First World War erupts. (2011). The History Channel website. Retrieved 9:42, June 25, 2011, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-world-war-erupts. On June 28, 1914, in an event that is widely regarded as sparking the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was shot to death with his wife by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ferdinand had been inspecting his uncle’s imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian nationalists who wanted these Austro-Hungarian possessions to join newly independent Serbia. Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism once and…

On June 28th, 1898, Congress passed the Curtis Act which included in the body of the legislation allotment to the Five Civilized Tribes and ending them as sovereign nations by March 4, 1906. The act also abolished tribal courts and forbade enforcement of tribal laws in federal courts. The act forced the tribes to begin enrolling tribal members and to take up allotments by the 1906 deadline. Ironically, the act was authored by Kaw tribal member Charles Curtis, Congressman from Kansas.

By Annie Lowrey  Posted Friday, June 24, 2011, at 5:18 PM EThttp://www.slate.com/id/2297513?wpisrc=xs_wp_0001 Since even before Arthur Laffer drew his curve on a napkin, Republicans and Democrats have been having the same fight about taxes and growth. Republican politicians insist that tax cuts “pay for themselves,” increasing receipts by goosing economic growth. Democrats and virtually all economists say they’re wrong. Today, this very dispute animates the showdown between Republicans and Democrats over whether to include any tax increases in the long-term plan to reduce the deficit. But there are a few cases where tax cuts have arguably raised receipts. These cases are instructive, as they are so specific and so rare.  Let’s…

The Constitution’s framers were flawed like today’s politicians, so it’s high time we stop embalming them in infallibility. by Simon Schama June 26, 2011     http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/26/the-founding-fathers-were-flawed.html   He may have written the Declaration of Independence, but were he around today Thomas Jefferson wouldn’t have a prayer of winning the Republican nomination, much less the presidency. It wouldn’t be his liaison with the teenage daughter of one of his slaves nor the love children she bore him that would be the stumbling block. Nor would it be Jefferson’s suspicious possession of an English translation of the Quran that might doom him to fail the Newt Gingrich loyalty test. No, it would…

by JAMES FALLOWS James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States, and once worked as President Carter’s chief speechwriter. The French National Library has a wonderful exhibit of prints from 1910, imagining the wonderful new world of the year 2000. For instance, how we would learn:  And, le train électrique Paris-Pekin*: Studies of “how the past imagined the future” make up a rich and established field — for instance, with David Gelernter’s 1995 book about the “futuristic” 1939 New York World’s Fair. Or in a different way Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward. But if the library’s…