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Almanac for Nov. 12, 2026

Today is Thursday, Nov. 12, the 316th day of 2026. There are 49 days left in the year. Today in history: On Nov. 12, 1954, Ellis Island officially closed as an immigration station and detention center. More than 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States via Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. Also on this date: In 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party. In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., and ...

The Senate’s consequential class of ’26

The headline item from Tuesday's elections is that Democrats wiped out Republicans in the House and the Senate. Congratulations. But do our newly minted senators, with their terms ending in January 2033, realize that they will be the cohort of legislators who face the exhaustion of Social ...

Almanac for Nov. 10, 2026

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 10, the 314th day of 2026. There are 51 days left in the year. Today in history: On Nov. 10, 1898, a mob of up to 2,000 white supremacists killed dozens of African Americans in Wilmington, North Carolina, burned Black-owned businesses and forced the mayor, police chief and aldermen to resign at gunpoint before installing their own mayor and city council in what became known as the "Wilmington Coup." Also on this date: In 1775, the Continental Congress established the Continental Marines, later known as the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1954, the U.S. Marine Corps ...

What has the government done to our freedoms?

Does the government work for us, or do we work for the government? We pay its taxes, obey its laws and regulations, finance its wars and submit to its surveillance. We are told that all of this is necessary for personal safety, collective prosperity and national security. Yet the government ...

Almanac for Nov. 9, 2026

Today is Monday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2026. There are 52 days left in the year. Today in history: On Nov. 9, 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West for the first time in decades — a landmark event often referred to as the fall of the Berlin Wall. Also on this date: In 1872, the Great Boston Fire began in a warehouse and went on to destroy hundreds of buildings and much of the city's financial district before it was tamed. Several firefighters were killed combating the flames. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt made the ...

Democrats won. More importantly, democracy won

Stop the talk about a triumphal arch at the gates of Arlington Cemetery. Stop bullying the Kennedy Center into putting the Trump name on its front. Stop obsessing over the Reflecting Pool. Stop cutting down trees at a public golf course in Washington to make a championship course. These ...