Today in history, all week
- The Pale Vulture Over Ain ZaraThe first aerial bombing mission over Libya on November 1, 1911
One pilot cradled a grenade in his lap and changed what war could reach.
- Put Grant Straight at ItThe Battle of Beersheba cavalry charge on October 31, 1917
Eight hundred thirsty men on failing horses had forty-five minutes to seize a desert town before dark or watch an entire campaign die of thirst.
- The Five Days Donora Couldn't BreatheThe Donora killer smog of October 30, 1948
A mill town in a river bowl spent five days choking on its own air while the company insisted nothing was wrong.
- The Fires That Toppled a KaiserThe Wilhelmshaven naval mutiny on October 29, 1918
Textbooks say the German Revolution began in Kiel, but the real refusal happened days earlier in the fog off Wilhelmshaven.
- The Fake Fourth Funnel at PenangThe SMS Emden's surprise raid on Penang Harbor on October 28, 1914
A lone German raider with a chimney made of sailcloth walked into a fortified Allied harbor and sank two warships before breakfast.
- Target Thirty-Three Over BanesThe shootdown of Major Rudolf Anderson's U-2 over Cuba on October 27, 1962
When a lone American spy plane disintegrated seventy-two thousand feet over Cuba, the pre-arranged plans for retaliation brought nuclear war within hours of igniting.
- Dinner at the SafehouseThe assassination of South Korean President Park Chung-hee on October 26, 1979
Inside a guarded banquet hall in Seoul, South Korea's intelligence chief pulled a gun on the dictator he had served for decades.
From the community
- The Corsican Who Gambled EuropeNapoleon Bonaparte
A penniless artillery officer seized control of revolutionary France and bent continental Europe to his will.
- The Gods Who Guarded the DoorEarly Roman religion and household gods
- From the Gallows to the Abyss of TimeThe Scottish Enlightenment
