History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 25th. She’s one of the more mysterious women in history: On this day in 1917, the dancer and spy Mata Hari was sentenced to die by a French court for spying on Germany’s behalf during World War I.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 24th. With bicycles flying off shelves as more people spend time outside due to the pandemic, we look back to this day in 2005, when Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France...well, sort of.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 23rd. Hot on the heels of National Ice Cream Day, we look back to this day in 1904 when, according to legend, an enterprising ice-cream vendor sold ice cream cones by putting two scoops inside a rolled pastry at the Chicago World’s Fair. While historians now believe ice cream cones had probably been served before, they were a hit at the fair, and became popular across the country.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 22nd. Just weeks after the Juneteenth holiday finally received widespread attention across the U.S., we look back to this day in 1862. That’s when President Abraham Lincoln informed his chief advisors and cabinet that he would issue the Emancipation Proclamation, but that he would wait until the Union Army had achieved a substantial military victory to make the announcement.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 21st. One hundred and fifty nine years ago today, the Union Army was routed by Confederates at Bull Run, in the first major land battle of the American Civil War. The battle came three months into the war, and the Union military command still believed that the Confederacy could be crushed quickly and with little loss of life. This overconfidence led to a premature--and unsuccessful--offensive into northern Virginia.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 20th. It was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind--on this day in 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human ever to walk on the moon. The lunar landing came just eight years after President John F. Kennedy had famously challenged the nation to commit itself to “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth” before the 1960s came to an end.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 19th. As Americans prepare to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women winning the vote next month, we look back to this day in 1848 and the first-ever American women’s rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 18th. You’ve probably heard the story of Roman emperor playing the fiddle while Rome burned--during a fire that broke out on this day in the year 64. The fire raged out of control for three days, completely wiping out all but 3 of Rome’s 14 districts and leaving thousands of Romans homeless. Surprising fact? We know that Nero did not actually fiddle during the fire because the fiddle did not exist at the time.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 17th. Disneyland Park in California has postponed its reopening, which was set to happen today, 65 years to the day after it originally opened to the public on this day in 1955.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 16th. Amazon has only become more ubiquitous during the pandemic--it’s come a long way since this day in 1995 when the shopping giant debuted as an online bookseller. Founder Jeff Bezos’s motto was “get big fast,” and within a month, the fledgling retailer had shipped books to all 50 U.S. states and to 45 countries.