This Day in History

  • Disco is dealt death blow by fans of the Chicago White Sox
    by HISTORY.com Editors on July 12, 2026 at 1:07 pm

    As the 1970s came to an end, the age of disco was also nearing its finale. But the public backlash to the genre reached its peak on July 12, 1979 with the infamous “Disco Demolition” night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. That incident, which led to at least nine injuries, 39 arrests and the cancellation and

  • The Bisbee Deportation (1917)
    on July 12, 2026 at 5:00 am

    In June 1917, miners in Bisbee, Arizona, engaged in a strike to improve wages and working conditions. On July 12, 2,000 vigilantes organized by the county sheriff illegally deported more than 1,000 of the striking union workers and others, including Americans and immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere. They were brought to a baseball field, loaded onto a cattle train, and taken 16 hours through the desert. They were finally dropped off in Hermanas, New Mexico. What happened to them next?

  • UK Court Finds Gay News and Its Editor Guilty of Blasphemy (1977)
    on July 11, 2026 at 5:00 am

    The June 3, 1976, issue of the British newspaper Gay News included James Kirkup's poem "The Love that Dares to Speak Its Name," which depicts Jesus as a homosexual. Mary Whitehouse—a media watchdog known for her "Clean Up TV" campaign—described the poem as a "blasphemous libel" and sought charges against Gay News and its publisher, Denis Lemon. On July 11, 1977, a jury found Lemon guilty, and his later appeal to the House of Lords was unsuccessful. What was Lemon's sentence?

  • The Seveso Disaster (1976)
    on July 10, 2026 at 5:00 am

    Around noon on July 10, 1976, an explosion occurred in the ICMESA manufacturing plant north of Milan, Italy, releasing a poisonous cloud of dioxin gas. Although dioxin is toxic—it was an ingredient in the herbicide Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War—evacuation efforts began slowly. Named for the small Italian town most affected, the Seveso disaster led to legislation aimed at preventing chemical accidents. How many animals were slaughtered to prevent toxins from entering the food chain?