Earlier today, we tagged and posted our 15,000th piece of American history content on Bunk. A milestone! Big appreciation to all the great authors represented here: www.bunkhistory.org/resources?so... 🗃️

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From Bolívar to Bad Bunny, there is a long American history of emancipatory visions that transcend national borders. ⬇️ 🗃️

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It’s that time of year again, when we pick our favorite pieces of short-form history writing from the year just concluded. It’s never an easy task, and always entails some very tough decisions! But without further ado, we present the 2025 Bunk Top 40: www.bunkhistory.org/resources/be...

🗃️Read Elizabeth R. Varon on why J.D. Vance is wrong about the Civil War, immigration, and “real” Americans. www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/elev...

Wondering about the history of #Juneteenth and the way it has been commemorated through the years? Check out our collection of recent writing on the topic: www.bunkhistory.org/tags/ideas/j...

Rutherford B. Hayes signed the Posse Comitatus Act #OTD in 1878, making it illegal for the president to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement. But as @gracemallon.bsky.social explained when Trump threatened to use troops against BLM protesters, the act left a big loophole: loom.ly/n1JVg14

On the 10th anniversary of the Charleston massacre, revisit this reflection from @carolineegrego.bsky.social about how writing about people, alive and deceased, requires empathy and compels historians to "provide the context, the history, to inform a new ethics of empathy and grace." loom.ly/19EM_Vk

Activist Jonathan Ned Katz shared his archival discoveries about the parallels between Black and gay history in the form of a play, "Coming Out!," that premiered #OTD in a West Village firehouse in 1972. @jimdowns.bsky.social traced the history of LGBT history @nehgov.bsky.social: loom.ly/6bfUqq8

The front page of @nytimes.com featured the Pentagon Papers #OTD in 1971, after a whistleblower and a cohort of antiwar activists leaked hundreds of pages of documents to the press to force government transparency. In 2018, one of them explained @newyorker.com how they did it: loom.ly/DOlj0-0

After Medgar Evers was shot #OTD in 1964, "I remember hearing the word assassination used for the first time to describe the killing of a Black activist," David Dennis Sr. recalls in this powerful and personal excerpt from "The Movement Made Us" by @daviddennisjr.bsky.social: loom.ly/otHalXA

Thích Quảng Đức set himself on fire #OTD in 1963 to protest the persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam. In the wake of Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation to protest the Gaza War, Anne Wright @commondreams.org reflected on using one's own death to call attention to the deaths of others. loom.ly/d6hASZk

After 75 days of attempted obstruction, the Senate voted to enact the Civil Rights Act #OTD in 1964. Roger Mudd's coverage of the process, Donald Ritchie reminds us, shows that by "hammering facts into the public mind until they can’t be ignored," media can push lawmakers to act: loom.ly/nCifeac

Police tear gassed and beat 500 civil rights protestors praying inside a church ahead of a planned peaceful march in Tuscaloosa #OTD in 1964, as state officials claimed they were quelling a coup. John M. Giggie traced the activists' perseverance in the face of state violence here: loom.ly/OZ4_zwM

The rain stopped in time for Babe Ruth to take the field and present the manuscript of his autobiography to Yale first-baseman George H. W. Bush #OTD in 1948. @ffrommer.bsky.social wrote about the poignant meeting, one of Ruth's last public appearances, for @washingtonpost.com: loom.ly/YS9lo5g

Sara Baines arrived in remote Fort Bridger, WY, #OTD in 1871 to marry a farmer twice her age who had responded to the ad she posted in Frank Leslie's Magazine. Did their relationship last? Find out about settling down and settling the west through personals ads @atlasobscura.com: loom.ly/AWvyCXg

At a press conference #OTD in 2007, George W. Bush requested a significant expansion of PEPFAR, a USAID program that went on to great success countering AIDS in Africa. In 2021, Emily Bass @literaryhub.bsky.social reflected on Bush's public health legacy at home and abroad: loom.ly/qmC99SM

Sojourner Truth never said the words "Ain't I a Woman" when she gave her famous "Ain't I a Woman" speech #OTD in 1851. Listen to a performance of the earliest printed text of the speech and read the story of how such a famous mis-quotation came about: loom.ly/Bdbe5zw

A law enacted #OTD in 1908 gave county probate officials jurisdiction of American Indian "minors and incompetents." Andrea Seielstad @us.theconversation.com wrote about how Oklahoma officials immediately used the law to steal Osage land — especially where there was oil. loom.ly/Z2umBik

🗃️ Read our latest feature: @devintoshea.bsky.social on Henry Boernstein, and how the U.S. became a slightly freer country with a long way to go, in large part thanks to immigrants. www.hnn.us/article/henr...

LBJ announced his "Great Society" program in his commencement speech to the University of Michigan #OTD in 1964. As the GOP budget takes aim at many of the program's reforms, this @washingtonpost.com visualization reminds us of their legacy: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/speci...

Angry that William Mulholland was diverting water from their agricultural land to the growing city of Los Angeles, Owens Valley residents got his attention by blasting the aqueduct with 500lbs of dynamite #OTD in 1924. Read about the confrontation @literaryhub.bsky.social: loom.ly/rWIn0D0

Union Carbide doctors misdiagnosed 18-yr-old West Virginia miner Dewey Flack's cause of death #OTD in 1931 as pneumonia. @adlancianese.bsky.social reported for @npr.org that this helped cover up 750+ silicosis deaths from one of the deadliest industrial disasters in US history. loom.ly/xp7U8bQ

An undocumented worker was ordered deported #OTD in 1972 — "state-sponsored retaliation" for insisting his children have access to school, and that the Border Patrol stop using data collected by the federal Migrant Education Program to surveil and deport students' families. Story: loom.ly/p8dt7L0

Oh, say can you name, what's the very first time that the Star Spangled Banner was played at a sports game??? Answer: the opening game of the Union Grounds in Brooklyn, #OTD in 1862. @usmusicscholar.bsky.social tells the story of the anthem in sports @us.theconversation.com: loom.ly/Bi2VhbE

In the weeks after a white nationalist gunman killed ten African Americans at a Buffalo, NY supermarket #OTD in 2022, Ishmael Reed reflected on his experience growing up in a city long shaped by deep racism, and where he finds optimism in its strong Black community. Via @nybooks.com: loom.ly/u7H0lOY

A rally in Boston #OTD in 1902 called on Congress to enforce Section 2 of the 14th Amendment — reducing representation for states that deny citizens their rights. In a 2019 book, Kerri Greenidge wrote about this voting rights protest tactic. Read an excerpt @literaryhub.bsky.social: loom.ly/uEARxMk

While many histories dismiss as fanaticism the spirit that told Nat Turner to fight #OTD in 1828, @alfatau.bsky.social @bostonreview.bsky.social appreciates Christopher Tomlins for "trying to recover what justice meant to him—as an exhorter, a prophet, and a theological thinker." loom.ly/_Lue2Mk

When Benjamin Franklin printed the now-famous "Join or Die" emblem #OTD in 1754, the snake slithered to prominence as a symbol of American unity. As @boston1775.bsky.social notes @ageofrevolutions.bsky.social, Franklin wasn't the only one who "imagined disjointed snakes reforming." loom.ly/3JcbLlw

Vietnam vet José Campos Torres was found #OTD in 1977 beaten and drowned by police. To minimize the cops' accountability, the court introduced a new term: "misdemeanor murder." @mimiswartz.bsky.social has the story of the killing and the riots it sparked @texasmonthly.bsky.social: loom.ly/uTUZZwQ

Before it inspired TV drama, David Simon's Baltimore Sun piece #OTD in 1990, about a drug kingpin using mobile phones to avoid wiretaps, sparked debate about tech companies aiding police surveillance. @brianhochman.bsky.social wrote about it @nehgov.bsky.social: loom.ly/bQHcxfE

The very first Cinco de Mayo celebrations occurred not in Mexico but in California and Texas. Why? And what did the day represent to Hispano-Americanos during the Civil War? @gustavoarellano.bsky.social explains it all here: loom.ly/K7hn6Ao

Violent repression did not deter Birmingham's youth from reviving the SCLC's protests with a march #OTD in 1963 dubbed the Children's Crusade. Tomiko Brown-Negin wrote @vintagebooks.bsky.social on Constance Baker Motley's masterly legal work to protect them from retribution: loom.ly/jYstcmw

The American Legion staged a propaganda pageant for an eager press in Mosinee, WI #OTD in 1950, play-acting their absurd fantasies of communism: denying kids candy! "executing" cops! @newrepublic.com reflects on the real consequences of political theater performed to instill fear. loom.ly/HTTr9jg

This Day in Labor History: May 1, 1867. Workers in Chicago went on strike for an 8-hour day, the first mass-scale labor action for that demand that directly challenged political power. Let's talk about this little known worker action on May Day!

Elihu Embree published the first issue of "The Emancipator," the nation's first abolitionist newspaper, in Jonesborough, TN, #OTD in 1820 — while enslaving six people. Anne G'Fellers Mason has their story at the paper's namesake, Boston University's @theemancipator.org: loom.ly/ymJEKaU

"Nobody owned me but a cat named Sloopy," Rod McKuen read aloud to a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall #OTD in 1969. Read about the tall-tale telling chansonnier who became the most popular poet in the history of publishing @slate.com or listen on the Decoder Ring podcast: loom.ly/WvjINpI

Elsa Guadelupe-Gonzales, a 24-year old Guatemalan immigrant, took her own life in an ICE detention cell #OTD in 2013. Jessica Ordaz wrote for Made By History in 2020 on the abusive conditions that have been built into the operations of U.S. detention centers for over a century: loom.ly/H-2zSQU

By the time Rod Serling's teleplay on Emmett Till's lynching aired #OTD in 1956, network censors afraid to lose Southern viewers had moved its setting to New England. Serling learned that he'd need to mask his social commentary for his next project, as @jasmansky.bsky.social writes: loom.ly/QM3jTtM

After Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show stereotyped American Indians for audiences at Madison Square Garden, performer Chief Iron Tail sat for portraits by photographer Gertrude Käsebier #OTD in 1898, giving us a glimpse of the self-image he preferred to present. loom.ly/Gzf4RRQ

Young Natchez residents wanted the escape of jazz and dancing #OTD in 1940, but one of the deadliest fires in US history turned a space of Black joy into a reminder of the inescapable human cost of Jim Crow. @drkarenlcox.bsky.social interviewed a survivor @mississippifreepress.org: loom.ly/6p6S4PU

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Today at NOON, Oklahoma City turns 136. @shamblanderson.bsky.social thinks the Land Run that turned prairie into boomtown at precisely 12PM #OTD in 1889 "should be called something like 'Chaos Explosion Apocalypse Town' or 'Reckoning of the DoomSettlers.'" See why @intelligencer.com: loom.ly/NsX7PEQ

The British patrol ship Ferret lived up to its name #OTD in 1845, ferreting out an illegal American slaver that had entered Angola with rum, gunpowder, and 1200 padlocks. @jrothman.bsky.social and Benjamin Skolnik wrote @slate.com about the ship and the return of its 680 captives: loom.ly/JrVYVO0

#OTD in 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord took place. Read our latest feature on how the myth of this day took shape. www.hnn.us/article/the-...

Amidst a culture painting Black Americans as beasts to be traded, segregated, lynched, W.E.B. Du Bois asserted their humanity by calling attention to "The Souls of Black Folk," published #OTD in 1903. @ibrahimxk.bsky.social @parisreview.bsky.social reminds us how daring that was. loom.ly/hO2fb6E

Frank Stafford saw police beating children in Harlem #OTD in 1964 and asked them why. His question cost him an eye. Fecundo Acion asked too, and they beat him unconscious. No one had been charged with a crime. Read James Baldwin @thenation.com on life amidst illegal police action: loom.ly/Z1y7bm0

🗃️ The story of the Battles of Lexington and Concord has united generations of Americans around deeply enshrined democratic commitments that helped Americans define their nation as a community that cherishes the dignity and virility of its common-born members. www.hnn.us/article/the-...