Today is Jesse James birthday.  He was born September 5, 1847 and was murdered April 3, 1882. He didn’t die in a glorious shoot out or a famous duel.  He was shot in the back of the head by a friend and a coward.

From THISDAYOFHISTORY.COM:

n April 3, 1882, in the quiet Missouri town of St. Joseph, one of the most famous outlaws of the American West met an unceremonious end. Jesse James—bank robber, Confederate guerrilla, and folk hero to some—was shot in the back of the head by a man he trusted: Robert Ford. The killing did not occur in a dusty street amid a hail of gunfire, but inside a rented home, while James stood on a chair adjusting a picture on the wall.

By 1882, Jesse James had already become a legend. Born in 1847 in Missouri, he came of age amid the violence of the Civil War along the Kansas-Missouri border—a region riven by guerrilla warfare and personal vendettas. As a member of pro-Confederate partisan bands led by figures like William Quantrill and “Bloody Bill” Anderson, James participated in brutal raids that blurred any distinction between combatant and outlaw. When the war ended, the habits—and networks—of irregular violence remained. James, along with his brother Frank, turned to robbery, forming the James-Younger Gang with the Younger brothers and other associates.

Throughout the late 1860s and 1870s, the gang carried out a series of high-profile bank and train robberies across Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and beyond. Their exploits were amplified by sympathetic newspapers, which cast James as a kind of Southern Robin Hood, striking at powerful financial institutions and railroads. This image bore little resemblance to reality—many of the gang’s robberies involved civilian casualties—but it proved durable. In a region still resentful over the outcome of the Civil War and the disruptions of Reconstruction, Jesse James became a folk hero as much as a criminal.

That myth began to unravel after the gang’s disastrous attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, in 1876. The raid ended in failure, with several gang members killed or captured by armed townspeople. The Younger brothers were imprisoned, and the James brothers fled back to Missouri. Though Frank and Jesse continued to commit robberies, the scale and cohesion of their operations diminished. Increasingly isolated, Jesse relied on a smaller circle of accomplices—and that narrowing circle would prove fatal.

Among those drawn into James’s orbit were brothers Robert and Charley Ford, young men eager to make a name for themselves. Robert Ford, in particular, idolized Jesse James, reportedly memorizing stories of his exploits. Yet admiration soon gave way to calculation. Missouri authorities, along with railroad interests, had placed a substantial reward on James’s head, and Governor Thomas T. Crittenden was under pressure to bring the outlaw to justice. Through intermediaries, the Fords entered into a secret arrangement: in exchange for killing Jesse James, they would receive the reward and likely a pardon for their own crimes.

On the morning of April 3, Jesse James was at home with his wife and children. The atmosphere was deceptively calm. At one point, noticing that a picture on the wall was crooked, James removed his gun belt and climbed onto a chair to straighten it. In that moment—unarmed, his back turned—Robert Ford drew his revolver and fired a single shot into the back of James’s head. The most wanted man in the West died instantly.

The killing shocked the nation, not for its violence but for its perceived treachery. Ford had not faced James in a duel or even a confrontation; he had shot him from behind. Rather than being celebrated as a lawman or hero, Ford was widely condemned as a coward. Newspapers derided him as “the dirty little coward” who betrayed his friend for money. The romantic image of Jesse James only grew in death, while Ford found himself cast as a villain in the story.

In a twist that underscored the ambiguities of frontier justice, Robert and Charley Ford were quickly arrested, tried, and convicted for the murder—but almost immediately pardoned by Governor Crittenden, as had been quietly promised. The reward money proved elusive, however, and Ford struggled to capitalize on his notoriety. He even attempted to stage reenactments of the killing on tour, but public hostility followed him.

Robert Ford’s life after April 3 was marked by instability and resentment. He drifted through various ventures, never escaping the shadow of his act. In 1892, a decade after killing Jesse James, Ford himself was shot and killed in Colorado by a man named Edward O’Kelley, who reportedly sought revenge or notoriety of his own.

SOURCE: THISDAYOFHISTORY.COM

Frederick Douglas, actual birthdate unknown, was born in 1818 into slavery. Suffering numerous beatings and maltreatment by slave breakers, Frederick devised a daring plan to find freedom.

From CHRISTINELEADS.COM:

On September 3, 1838, at the age of 20, Frederick Douglass put a daring escape plan into action. Disguising himself as a free Black sailor, he dressed in a red shirt, a borrowed sailor’s uniform, and a wide-brimmed hat—a strategic choice, as Black sailors were sometimes allowed to travel freely. He also carried forged identity papers provided by a free Black seaman, which he used as proof of his freedom.

With these in hand, Douglass boarded a northbound train from Baltimore to Philadelphia—a journey that, if unsuccessful, could have meant severe punishment, re-enslavement, or even death. The fear of being caught was overwhelming. He later recalled the sheer terror of each passing moment:

“I had the additional dread of being overtaken. Beyond Philadelphia, I felt comparatively safe, but the interval between me and the city was full of doubt and anxiety.”

At any moment, a conductor, a fellow passenger, or a slave catcher could have recognized him and sent him back into bondage. Enslaved people were often required to carry papers proving their owner’s permission to travel, and Douglass knew that his fate rested entirely on the scrutiny of the white men around him.

But fortune was on his side. The train’s conductor glanced at his borrowed papers but did not inspect them closely. His disguise, his confidence, and the sheer luck of avoiding detection allowed him to cross into free territory. When he arrived in Philadelphia, a free city, he breathed easier—but he was not yet safe.

From there, he continued to New York City, where he was taken in by abolitionist David Ruggles, a leader in the New York Vigilance Committee, which helped fugitive enslaved people find shelter, legal aid, and protection from slave catchers.

For the first time in his life, Frederick Douglass was free. But his freedom was fragile—even in the North, fugitive enslaved people were constantly at risk of being captured and returned to the South.

Recognizing the dangers he still faced even in the North, Douglass sought to establish a stable life as quickly as possible. With the help of abolitionist David Ruggles, he sent for Anna Murray, a free Black woman from Baltimore whom he had fallen in love with before his escape. Anna had believed in his potential from the start, and when Douglass planned his flight to freedom, she played a crucial role—using her savings to help fund his journey. Just 11 days after his arrival in New York, they were married by a Black minister. Shortly after, the newlyweds moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where Douglass began a new life—and a new fight.

In New Bedford, Douglass took a job as a manual laborer in the shipyards. Though he was now free, racial discrimination in the North still limited his opportunities—white dockworkers refused to work alongside him, and he was paid far less than white laborers. But he refused to let racism silence him.

It was in New Bedford that Douglass first encountered the abolitionist movement, attending anti-slavery meetings and reading newspapers like The Liberator, published by radical abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison’s powerful editorials against slavery resonated deeply with Douglass, and before long, Douglass himself would step into the spotlight as one of America’s most influential abolitionist voices.

“I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. Slavery had become hateful to me, and I had waged war against it.”

His war against slavery would soon take him to national and international stages, where he would use the power of words—the very skill his enslavers had tried to deny him—to fight for justice.

SOURCE: CHRISTINELEADS.COM

In the early hours of the morning on Sunday, August 31, 1997, Princess Diana died in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France. In the car with her was her current boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed; Henri Paul, the driver of the car; and Trevor Rees-Jones, her bodyguard. Rees-Jones was the only survivor.

Here’s the true story of Princess Diana’s death:

Princess Diana and Dodi planned to be in Paris for less than 24 hours

Diana and Dodi had spent 10 days together on board Mohamed Al Fayed’s yacht, the Jonikal, and then flew from Sardinia to Paris on August 30, 1997. She was due back in London on August 31, 1997, where her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, were returning from Balmoral Castle.

The two arrived in Paris around 3 p.m., and went from the airport to Villa Windsor, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s former home that Mohammed Al Fayed purchased. From there, they went to the Ritz Paris, owned by the Fayed family. During this time, Princess Diana spoke to her sons on the phone. While at the Ritz, Dodi visited the Repossi jewelry shop in Place Vendôme.

Early in the evening, they left the Ritz for Dodi’s apartment on Rue Arsène Houssaye.

The couple planned to eat dinner at Chez Benoit around 9:30 p.m., but due to paparazzi attention, ended up back at the Ritz. They first tried to eat at the L’Espadon restaurant, but 10 minutes later, went to dine in private in the Imperial Suite. According to the Associated Press, “Diana is reported to have ordered an appetizer of mushrooms and asparagus, and then sole; for Dodi, turbot.”

The fatal drive began just after midnight

Shortly after midnight, they decided to leave the hotel to go to Dodi’s apartment. Henri Paul, the head of the Ritz security, drove them in a Mercedes S280 car. (Autopsy results later revealed that Paul was drunk.) They left around 12:20 a.m. through the back entrance of the hotel.

Though they had attempted to use a decoy car at the Ritz, paparazzi quickly picked up their tail. In the car, neither Princess Diana nor Dodi were wearing seat belts; Rees-Jones, sitting in the passenger seat, was reportedly wearing one.

Around 12:25 a.m., the car entered the Pont de l’Alma tunnel at dangerously high speeds. As the AP reports, “Seconds after the car enters the tunnel in the left westbound lane, it goes out of control, striking the 13th concrete pillar dividing the tunnel, rolls over and rebounds into the right wall. It then spins around. When the car stops, it is facing east — the direction it came from.”

An account from a doctor at the scene:

At the same time as the crash, a French doctor, Dr. Frederic Mailliez, was driving through the tunnel. Witnessing the crash, he quickly rushed to the scene.

“I walked toward the wreckage. I opened the door, and I looked inside,” he recalled years later. He saw “four people, two of them were apparently dead, no reaction, no breathing, and the two others, on the right side, were living but in severe condition. The front passenger was screaming, he was breathing. He could wait a few minutes. And the female passenger, the young lady, was on her knees on the floor of the Mercedes, she had her head down. She had difficulty to breathe. She needed quick assistance.”

He ran to his car, called emergency services, and grabbed a respiratory bag. “She was unconscious. Thanks to my respiratory bag… she regained a little bit more energy, but she couldn’t say anything.”

Princess Diana was taken to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital

At 12:27 a.m., firefighters received a call for help, and police and firefighters arrived at 12:40 a.m. When they arrived, both the driver, Henri Paul, and Dodi were pronounced dead at the scene. Witnesses later testified that paparazzi continued taking photos, and seven photographers were taken into police custody at the scene.

Sergeant Xavier Gourmelon, a firefighter, who was on the scene, said Princess Diana’s last words were “My God, what’s happened?”

When Princess Diana was extracted from the wreckage of the car, she went into cardiac arrest. First responders performed CPR, and got her into a hospital. Around 2 a.m., the Princess and Rees-Jones arrived at the hospital.

Per CNN’s report at the time, “Ambulance workers managed to revive her at the crash scene, but her heart stopped beating on arrival at the hospital, said Dr. Bruno Riou, head of the hospital’s intensive care unit. Surgeons opened Diana’s injured chest, closed a wound in her heart and massaged the heart for two hours in a vain battle to save her life, he said.”

Why didn’t Diana have more protection with her?

Years later, in Operation Paget—the investigation into Princess Diana’s death spurred by numerous conspiracy theories that surrounded it—the report stated, ” In 1994, at her request, official personal protection had been removed from the Princess of Wales. She wanted less intrusion into her private life. Until then, the MPS ‘Specialist Operations’ Command had routinely provided protection to her as a senior member of the Royal Family. From 1994 onwards she received such protection only if she was on an official visit that warranted such security or if members of the Royal Family who warranted protection in their own right, most obviously her sons, accompanied her.”

Diana’s death is announced to the world

Princess Diana was declared dead at around 4 a.m. in Paris on August 31, 1997; she was 36 years old. At 6 a.m., Dr. Alain Pavie, head of the cardiology department at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, held a news conference, announcing the death of the Princess of Wales. The British ambassador to France, Michael Jay, was there. He said, “The death of the Princess of Wales fills us all with shock and deep grief.”

Later that day, then-Prince Charles flew to Paris with Diana’s sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, to bring her body home. Princess Diana’s funeral was held on September 6, 1997.

SOURCE: TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM