Events: P

P

• Pale of Settlement 1791–1917Region of the Russian Empire, from 1791 to 1917, where Jews were legally allowed to live.
• Panic of 1907 Oct 1907Run on New York trust companies in October 1907 that ended with J. P. Morgan's money pool and U.S. Treasury deposits.
• Paramount takes over Warner Bros. Discovery 6 Oct 2026Paramount's $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of CNN; cleared by the Justice Department in June 2026 and closed on 6 October 2026.
• Paramount-Skydance merger 24 Jul 2025The FCC approved the $8 billion merger of Paramount and Skydance on 24 July 2025.
• Pardon of Richard Nixon 8 Sep 1974President Ford granted Richard Nixon a full pardon on 8 September 1974.
• Parliament’s tax grant to Edward I, 1290 Jul 1290Tax of £116,000 granted to Edward I in July 1290, which the National Archives says he bought with the expulsion of the Jews.
• PCAOB inspection results for 2023 Aug 2024The audit regulator’s 2023 inspections of the four largest U.S. firms: audits reviewed and the share where the PCAOB found the firm had not obtained enough evidence to support its opinion. Not a measure of all of a firm’s audits.
• PCAOB inspection results for 2024 Mar 2025The audit regulator’s 2024 inspections of the four largest U.S. firms: audits reviewed and the share where the PCAOB found the firm had not obtained enough evidence to support its opinion. Not a measure of all of a firm’s audits.
• Pentagon financial audits 2018 –The annual audits of the Defense Department’s books that Congress required, begun in 2018. The department has not yet received a clean opinion.
• Pequot War 1636–1638War of 1636 to 1638 between the Pequot and the English of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay, with Narragansett and Mohegan allies.
• Perestroika 1985–1991Gorbachev's program of economic and political restructuring of the Soviet system, 1985–1991.
• Persecution of Jews during the Black Death 1348–1350Torture, burning and expulsion of Jews in the Rhine lands and elsewhere in 1348–50, after a false charge of poisoning wells.
• Philidor kickback case Oct 2018 – Oct 2019Federal case in which a former Valeant executive and the former chief executive of Philidor were found guilty of a kickback scheme and sentenced in October 2018; the Second Circuit upheld the convictions in 2019.
• Phoenix memo 10 Jul 2001July 2001 memo from an FBI agent in Phoenix on men of interest at Arizona flight schools.
• Plan to separate De Beers from Anglo American 14 May 2024 –Anglo American's plan, announced in May 2024, to divest or demerge De Beers.
• Plaza Hotel meetings of December 1953 14–28 Dec 1953Meetings in New York where the heads of the cigarette makers settled on a joint response to the lung cancer studies of the early 1950s, with Hill & Knowlton.
• Plutonium injection experiments 1945–1947Experiments, 1945-47, in which eighteen hospital patients were injected with plutonium.
• Poisonings at du Pont’s tetraethyl lead plant at Deepwater, 1923-1924 1923 – Jul 1924Workers at du Pont’s plant at Deepwater, New Jersey, were poisoned and some died.
• Poisonings at the Bayway tetraethyl lead works, 1924 Oct 1924Workers at Standard Oil of New Jersey’s tetraethyl lead works in New Jersey fell ill and died from October 1924.
• Pond's society-women endorsement campaign 1924–1959Advertising campaign for Pond's creams that ran from 1924 into the 1950s.
• Pope Francis asks forgiveness, 2015 9 Jul 2015On 9 July 2015 in Bolivia the Pope asked forgiveness for crimes against native peoples during the conquest.
• Potsdam Conference Jul 1945Meeting of the Allied leaders in Germany in July 1945.
• Powell's address to the U.N. Security Council 5 Feb 2003Colin Powell's presentation of the U.S. case on Iraq's weapons to the Security Council, 5 February 2003.
• President’s Daily Brief of 6 August 2001 6 Aug 2001Item titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US”, delivered to President George W. Bush.
• Prime Minister's Iraq meeting, 23 July 2002 23 Jul 2002Meeting at Downing Street of the British Prime Minister with ministers and intelligence chiefs, recorded in the "Downing Street memo".
• Project 4.1 8 Mar 1954Secret U.S. study, set up on 8 March 1954, of the people exposed to Bravo fallout, run alongside their medical care.
• Project MKULTRA 13 Apr 1953 – 1964CIA program, 1953-64, of research on chemical and biological agents to control human behavior, including drug tests on unwitting people.
• Project MockingbirdA CIA wiretapping program that targeted journalists in the 1960s.
• Project Safehaven Jul 1944Allied program, launched in July 1944 and shared by the State Department, the Treasury and the Foreign Economic Administration, to stop Germany hiding assets abroad.
• Project Vanguard 1955–1959US Navy-led program of 1955–1959 to launch the first American satellite.
• Prosecution of John Brown for the voyage of the HopeThe Providence Abolition Society prosecuted John Brown in federal court over his ship Hope, sent to the Gold Coast in 1795; a jury acquitted him.
• Pullman strike May–Aug 1894Strike of 1894 at Pullman's Palace Car Company that spread into a national railway boycott.
• Purdue Frederick guilty pleas (2007) 10 May 2007The Purdue Frederick Company pleaded guilty to felony misbranding of OxyContin; three executives pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
• Purdue payouts to the Sackler family (2008 to 2016) 2008–2016Payments from Purdue to the Sackler family and their companies after the 2007 plea; about $11 billion in the Supreme Court’s account.
• Purdue Pharma bankruptcy (2019 to 2026) 2019 – 1 May 2026Chapter 11 case that began in 2019 and ended with a plan that took effect in May 2026.
• Purdue Pharma guilty plea (2020) 24 Nov 2020Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to three federal felonies in Newark on 24 November 2020.
• Purdue plan confirmed and effective (2025 to 2026) 18 Nov 2025 – 1 May 2026Judge Sean Lane confirmed Purdue’s new plan on 18 November 2025, according to Purdue’s lawyers; it took effect on 1 May 2026.