Ronald G. Shafer | The Seattle Times

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

November 24, 2020 at 8:20 am

Ugly 1876 presidential election included fraud, voter intimidation and maybe a backroom deal

About midnight on his way home from a play in New York City on Election Day in 1876, Daniel Sickles stopped by Republican national headquarters...

Nation & World

August 16, 2020 at 10:36 am

Sweat, steak, five o’clock shadows: How TV transformed political conventions in 1948

At the first widely televised political convention in 1948, a smiling Clare Boothe Luce stepped to the microphone with her blonde curls and white pearls...

Nation & World

June 12, 2019 at 10:30 am

Executive privilege has contentious history, from George Washington to Donald Trump

Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to use the phrase "executive privilege" after refusing to allow his advisers to testify at a Senate hearing in...

Nation & World