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Almanac for Sept. 24, 2026

Today is Thursday, Sept. 24, the 267th day of 2026. There are 98 days left in the year. Today in history: On Sept. 24, 2017, more than 200 NFL players kneeled or sat during the national anthem after President Donald Trump criticized the players' protests in a speech and a series of tweets. Also on this date: In 1789, President George Washington signed a Judiciary Act establishing America's federal court system and creating the post of attorney general. In 1869, thousands of businessmen were ruined in a Wall Street panic known as "Black Friday" after financiers Jay Gould and ...

The book of the year

If "The Golden Thread," the new two-volume history of the Western tradition, landed with a thud, it's a matter of sheer weight. Altogether, about 12 pounds of book and 1,968 pages of text, "The Golden Thread" is a prodigious product -- and an even more prodigious achievement. At a time ...

Will AI cause Doomsday?

In the satirical 1964 anti-war film “Dr. Strangelove,” fears of a “Doomsday machine,” an automated, unstoppable device programmed to trigger global nuclear annihilation if the Soviet Union is attacked, gripped U.S. leaders and the Soviet ambassador in the American “war ...

Almanac for Sept. 23, 2026

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 23, the 266th day of 2026. There are 99 days left in the year. Today in history: On Sept. 23, 1952, Republican Sen. Richard M. Nixon of California salvaged his vice presidential nomination by appearing on TV from Los Angeles to refute allegations of improper campaign fundraising in what became known as the "Checkers" speech for its reference to his family's cocker spaniel. Also on this date: In 1780, British spy John Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the British. In 1806, the Lewis and ...

Almanac for Sept. 22, 2026

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 22, the 265th day of 2026. There are 100 days left in the year. On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all enslaved people in Confederate states should be freed as of Jan. 1, 1863, if the states did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union. Also on this date: In 1776, during the Revolutionary War, Capt. Nathan Hale, 21, was hanged as a spy by the British in New York. In 1957, Haitian women were allowed to vote for the first time, 153 years after Haiti became an independent country; ...