Vol. 247 · No. 1,488 · The People's Daily Forgetting · 50¢ if it's still legal to charge
Saturday, May 16, 2026

The Ban History Gazette

"All the news that's been removed from the curriculum."
Books removed, this year
6,870
States actively trying
23
Districts affected
87
Librarians still showing up
all of them
Source · PEN America Index of School Book Bans, 2024–25 · Snapshot 2026-05-16
↘ Top story — CULTURE

Pre-Roe Reproductive History Reclassified As "Adult Content" By Apple, Google, And Three State Library Systems

WASHINGTON, DC Department of Forgetting Correspondent

A coordinated content-moderation update rolled out Wednesday across Apple Books, Google Play, and the public library catalog systems of Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Idaho now classifies all materials describing American reproductive history prior to 1973 as "adult content," requiring users to verify their age with a government ID before viewing summaries of…

↗ Read this story
Heat map · book removals, year to date
MEVTNHWAIDMTNDMNWIMINYMARIORNVUTWYSDIAILINOHPANJCTCAAZCONMNEMOKYWVVAMDDEAKKSARTNNCSCDCHIOKLAMSALGATXFL
hover a state
none → bad → Florida
01 — A public service announcement against forgetting
02 — Fill your prescription

Get your daily
dose of history.

Print a shareable Rx, hang it on your fridge, post it to whichever app still works this week. Subscribers receive one headline a week and zero op-eds about civility.

Patient
Email
Topic
Dose
Form HX-451 · Non-refillable
Rx
BAN
HISTORY
SEAL
PATIENT: A. CITIZEN
TOPIC: ACT UP / AIDS CRISIS
DOSE: 20mg daily, with breakfast
SIG: Read. Remember. Repeat to children.
↘ Briefs · Today's small print
  • SPORTS YOU CAN'T MENTION
    Texas high school cheerleading squad disbanded after coach noticed routine contained "a pyramid, which is a structure with a historical context, allegedly."
  • POLITICS
    Florida school board member says he was "just asking questions" during two-hour monologue endorsing questions.
  • EDUCATION
    Arkansas district removes all books published before 2020, citing "older books are where the older stuff is."
  • CULTURE
    Tennessee parent files complaint against the color brown, says she "knows what it is."
  • BUSINESS
    Indiana Barnes & Noble installs second cash register after sales of "1984" triple in a county where the book was banned by name.
  • POLITICS
    Oklahoma State Sen. Brad Eckhardt-Maus introduces bill banning the year 1865, says he "doesn't see what we get out of it."
  • SPORTS YOU CAN'T MENTION
    Georgia high school basketball game forfeited after referee accidentally said "Title IX" while explaining a foul.
  • EDUCATION
    Mississippi 4th-graders to study Reconstruction via a single haiku that does not mention Reconstruction.
  • CULTURE
    Pennsylvania pastor declares the alphabet "increasingly woke after the letter J."
  • OBITUARIES
    The card catalog, of natural causes, age 147.
  • POLITICS
    South Carolina lawmaker proposes replacing all history teachers with one large QR code linking to his cousin's blog.
  • AMERICAN VOICES
    Iowa man asked about Juneteenth says he "doesn't celebrate June," which he describes as a "made-up month for tax reasons."
  • SPORTS YOU CAN'T MENTION
    Ohio high school cross-country meet voided after runner Daxton Plimmer-Hauck, 16, finished the course "in a direction the district has not yet approved."
  • SPORTS YOU CAN'T MENTION
    Florida little-league coach benches shortstop Marigold Vandercleef-Otero, 11, for asking why second base is called second when it comes after first historically as well as positionally.