Ranked #1

1905: "I Am Poisoned!"
1905: "I Am Poisoned!"
Jane Lathrop Stanford, co-founder of the university, survives a poisoning attempt at her palatial home in San Francisco.... Read more
24 Sep 2019
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6mins
Ranked #2

1995: O.J. Simpson Acquitted
1995: O.J. Simpson Acquitted
It wasn't the first 20th century trial to be dubbed the Trial of the Century. But it might be the one that keeps the tit... Read more
3 Oct 2019
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6mins
Ranked #3

1950: "Peanuts" Debuts
1950: "Peanuts" Debuts
"Good ol' Charlie Brown," a little boy sitting on a curb says as a soon-to-be-familiar character with a round head strol... Read more
2 Oct 2019
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6mins
Ranked #4

1989: Loma Prieta Earthquake, Part 1
1989: Loma Prieta Earthquake, Part 1
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake kills more than 60 people, injures hundreds, damages the Bay Bridge and other roadways and bu... Read more
17 Oct 2019
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22mins
Ranked #5

1975: Patty Hearst Arrested
1975: Patty Hearst Arrested
A tip leads police to knock on a door in the Outer Mission. When Patty Hearst answers, it ends a 19-month odyssey that s... Read more
18 Sep 2019
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6mins
Ranked #6

1983: Drug and Alcohol Crowd at the White House!
1983: Drug and Alcohol Crowd at the White House!
That's what Interior Secretary James Watt called the audience for the Beach Boys when he banned them from a July Fourth ... Read more
27 Sep 2019
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6mins
Ranked #7

1989: Loma Prieta Earthquake, Part 2
1989: Loma Prieta Earthquake, Part 2
San Francisco Chronicle reporters talk about where they were when the earth shook on Oct. 17, 1989, and what they did on... Read more
18 Oct 2019
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19mins
Ranked #8

1952: Charlie Chaplin Exiled
1952: Charlie Chaplin Exiled
Once one of America's most beloved movie stars, the great comedian was now being hounded by the FBI for his leftist poli... Read more
19 Sep 2019
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6mins
Ranked #9

1923: General Theory of Relativity Confirmed
1923: General Theory of Relativity Confirmed
You'll be glad to know Albert Einstein was right. Astronomers at the Lick Observatory in San Jose confirmed it by examin... Read more
26 Sep 2019
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6mins
Ranked #10

1876: The Battle of Little Big Horn
1876: The Battle of Little Big Horn
They used to call it "Custer's Last Stand," thanks to nearly a century of myth-making. But the real story is it was a gr... Read more
25 Jun 2019
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7mins
Ranked #11

1969: Woodstock, Day 1
1969: Woodstock, Day 1
We know it as an iconic "three days of peace and music." Early media reports made it sound like a natural disaster had h... Read more
15 Aug 2019
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6mins
Ranked #12

1910: Teddy Roosevelt vs. the Pope
1910: Teddy Roosevelt vs. the Pope
You've got to be pretty bold to tangle with the pope. Teddy Roosevelt was pretty bold. On a post-presidential world tour... Read more
4 Apr 2019
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7mins
Ranked #13

1933: "Alfalfa Bill" Murray Empties the Jails
1933: "Alfalfa Bill" Murray Empties the Jails
Imagine the surprise for the prosecutor when he looked out at the law class he was teaching and saw the face of the man ... Read more
26 Feb 2019
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5mins
Ranked #14

1940: Lascaux Cave Paintings Discovered
1940: Lascaux Cave Paintings Discovered
Some teenage boys out for a walk in the woods stumble upon a living museum of prehistoric times, "a cavalcade of animals... Read more
12 Sep 2019
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5mins
Ranked #15

1945: Adolf Hitler's Suicide
1945: Adolf Hitler's Suicide
A day after Americans learned that the Nazi leader had died, they learned that Germany's official announcement that Hitl... Read more
3 May 2019
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5mins
Ranked #16

1977: The Golden Dragon Massacre
1977: The Golden Dragon Massacre
Three gang members walk into a crowded Chinatown restaurant in the wee hours with long guns. The worst mass shooting in ... Read more
4 Sep 2019
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6mins
Ranked #17

1970: The Kent State Shooting
1970: The Kent State Shooting
President Nixon reverses course and escalates the Vietnam War by invading formerly neutral Cambodia, and America's colle... Read more
6 May 2019
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5mins
Ranked #18

1926: Death Shackles Houdini
1926: Death Shackles Houdini
The King of Magicians dies on Halloween. Of course he does. Joe Posnanski, author of the new biography "The Life and Aft... Read more
31 Oct 2019
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11mins
Ranked #19

1913: Panama Canal Opens
1913: Panama Canal Opens
President Woodrow Wilson presses a telegraph key in Washington and 4,000 miles to the south, eight tons of dynamite blow... Read more
10 Oct 2019
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5mins
Ranked #20

1929: Black Tuesday
1929: Black Tuesday
Here comes the Great Depression. The stock market crash wasn't a one-day event, but the one day known as Black Tuesday s... Read more
29 Oct 2019
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5mins