The Liberator Tsar: Alexander II's Assassination, March 13, 1881
On March 13, 1881, Tsar Alexander II — the emperor who freed Russia's serfs — was killed by a terrorist's bomb in St. Petersburg, and his reforms died with him.
Tales from the year 1881
The Angel of the Battlefield Starts the American Red Cross
On May 21, 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross at a meeting in her Washington apartment, bringing a European idea of neutral wartime aid to America.
The Night the Legend of Billy the Kid Was Born
On the night of July 14, 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked the 21-year-old outlaw Billy the Kid to a darkened bedroom in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
The Paper That Grew Up With Los Angeles
On December 4, 1881, the first edition of the Los Angeles Daily Times rolled off the presses in a dusty frontier town — the beginning of one of America's great newspapers.