Fifty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., his family, colleagues, and those affected by his legacy are gathering at events across the country to remember him, particularly in Memphis, Tenn., where King was gunned down April 4, 1968, on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel. King, who was 39, was in Memphis to protest the low pay and poor working conditions of the city’s sanitation workers. On Wednesday, the union he supported led a march in his memory. Other events in the city feature the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and U.S. Rep.

A New York moment:

Visiting some of the tech startups here in “Silicon Alley” (I’m proud of learning that term recently, even though it’s been around for years), you’ll see offices providing free cold brew coffee on tap, free meals, and free yoga classes. Last year I attended Google’s barnburning annual party for its New York employees, involving free shrimp, elaborate sets, confetti cannons, and live bands.

I’ve asked the same question in this space half a dozen different ways—but here it is again: If, by merely snapping your fingers or waving a magic wand, you could take the society and culture you live in today back to some earlier point, what date would you choose? If you could rewind the video recorder we call “America’s History” and be awarded a second chance, what would you pick as your new starting point?

Or, to put it more succinctly—and more bluntly—where did we go so wrong?

Three Februarys ago we published the chapter on George Washington from Marvin Olasky’s The American Leadership Tradition, originally released in 1999 and now out of print. Here, in honor of the upcoming Presidents Day, is a shortened, updated version of Marvin’s chapter on Abraham Lincoln. —Mickey McLean

Last year’s nightclub shooting in Orlando killed 50. The Oct. 1 concert attack in Las Vegas left 59 dead. Terrorist murders are a special horror, but the good old days also had their share of terror resulting from man’s cupidity and stupidity—and Tuesday is the 75th anniversary of a Boston horror with a death toll of 492.

Work your fingers to the bone, what do you get? In Russian history, not just bony fingers, as in the old American country song, but a bullet in the back of your head.

Nov. 11, the date on the cover of this issue, is a day to remember veterans. Almost 900 died in the 1945 wreck of the USS Indianapolis, the worst naval sea disaster in American history, but 317 survived. Here are stories based on new interviews with some of them.

Peering into the churning, oil-slicked sea far below him, Marine Cpl. Edgar Harrell clung to the port rail of the sinking ship and faced his own death. It was 12 minutes after midnight on July 30, 1945, and the Navy cruiser, USS Indianapolis, was dead center in the Philippine Sea.