Why Kamala Harris couldn’t automatically replace Biden

Plus: Olympics history and Y2K's lesson for the Crowdstrike outage |

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By Made by History / Produced by Olivia B. Waxman In the span of 24 hours last weekend, President Joe Biden suspended his reelection campaign, and Vice President Kamala Harris became the de facto Democratic nominee. But as Larry Jacobs explains in Made by History, Harris' rise wasn’t foreordained, nor were there any party chieftains who could engineer such an outcome. That wasn't always true: Under the process that determined Presidential nominees until 1968, party leaders could have smoothly orchestrated the replacement of Biden with Harris. But the tumultuous Democratic Convention that year marked a turning point, Jacobs argues , and subsequent reforms made in the name of democracy left the party leaders relatively powerless as the chaos of the last month unfolded.

HISTORY ON TIME.COM Joe Biden’s Decision Upholds One of Our Greatest Presidential Traditions By Jeremi Suri In ending his bid for reelection, Joe Biden chose democracy and restraint over dictatorship and demagoguery. Read More » Y2K Sent A Warning. The CrowdStrike Outage Shows We Failed to Heed It By Zachary Loeb / Made by History The Year 2000 computer problem has become a punchline in recent years, but the CrowdStrike outage shows the joke's on us. Read More » The Massive Cultural Changes That Made Dr. Ruth Possible By Rebecca L. Davis / Made by History Her career in sex therapy was possible only because of dramatic shifts in American life. Read More » The Right Aims to Turn Back the Clock on American Divorce Law By Alison Lefkovitz / Made by History Some conservatives want to bring back the problematic "fault" divorce system — while removing its protections for homemakers. Read More » The Root of James Dobson’s Political Power Is Decades of Parenting Advice By Sarah McCammon / Made by History The Evangelical psychologist gained influence with millions of families through decades of parenting advice focused on strict discipline. Read More » The Statue That Taught Me About the Power of Black Women and Democracy By Noliwe Rooks Noliwe Rooks writes about what she felt seeing the statue of Mary McLeod Bethune for the first time. Read More » Photos from the Last Paris Olympics—100 Years Ago By Olivia B. Waxman A glimpse of notable moments from the 1924 summer Olympics in Paris. Read More » The Real History Behind the Tornado-Control Theories in Twisters By Kate Carpenter / Made by History For as long as scientists have studied tornadoes, researchers have dreamed of controlling them. But this goal reveals both the expansiveness and limits of our imaginations. Read More » The Small English Town That Launched the Modern Olympics By Olivia B. Waxman Today's Games date back to a 1890 sports tournament Read More »

FROM THE TIME VAULT This week in 1954: Willie Mays OZZIE SWEET The July 26, 1954, cover of TIME “Willie Mays is only 23, and he is playing only his third season (and first full one) in the major leagues. There are other major leaguers, even centerfielders, who stand above him in the statistics (e.g., Brooklyn's Duke Snider, who is fielding as flawlessly as Mays and is batting .359 to Willie's .331). But with his showman's manner and his in-the-clutch timing, Willie Mays is baseball's sensation of the season. To the scandal of some sentimentalists, he is already being talked of as the equal or even the better of the great Tris Speaker and Joe DiMaggio. He has hit 33 home runs in 89 games—a pace which puts him six games ahead of Babe Ruth's majestic record of 60 homers, and there are some impetuous enough to suggest that Willie is the one to climb that Everest of baseball some day.” Read More » This week in 1976: Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale Dirck Halstead The July 26, 1976, cover of TIME “While proclaimed dull because of its lack of suspense, the convention was highly significant. In Carter’s now famous metaphor of faith, it saw the Democratic Party reborn…For Carter, the convention marked a new climax in a remarkable political ascent (just three years ago, when he was Governor of Georgia, panelists had failed to recognize him on What’s My Line?). It also served to position him, more sharply than he had been perceived before, as a liberal. He did so by choosing Minnesota Senator Walter (‘Fritz’) Mondale as his running mate and by using the themes he struck in his acceptance speech.” Read More » This week in 1997: Jewel Herb Ritts The July 21, 1997, cover of TIME “[N]ow, at 23, she has sold more than 5 million copies of her debut album, Pieces of You...Jewel is worried about being put on a pedestal. “People look at me in magazines and feel like I’m a phenomenon, as if what I’ve accomplished is beyond their ability. I tell them to knock it off. If you respect what I’ve done, then do something yourself.” She is certain of what she is. ‘I still giggle to think I’m a writer,’ she says. There is another word she prefers to singer-songwriter. Not artist or performer. ‘Entertainer,’ she says. ‘It’s a craft, and I like that.’” Read More »

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