Ronald G. Shafer | The Seattle Times

April 18, 2022 at 8:22 am

Americans’ taxes used to be public — until the rich revolted

For a while in the 1920s, everybody's tax payments were public record. Then, as now, the ultrarich paid relatively low tax rates after taking legal...

An undated photo of Justice Louis D. Brandeis. MUST CREDIT: Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress

April 4, 2022 at 4:28 am

The first Jewish justice was also the first to face confirmation hearings

Until 1916, Congress didn't conduct public hearings on Supreme Court nominees. That changed when President Woodrow Wilson nominated Boston lawyer Louis D. Brandeis to be...

Nation & World

Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, with an experimental biplane on the Potomac, c. 1917. MUST CREDIT: Library of Congress.

December 11, 2021 at 5:34 am

Wright brothers versus Smithsonian: the bitter feud over who invented the airplane

Orville Wright set off a national firestorm by revealing in his letter that he planned to send the Wright Flyer to the Science Museum at...

Nation & World

November 25, 2021 at 5:06 am

Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week to goose the economy. Chaos ensued.

To boost the economy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week to create an extra seven days of Christmas shopping. Turkey Day traditionalists...

Nation & World

October 11, 2021 at 5:06 am

The first Columbus Day was born of violence — and political calculation

As Columbus Day increasingly falls out of favor, some background: President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed Columbus Day in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher...

Nation & World

August 10, 2021 at 4:38 am

The mandatory vaccinations that triggered a riot in Montreal in 1885

The Canadian city moved to make smallpox vaccinations compulsory during an outbreak in 1885. That resulted in mistrust and even violence, including an attack on...

Nation & World

May 2, 2021 at 9:10 am

The night Lincoln was assassinated, his new bodyguard went missing

At the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln had no illusions about the frequent threats to kill him. On the afternoon of April...

Nation & World

February 13, 2021 at 9:20 am

The impeachment trial presided over by Alexander Hamilton’s killer

There is precedent for strange circumstances in an impeachment trial: in 1805, Vice President Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton's killer, presided over the trial of Supreme...

Nation & World

An undated portrait of Grover Cleveland, 22nd president of the United States, 1885-1889; 1893-1897. (AP Photo/NYPL Picture Collection)

December 28, 2020 at 5:58 am

Trump 2024? Only one president has returned to power after losing reelection.

With his talk of a second term down the road, President Donald Trump is channeling Grover Cleveland, America's 22nd and 24th president - the only...

December 13, 2020 at 5:50 am

Hijacking the electoral college: The plot to deny JFK the presidency 60 years ago

It was a bitter, close election, and there were furious allegations of fraud. After Democrat John Kennedy barely beat Republican Richard M. Nixon in the...

Nation & World