A week of turning points under pressure

Jul 20, 2026 – Jul 26, 2026

This week moved through moments when authority shifted shape — in assemblies, on stages, in courtrooms, and between states.

Some changes arrived through spectacle, some through procedure, and some through warnings no one could mistake. Seen together, the week asks what makes power hold — and what makes it give way.

This week

  • A quarrel in a shop that opened a political breach
  • When a classroom law became a national trial
  • A few televised minutes that shrank an ocean
  • An ultimatum with one line no one could ignore

Open this week's selection and start with the box that draws you in first.

WEEKLY PUZZLES · JULY 26

Potsdam Declaration Sets Surrender Terms for Japan

A short statement from Potsdam carried the weight of a war's final phase. Its words framed one of 1945's most consequential decisions.

Start the puzzle Browse days

Free No download Play in your browser

Leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and China associated with the 1945 Potsdam Declaration on surrender terms for Japan.
Weekly puzzles Interactive 3D puzzle

Days this week

Historical subject related to the 20 July 1810 unrest in Santafé de Bogotá, when an open cabildo and a governing junta emerged amid weakening viceregal authority.

Bogotá’s 20 July Junta and the Start of Independence

A city quarrel, a gathering crowd, and a municipal assembly reshaped power in Bogotá. One July day opened a new…
John T. Scopes and the 1925 trial in Dayton, Tennessee, where a jury found him guilty under the Butler Act.

John T. Scopes Convicted Under Tennessee’s Butler Act

A local Tennessee case became one of the most watched trials of its era. The verdict was brief, but its public…
Delegates at the Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire concluded the meeting by adopting the IMF Articles of Agreement on July 22, 1944.

Bretton Woods delegates adopt IMF Articles of Agreement

A summer conference in the White Mountains set rules that would outlast the war. The negotiations were technical, but…
Ground stations in Maine and Brittany used Telstar 1 to relay television signals between North America and Europe in July 1962.

Telstar relays a live transatlantic television broadcast

A live TV signal crossed the Atlantic through space in 1962—but only during a brief orbital window. That short relay…
Richard Nixon and the Watergate tapes dispute at the center of the Supreme Court's 1974 subpoena ruling in Washington, D.C.

Supreme Court Orders Nixon to Turn Over Watergate Tapes

A fight over taped conversations reached the highest court and became a lasting measure of how far presidential secrecy…
Opening ceremony of the 1992 Summer Olympics at Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc in Barcelona, where the Games formally began on 25 July.

Barcelona Opens the Games of the XXV Olympiad

A packed stadium, a global broadcast, and a final sequence with no reset. Barcelona's Olympic opening turned precision…
Leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and China associated with the 1945 Potsdam Declaration on surrender terms for Japan.

Potsdam Declaration Sets Surrender Terms for Japan

A short statement from Potsdam carried the weight of a war's final phase. Its words framed one of 1945's most…