25,000 women marched up Fifth Avenue in New York City, demanding the right to vote.

“Woke” began as a word of vigilance — and of care.
Rooted in African American Vernacular English, it originally meant being awake to injustice, especially racism and oppression. One of the earliest uses came in 1938, when blues singer Lead Belly warned listeners to “stay woke” to racial danger after singing The Scottsboro Boys.

On October 8, 1941, Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. was born in Greenville, South Carolina. A close ally of Dr. King, Jackson led Operation Breadbasket to leverage Black consumer power for fair hiring and pay, later founding the Rainbow PUSH Coalition to advance voting rights, economic justice, and human dignity.

On October 2, 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi — known to the world as Mahatma Gandhi — was born in India. His life became a testament to the extraordinary power of nonviolent resistance.

On this day, September 18, we celebrate the birthday of Anna Deavere Smith — actor, playwright, professor, and a groundbreaking force in American theater.

Love it or hate it, the Internal Revenue Service has been around nearly as long as the United States itself. Its roots stretch back to the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1862, creating the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue and imposing the nation’s first federal income tax. The tax was meant to fund the Union’s war effort — and it worked, bringing in millions of badly needed dollars.

On September 11, 1789, Alexander Hamilton was appointed by George Washington as the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury.

Thirty-four years ago today, on August 21, 1991, the people of Latvia reclaimed their freedom. After decades of Soviet control, the Latvian parliament declared independence from the USSR — even as tanks rolled through the streets of Riga.

On the morning of August 7, 1974, the impossible happened in lower Manhattan. At 7:00 a.m., Philippe Petit stepped off the edge of the South Tower of the World Trade Center — and onto a wire.

On July 31, 1964, Ranger 7 became the first American spacecraft to successfully photograph the Moon up close. Just 17 minutes before crashing into the lunar surface, it transmitted over 4,300 stunning images—crystal-clear glimpses of the Moon that helped pave the way for the Apollo missions and, five years later, Neil Armstrong’s famous steps.

On this day in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in United States v. Nixon that President Richard Nixon had to turn over secret Oval Office recordings to a federal court. The decision would lead directly to his resignation just 16 days later.

Her name was Wisława Szymborska.

She grew up in Poland under fascism and then communism — regimes that demanded loyalty, silence, and propaganda.

On July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall was born.
He would go on to change the course of American history.

On July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall was born.
He would go on to change the course of American history.

Born from the ashes of World War II, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded on April 4, 1949 to ensure that never again would democracy stand alone against authoritarian aggression.

95 years ago today, Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Thirteen years later, she was in hiding in an Amsterdam attic, writing in the diary that would outlive her and become one of the most powerful personal accounts of the Holocaust.

On June 5, 1919, the world welcomed Richard Scarry, the imaginative mind behind Busytown — a place where cats drove banana cars, pigs directed traffic, and worms wore tiny hats.

May 8, 1980 — a date the world should never forget. On this day, after a decades-long global vaccination campaign, the World Health Organization officially declared smallpox eradicated. It remains one of the greatest public health achievements in human history — and a powerful reminder of what’s possible when the world comes together for the common good.

Established in 1965 under the Social Security Act, Medicaid was born from a national commitment to health justice. It ensures that low-income families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities can access essential healthcare—no matter their zip code.

It began with a simple demand: eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.