The Passing of a Good Man: May 12, 2008
This year, May 12 marks the fourteenth anniversary of the death of the founding general editor of the Catholic Textbook Project, Dr....
Lee Whips Hooker at Chancellorsville: May 1-4, 1863
The turn of the year 1863 found the Army of the Potomac mired in Virginia clay at Falmouth, on the left bank of the Rappahannock,...
Lincoln Suspends Habeas Corpus: April 27, 1862
Lincoln’s first task was to secure for the union the neutral border states — Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware, and Missouri. Delaware, with...
Parliament Emancipates Catholics: April 13, 1829
Conditions did not improve when George IV became king in 1820. As regent for his insane father, George III, since 1811, George IV had...
The Founding of Danton’s Dictator: April 5, 1793
Danton had not been in Paris when the National Convention declared war on Great Britain. Instead, he had gone on another mission to the...
Birthday of a Troubled Philosopher: March 31, 1596
When the the terrible Thirty Years War had only just begun, a young man took up a private struggle, a fearful struggle, of his own. This...
Assassination of a Tsar: March 23, 1801
It was night. All was quiet in the Michailov Palace in St. Petersburg. The members of the imperial family were in their beds, asleep—all...
Texas and Hard Cider: February 28, 1845
In May 1836, John C. Calhoun said: “there [are] powerful reasons why Texas should be part of this Union.” The southern states, he said,...
The Pope Dragged from Rome: February 20, 1798
The elections for the two houses of the French legislative assembly on May 20, 1797, seemed to promise a long-awaited peace for the...
Election of a Pleasure-Loving Pope: February 15, 1775
This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations II: The Making of the Modern World. The conclave that met to elect Pope Clement XIV’s...
Catholic Textbook Project
- Oct 18, 2021
California Conquered — by Mistake: October 19, 1842
This text comes from our book, Lands of Hope and Promise: A History of North America. The secularization of mission lands, along with the...
Catholic Textbook Project
- Oct 1, 2021
Christendom Saved at Lepanto: October 7, 1571
This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations I: The History of Christian Civilization. The Council of Trent had been called to...
Catholic Textbook Project
- Sep 17, 2021
A New Era Begins: September 20, 1792
This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations II: The Making of the Modern World. In the months following the overthrow of the...
Catholic Textbook Project
- Sep 3, 2021
“At Least I Shall Die as Pope”: September 7, 1303
This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations I: The History of Christian Civilization. The quarrel between Philip the Fair and...
Catholic Textbook Project
- Aug 27, 2021
The English Peasants Rise, for the Last Time: August 29, 1830
This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations II: The Making of the Modern World. When King George IV died on June 26, 1830, his...