attacked. Arm for the rescue of Jerusalem under your captain Christ. Wear his cross as your badge. If you are killed your sins will be pardoned.” These were the words spoken by Pope Urban II calling for all good Christian […]

This Day In History: July 14, 1881 On July 14, 1881, one of the Old West’s best known and yet most misunderstood outlaws was gunned down by an ambush when he walked into a dark bedroom. His death led to a mythological legend based half in fact, half in fancy. Most accounts state that Billy the Kid was born on […]

This Day In History: July 11, 1656 “Why was it that the coming of two women so shook ye, as if a formidable army had invaded your borders.” – George Bishop On July 11, 1656, a ship called the Swallow docked in Boston Harbor in the Massachusetts Bay colony. On board were two women named Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, […]

This Day In History: July 10, 1553 On July 10, 1553, Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of King Henry VIII, ascended the throne of England as the result of a plot masterminded by John Dudley, Earl of Northumberland. Her “reign,” if you could call it that, lasted all of nine days until Mary Tudor and her supporters marched into London, […]

This Day In History: July 9, 1795 On July 9, 1795, James Swan, an American businessman and Revolutionary patriot, liquidated the debt the U.S. government owed to the country of France, agreeing to pay the sum of $2,024,899 (about $28 million today). James Swan was a native of Fife, Scotland and emigrated to Boston, MA in 1765 at the age […]

This Day In History: July 8, 52 B.C.E. On July 8, 52 C.E., Julius Caesar conquered a small fishing village in Gaul (modern-day France) called Lutetia Parisiorum, which over the centuries would become one of the most elegant and influential cities in the world. If you could look at those two cities side-by-side now, they would have little in common […]

This Day In History: July 7, 1983 On July 7, 1983, an 11-year-old American girl from Manchester, Maine began a two-week tour of the Soviet Union at the invitation of Yuri Andropov after she wrote the Soviet leader a letter expressing concern about the possibility of a nuclear war. The winsome little girl gave the Soviets a rare look at […]

This Day In History: July 4, 1826 On July 4, 1826, two old friends, and adversaries, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within five hours of one another, and the story goes that the messengers dispatched from the men’s homes to inform each of the other’s passing crossed on their somber journey. Jefferson and Adams were the last survivors from […]

This Day In History July 3, 1971 While most everyone else was singing about incense and peppermints and feeling groovy in the 1960s, there was one group that dared to explore the darker side of the human experience. Their leader – though he would bristle at being called such – was a poet, a clown, a genius, a drunk, and […]

This Day In History: July 2, 1937 Legendary pilot Amelia Earhart (also known as “Lady Lindy,”) thrilled the aviation-crazy public of the ‘20s and ‘30s with her ground breaking accomplishments. She was the first woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean in 1928 (as a passenger, but went on to do the trip solo as well), and became the first […]