Thank you. I tried Harper's, could have sworn it worked a few years ago, but now I don't see any links to their (truly historic) archives.
Once at the library I found several bound volumes of Harpers from the Civil War era. Fantastic. Hours of great reading, contradicting my history teachers.
I guess I've been holding out hope that such material would eventually be available to me at home. Surely someday.
Have you tried searching the terms 'eyewitness' or 'contemporaneous?'
Chicago Trib and NY Daily News also have features similar to "This Day In History" on their websites.
Here' a fun site for "This Day In History" articles:
http://www.dmarie.com/timecap/