September 26th: A Nomical Look at History History never takes a day off, and September 26th is proof. On this date alone, the Persian navy learned the hard way that bigger ships don't mean smarter strategy, Julius Caesar unveiled a marble forum to outlive him, a red-faced Norman king claimed England's throne, and Bohemia secured its dynasty with a gold-sealed charter. Fast-forward a couple of millennia and you'll find the world glued to a flickering TV screen as Kennedy and Nixon sparred in the first televised presidential debate. Not bad for a single square on the calendar. This book continues the Nomical History series, blending sharp facts with clever storytelling. Each chapter takes you on a ride through events that actually happened on September 26th, from antiquity's naval ambushes to the birth of modern political theater. The style is brisk and accessible, part historian, part stand-up guide, so you get the drama of real events without the dust of academic lectures. What you'll find inside: Ancient ingenuity and folly, from the Battle of Salamis to Caesar's architectural propaganda. - Medieval power plays, where crowns glittered but alliances wobbled. - Legal documents that mattered, like the Golden Bull of Sicily, proving paperwork can shape centuries. - Modern showdowns, such as the Kennedy-Nixon debate, when politics became a visual sport. Along the way, you'll see how ambition, luck, and miscalculation keep rewriting history, often with a sense of irony that feels startlingly modern. Each entry comes with a punchy hook, a modern comparison, and a takeaway that proves history is never finished, it just changes costumes. Whether you're a casual browser, a trivia fan, or someone who just likes to laugh at humanity's endless overconfidence, September 26th offers fact-checked stories told with a wink. Because the past may be serious business, but that doesn't mean we can't point out how ridiculous it often was. "An action-packed, witty, and wildly entertaining journey through history. Joel Thomas brings the past to life with clever humor and sharp insights." —Nathan L. Chobo, Independent Reviewer "Both entertaining and genuinely educational. The concise, self-contained chapters are perfect for students and spark discussions that connect the past to the present." —Ginger Brandt, Educator From the Author I write history through a narrow aperture, one date at a time, because compression forces clarity. October 3rd is not magic, it is a lens. When you stack centuries on the same square of the calendar, patterns surface, false myths fall apart, and small choices gain their proper weight. This book keeps two promises. First, it treats readers like adults. Sources are checked, claims are plain, jokes never replace evidence. Second, it brings women to the center where they belong. Elizabeth Blackwell's fight to practice medicine, the 1811 women's county cricket match, and the quiet boldness of voters in Wyoming, these are not side notes, they are part of the engine of change. I prefer scenes to lectures. Leiden breaking a siege by flooding its own fields. London rebuilding after fire. A transistor patent that ignited the digital world. Wally Schirra methodically circling Earth. Germany closing a wound on live television. Banks failing while phones buzzed with rumor. Different eras, same human pressures, fear, pride, persistence, luck. If the book works, you will look at any date and expect substance. That is the aim of the Nomical History series, to restore scale without losing texture, to show that history remains alive, specific, and, at times, very funny. Joel Thomas From the Inside Flap October 3rd: From Empires to Upheavals reveals how one ordinary date can contain the full sweep of human history. On this single day, cities rose and burned, women cast ballots ahead of their time, scientists expanded the periodic table, and nations redrew their borders. The result is a fast moving narrative that treats history as living, surprising, and often funny. Part of the Nomical History series, this book blends sharp research with a comic eye to surface stories too often buried in footnotes. Rebels who surrendered but became legends, athletes whose single swing defined an era, and pioneers such as Elizabeth Blackwell , the first licensed female doctor in the United States, share the stage with emperors, ministers, and presidents. Highlights include Leiden saving itself in 1574 by flooding its fields to break a Spanish siege, London rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1666, a 1950 transistor patent that helped launch the digital age, Wally Schirra circling Earth with calm precision in 1962, Germany's reunification in 1990, and the global financial shock of 2008. Joel Thomas shows that no date is ordinary. In these pages, persistence and ingenuity stand beside folly and chance, and the familiar calendar becomes a map of turning points that still shape our lives. "A fascinating look at the strange collision