March 26 in history — On This Day

A photograph taken after the 1871 fire can make Chicago look as though its future had been decided by a wall of flame. A view from around 1905 tells a different story: tall offices, busy transport routes and commercial streets crowded again.

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AI History Recreations

Politics

The San Francisco Peace Treaty takes effect

War & Conflict

The USS Bismarck Sea sinks off Iwo Jima

Space

Challenger begins its first space mission

Technology

Eli Whitney receives a cotton gin patent

History

Barbie is introduced at a New York toy fair

New York opens the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations

North American Railroads Adopt Standard Time Zones

Crime & Justice

John Tunstall is killed in New Mexico

Joetha Collier is murdered in Mississippi

Terry Nichols Is Convicted in the Oklahoma City Bombing Case

Science

A criticality accident exposes Louis Slotin to radiation

Chicago Pile-1 Achieves a Controlled Chain Reaction

The Night the Leonids Filled the Sky

Medicine & Health

The First American IVF Baby Is Born

The First Successful Human Kidney Transplant

Nature & Disasters

Market Street Before and After the 1906 Earthquake

The Iroquois Theatre Fire

The Endangered Species Act Is Signed

Exploration

Magellan's Expedition Enters the Pacific

Nellie Bly Begins Her Journey Around the World

The First Flight Around the World Returns to Seattle

Sport

Mike Tyson Becomes the Youngest Heavyweight Titleholder

Rutgers and Princeton Play the First Intercollegiate Football Game

Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0: The Game Behind the Impossible Score

Art & Literature

Moose Murders opens and closes on Broadway

The New Yorker publishes its first issue

Huckleberry Finn reaches American bookshops

Music

Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial

Stravinsky’s Orpheus premieres in New York

Marian Anderson sings at the Metropolitan Opera

Film & TV

Edison’s laboratory demonstrates a prototype Kinetoscope

Disney’s Three Little Pigs premieres

It's a Wonderful Life Has Its New York Premiere

The Story Behind the Photo

Chicago After the Fire: From Burned Blocks to a New Skyline

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The Road to the Moon

Fires That Changed Cities

The Age of Invention

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My Birthday in History

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