On August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died unexpectedly in San Francisco at 57. Initially, his death was attributed to a stroke, but conflicting reports and a lack of autopsy fueled widespread rumors. Harding’s widow, Florence, declined an autopsy, and his body was returned to Washington, D.C., for a state funeral before burial in his hometown of Marion, Ohio.

In 1972, San Francisco’s first Pride parade drew thousands, cementing the city’s status as a gay haven. Among its activists was Reverend Raymond Broshears, who led the Lavender Panthers, a group defending LGBTQ people from violence.

In 1973, artist Chris Burden staged a provocative performance called 747, where he planned to fire a pistol at a Boeing 747 flying overhead at Los Angeles International Airport. Known for his extreme and daring pieces, Burden wanted to explore themes of power, danger, and distance.

Sprites, mysterious red flashes resembling lightning, were first recorded in 1989 by scientists at the University of Minnesota. They appear high above thunderclouds, occurring at altitudes between 30 and 55 miles in the atmosphere, far above where typical lightning strikes.

Born in 1892 as Rose Wenger, Helen Gibson became an accomplished horse rider and performer in Wild West shows. Her skills caught the attention of filmmakers, and in 1915 she was cast as a stunt double for actress Helen Holmes in The Hazards of Helen, a popular action series. Gibson eventually took over the lead role, becoming one of the first women to perform dangerous stunts on screen.

Unity Valkyrie Mitford, born into Britain’s aristocratic Mitford family in 1914, developed an early fascination with fascism. At 19, she joined her sister Diana in supporting the British Union of Fascists, and soon became captivated by Adolf Hitler’s ideology.

In the 1920s, Soviet scientist Ilya Ivanov experimented with crossbreeding humans and chimpanzees, hoping to create a “humanzee”—a human-chimp hybrid. Ivanov’s work aimed to investigate evolutionary questions and push the boundaries of genetic science.

In December 1997, Julia “Butterfly” Hill climbed a 200-foot-tall California redwood tree named Luna, intending to stay a few weeks. Hill, a 23-year-old environmental activist, was protesting the logging of ancient redwoods by Pacific Lumber Company.

After her friend Emma Lazarus passed away in 1887, poet and activist Georgina Schuyler came across Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus.” The poem, written in 1883, had not gained recognition, but Schuyler believed its powerful message about welcoming immigrants to America was needed.

In 1900-1595 B.C.E., a Mesopotamian clay tablet recorded one of history’s earliest known romantic kisses, showing that this gesture of affection has deep roots. This tablet from Sippar, Mesopotamia, contains lines of poetry: “My upper lip becomes moist, while my lower lip trembles! I shall embrace him, I shall kiss him.”