The #apartheid state of #Israel fully exposed itself on #ThisDayInHistory in 2026 by passing a law making the #DeathPenalty the default sentence for #Palestinians convicted of killing Israeli Jews. It doesn't work the other way, and applies in Israel and all #OccupiedTerritories.

No US president has been assassinated since 1963, but at least one came close when on #ThisDayInHistory in 1981 when #RonaldReagan was shot in the chest outside a #WashingtonDC hotel by #JohnHinckleyJr. The #ConspiracyTheorist survived it, of course, only dying in 2004 at age 93.

There is no justice for the powerful in the US. Most of our presidents have been criminals in one way or another. It was not until #ThisDayInHistory in 2023 that a former president was first even indicted by a grand jury. #Trump's felony convictions were rewarded with reëlection.

Until a SCOTUS ruling on #ThisDayInHistory in 1964, which cleared #MaryHamilton of a contempt conviction for insisting on being called Miss Hamilton, it was customary in many US law courts to refer to Black witnesses by their given name, with courtesy titles used only for whites.

Too often people are seduced by rose-coloured glasses and romanticize the past; historians know it better as an unrelenting parade of horrors. On #ThisDayInHistory in 1842, ether #anesthesia was used for the first time in #surgery. Try to imagine what surgery was like before it.

#Alaska, called #SewardsFolly, was purchased for the United States from #Russia on #ThisDayInHistory in 1867 by Secretary of State William Seward. Dismissed at the time as a frozen wasteland with no value to the US, Seward earned the last laugh once gold and oil were found there.

During the #BleedingKansas period, where pro-#slavery and #abolitionist factions fought over the territory's future, on #ThisDayInHistory in 1855 the #BorderRuffians gang crossed in from #Missouri to commit crimes ranging from murder to #VoterFraud to make Kansas a slave state.

The era of #HighImperialism saw European powers competing to seize many of the nations still not ruled by white élites. #Morocco was forced into the French colonial empire as a protectorate by the #TreatyOfFez, signed by #Alawi sultan 'Abd al-Hafid on #ThisDayInHistory in 1912.

The #GreatMarchOfReturn began on #ThisDayInHistory in 2018. Organized in #Gaza by #nonviolent activists & meant to run from #LandDay to #NakbaDay, they lasted 18 months instead. #Israel killed 223 #Palestinians total & had wounded 13,000 by June 2018, 1400 with 3+ bullets wounds.