Dom Einhorn

The Martians Landed in New Jersey, and the Newspapers Invented a Panic

Orson Welles broadcast The War of the Worlds on October 30, 1938. The legend says it sent America screaming into the streets. The truth is more interesting.

Oct 30, 2026

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3 min read

The First Message Ever Sent Over the Internet Was 'LO.' Then the System Crashed.

On the night of October 29, 1969, a student at UCLA tried to log in to a computer at Stanford Research Institute over a new network called ARPANET. He got two letters through before it failed.

Oct 29, 2026

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3 min read

A Sculptor from Alsace Gave New York a Colossus, and Schoolchildren's Pennies Gave It Somewhere to Stand

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886. A gift from the people of France, it nearly went without a pedestal until a newspaper shamed Americans into paying for one.

Oct 28, 2026

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3 min read

The Mayor Was Supposed to Drive the Train for One Ceremonial Minute. He Refused to Give Back the Controls.

The New York City subway opened on October 27, 1904. More than a hundred thousand people rode it on the first evening, each for a nickel, and the city was never the same shape again.

Oct 27, 2026

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3 min read

Thirty Seconds, Thirty Shots, and It Did Not Even Happen at the O.K. Corral

On October 26, 1881, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday faced a group of cowboys in a vacant lot in Tombstone, Arizona. Three men died, and the most famous gunfight of the American West was born.

Oct 26, 2026

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3 min read

The Midwife Thought He Was Stillborn. He Lived to Ninety-One and Reinvented Painting More Than Once.

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga, Spain. Over nearly eight decades of work he co-founded Cubism, painted Guernica, and became the most famous artist of the twentieth century.

Oct 25, 2026

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3 min read

The Bankers Stopped the Panic on Thursday. On Monday It Came Back and Did Not Stop.

October 24, 1929, is remembered as Black Thursday, the first day of the Wall Street Crash. Within a week the great bull market of the 1920s was finished, and the Great Depression was on its way.

Oct 24, 2026

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3 min read

Students Marched Through Budapest, and for Twelve Days a Small Country Defied the Soviet Empire

The Hungarian Revolution began on October 23, 1956. It was crushed by Soviet tanks within two weeks, but it exposed the nature of Soviet rule in Eastern Europe to the entire world.

Oct 23, 2026

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3 min read

A Frenchman Cut the Rope at Three Thousand Feet and Trusted His Life to a Silk Umbrella

On October 22, 1797, Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent from a balloon, over the Parc Monceau in Paris. He landed badly shaken, slightly airsick, and alive.

Oct 22, 2026

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3 min read

He Made His Fortune from Explosives and Left It All to Peace, Science, and Literature

Alfred Nobel was born on October 21, 1833. The inventor of dynamite held 355 patents, built a global industrial empire, and wrote a one-page will that created the most famous prizes in the world.

Oct 21, 2026

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3 min read

It Was Ten Years Late and Fourteen Times Over Budget. Its Architect Never Saw It Finished.

Queen Elizabeth II opened the Sydney Opera House on October 20, 1973. The Danish architect who designed it had left Australia in anger seven years earlier and never returned.

Oct 20, 2026

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3 min read

The British Band Played, the Redcoats Laid Down Their Arms, and the War Was Effectively Over

General Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781. A French fleet had made it possible, and the defeat convinced Britain that the American colonies could not be recovered.

Oct 19, 2026

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3 min read

The Greatest American Novel Was Published in London, Flopped, and Was Forgotten for Seventy Years

Herman Melville's whaling epic first appeared on October 18, 1851, under the title The Whale. It sold poorly, wrecked his career, and was rediscovered only long after his death.

Oct 18, 2026

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3 min read

He Ordered Murders by the Dozen. They Got Him for Not Filing His Taxes.

Al Capone was convicted of federal income tax evasion on October 17, 1931. The most notorious gangster in America was brought down by accountants, and he never ran Chicago again.

Oct 17, 2026

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3 min read

The President Was Shown Some Photographs at Breakfast. For Thirteen Days the World Held Its Breath.

On October 16, 1962, President Kennedy was told that the Soviet Union was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba. The confrontation that followed brought the world closer to nuclear war than it has ever come.

Oct 16, 2026

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3 min read

People Went to Bed on October 4 and Woke Up on October 15

The Gregorian calendar took effect on October 15, 1582, in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Poland. Ten days were deleted to fix an ancient error, and it took the rest of the world more than three centuries to catch up.

Oct 15, 2026

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3 min read

One Long Day on a Sussex Hillside Changed the English Language Forever

The Battle of Hastings was fought on October 14, 1066. King Harold was killed, William of Normandy took the crown, and England was tied to the continent for the next four centuries.

Oct 14, 2026

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3 min read

At Dawn on Friday the Thirteenth, the King of France Arrested the Richest Knights in Christendom

On October 13, 1307, agents of King Philip IV seized the Knights Templar across France in a single coordinated sweep. Seven years later the order was gone and its last Grand Master had been burned alive.

Oct 13, 2026

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3 min read

A Crown Prince Got Married and Invited the Whole City. The Party Never Really Stopped.

On October 12, 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese, and Munich celebrated on a meadow outside the city gates. The festivities were repeated the next year and became Oktoberfest.

Oct 12, 2026

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3 min read

NBC Needed Something Cheap to Fill Saturday Nights. It Got Fifty Years of Television.

Saturday Night Live went on the air on October 11, 1975, as a low-cost replacement for reruns of The Tonight Show. It became the longest-running sketch comedy program in American history.

Oct 11, 2026

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3 min read

A Bomb Went Off by Accident, and Two Thousand Years of Emperors Came to an End

The Wuchang Uprising began on October 10, 1911. Within four months the Qing dynasty had fallen and China had become a republic. The man who became its first president read about it in a newspaper in Denver.

Oct 10, 2026

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3 min read

He Was Shot in a Village Schoolhouse. Then His Face Went on a Billion T-Shirts.

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was executed in Bolivia on October 9, 1967, at the age of thirty-nine. In death he became the most reproduced image of the twentieth century and one of its most disputed figures.

Oct 9, 2026

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3 min read

The Fire Burned for Two Days. The Cow Was Innocent.

The Great Chicago Fire broke out on the night of October 8, 1871. It destroyed the heart of the city, left a third of its people homeless, and cleared the ground for the birthplace of the skyscraper.

Oct 8, 2026

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3 min read

Four Hundred Galleys Met Off the Coast of Greece in the Last Great Battle of Oars

On October 7, 1571, the fleet of the Holy League defeated the Ottoman navy at Lepanto. It was the largest naval battle in the West in over a thousand years, and a future novelist lost the use of his left hand.

Oct 7, 2026

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3 min read

The Movies Learned to Talk, and Half of Hollywood Was Out of a Job

The Jazz Singer premiered in New York on October 6, 1927. It was the first feature film with synchronized speech, and it ended the silent era almost overnight.

Oct 6, 2026

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3 min read

Dom Einhorn

The Martians Landed in New Jersey, and the Newspapers Invented a Panic

The First Message Ever Sent Over the Internet Was 'LO.' Then the System Crashed.

A Sculptor from Alsace Gave New York a Colossus, and Schoolchildren's Pennies Gave It Somewhere to Stand

The Mayor Was Supposed to Drive the Train for One Ceremonial Minute. He Refused to Give Back the Controls.

Thirty Seconds, Thirty Shots, and It Did Not Even Happen at the O.K. Corral

The Midwife Thought He Was Stillborn. He Lived to Ninety-One and Reinvented Painting More Than Once.

The Bankers Stopped the Panic on Thursday. On Monday It Came Back and Did Not Stop.

Students Marched Through Budapest, and for Twelve Days a Small Country Defied the Soviet Empire

A Frenchman Cut the Rope at Three Thousand Feet and Trusted His Life to a Silk Umbrella

He Made His Fortune from Explosives and Left It All to Peace, Science, and Literature

It Was Ten Years Late and Fourteen Times Over Budget. Its Architect Never Saw It Finished.

The British Band Played, the Redcoats Laid Down Their Arms, and the War Was Effectively Over

The Greatest American Novel Was Published in London, Flopped, and Was Forgotten for Seventy Years

He Ordered Murders by the Dozen. They Got Him for Not Filing His Taxes.

The President Was Shown Some Photographs at Breakfast. For Thirteen Days the World Held Its Breath.

People Went to Bed on October 4 and Woke Up on October 15

One Long Day on a Sussex Hillside Changed the English Language Forever

At Dawn on Friday the Thirteenth, the King of France Arrested the Richest Knights in Christendom

A Crown Prince Got Married and Invited the Whole City. The Party Never Really Stopped.

NBC Needed Something Cheap to Fill Saturday Nights. It Got Fifty Years of Television.

A Bomb Went Off by Accident, and Two Thousand Years of Emperors Came to an End

He Was Shot in a Village Schoolhouse. Then His Face Went on a Billion T-Shirts.

The Fire Burned for Two Days. The Cow Was Innocent.

Four Hundred Galleys Met Off the Coast of Greece in the Last Great Battle of Oars

The Movies Learned to Talk, and Half of Hollywood Was Out of a Job

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