Michael Kranish

Eight decades ago, a presidential commission guided by Jefferson’s great-great-grandson selectively edited the Founding Father’s words to present him as an abolitionist without mentioning he had enslaved more than 600 people in his lifetime.

In the summer of 1776, Thomas Jefferson arrived in Philadelphia to help define a new nation — even as his own life embodied the inequalities of enslavement.

Jefferson wrote that Norfolk must be destroyed. Months later, Patriots burned much of the city themselves — and blamed the British.

In the summer of 1774 Jefferson retreated to Monticello and wrote a secret plea meant to avert disputes with the British — a document that instead helped set America on the path to independence.

As America marks 250 years since the Declaration, Jefferson’s words have taken on an aura of moral clarity about equality, notwithstanding his own record of enslavement. They are now seen as a testament to humanity that have changed America and the world.

Jefferson saw independence as a fight for liberty — and for access to the western lands that promised power and profit.

When British forces under Benedict Arnold sailed up the James River to invade Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, then Governor, hesitated and then fled. Years later he returned to power and became president.

The latest pardons underscore the breadth of the efforts the president has taken to clear anyone involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Christa McAuliffe’s flight as the “teacher in space” lasted 73 seconds. A reporter who witnessed the tragedy returned to the story and found an engineer still trying to spread its lessons.

36 years ago, a Republican president and Democratic lawmakers produced monumental laws. Now, a broken Congress has enabled Trump to undo key parts of that legacy.