🌟 Editor's Note
Good morning — it’s Saturday, January 31. Today we're diving into the 13th Amendment, the first American execution for desertion since the Civil War, the development of the hydrogen bomb, and the first McDonald's in the Soviet Union, and much more — quick, sharp, and clear as a bell!
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🚀 Time Machine
-1865
Congress approves the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in the U.S. except as punishment for a crime, with a vote of 121-24.
-1943
German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered to Soviet forces at Stalingrad.
-1945
Eddie Slovik became the first American executed for desertion since the Civil War—and the only one during World War II.
-1950
US President Harry Truman announced support for the development of a hydrogen bomb.
-1985
South African President P.W. Botha offered to free Nelson Mandela if he denounced violence.
-1990
The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opened in Moscow.
-2019
Colonization of America in the late 1500s killed so many people that it cooled the planet and led to a "Little Ice Age," according to "Quaternary Science Reviews."
📸 Snapshot
Early tourists drink tea atop the Great Pyramid, 1938
🗨️ Last Words
“While there is life there is will.”