On March 19, 1964, Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock, a 38-year-old housewife and pilot from Columbus, Ohio, took off alone in a single-engine Cessna 180 named the Spirit of Columbus. Mock aimed to become the first woman to fly solo around the world. Her journey covered nearly 23,000 miles.

In the 1940s, with the Pacific Ocean’s depths largely uncharted, the U.S. Navy turned to a new and daring group—the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT). These “frogmen,” trained in Maui, faced dangerous missions, swimming unarmed and camouflaged only by blue paint to scout enemy beaches and clear obstacles ahead of Allied assaults.

In 1940, as Nazi forces swept into France, American fears of espionage on home soil surged. President Roosevelt, worried about “fifth column” spies, expanded FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s powers, permitting the FBI to conduct wiretaps and surveillance. Hoover used this mandate to broaden the FBI’s role from criminal investigations to national security.

In the presidential election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both from the Democratic-Republican party, each received 73 votes in the Electoral College, resulting in an unprecedented tie. This left the House of Representatives to choose the next president, as the U.S. Constitution required.

On January 17, 1920, the U.S. banned alcohol under Prohibition. Yet, many Americans continued drinking in secret, including aboard Michigan’s Lake Charlevoix, where Captain James Gallagher transformed a timber barge, the Keuka, into a “floating dance hall.” Though promoted as a roller rink, it was a speakeasy and casino catering to locals.

As King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited the flood-devastated town of Paiporta in Valencia, frustrated residents threw mud and objects at them, shouting “murderer” and “shame.” The scene intensified when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also arrived and faced hostility, eventually prompting a swift evacuation.

In 1957, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev boasted about his country’s missiles, challenging the U.S. to a “peaceful rocket contest.” By 1961, with John F. Kennedy newly elected as president, fears of nuclear war reached new heights. As a security measure, officials secretly built a fallout shelter for Kennedy on Nantucket, Massachusetts.

In 1894, after the assassination of French President Sadi Carnot by an Italian anarchist, French authorities launched a widespread crackdown on suspected anarchists. This included monitoring foreigners, especially artists and immigrants in Paris, as concerns over anarchist movements grew.

In 1878, Thomas Edison’s incandescent bulb invention was incomplete—it stayed lit for only minutes before overheating. With competitors like Joseph Swan in England racing to develop a working light bulb, Edison felt the pressure.

In the early 1800s, a mysterious illness called “milk sickness” plagued Midwestern settlers. Those afflicted suffered weakness, vomiting, and sometimes death. Many attributed it to curses or poisonous vapors, with no clear cause in sight.