Napoleon sold Louisiana because of mosquitoes. In 1802, he sent an army led by his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to take control of New Orleans and open up a wave of French settlement. Oh, and by the way, how about stopping off in Haiti to put down that pesky Read more…
In the late 1700’s, England began its love affair with tea. Most of the tea was imported from China. The British were so obsessed with the beverage that the fast “clipper’ ships were invented to get the freshest tea leaves back to the home country. The famous Cutty Sark Read more…
St. Patrick was born in Britain near the end of Roman occupation. His birthname was Maewyn Succat. Patrick came from “patricius” meaning father. Around age 16, he was captured by Irish pirates and sold to a Celtic priest. He spent the next six years as a shepherd before he escaped Read more…
One of the pitfalls of running a web site that passes on anecdotes is sometimes you find out an anecdote you passed on to hundreds of students was actually false. I can’t go find every student to rectify an anecdote that was actually apocryphal or just plain wrong. What Read more…
A while back, our high school celebrated Black History Month by putting up posters highlighting people and events that were important in the history of African-Americans. I was struck by a poster that commemorated the invention of the cotton gin. I assume the poster was meant to praise a Read more…
On March 13, 1901, Andrew Carnegie announced that he is retiring from business and that he would spend the rest of his days giving away his fortune. His net worth was estimated at $300 million and he is the richest man in America. One year later, he donated millions to Read more…
On March 10, 1967, F-4 Phantom fighter pilot Capt. Bob Pardo was on a mission to bomb a steel mill north of Hanoi. Fellow pilot Earl Aman was hit by flak in his fuel tank. Pardo’s jet was also hit, in the wing. Aman would not make it back Read more…
In 451 B.C., a Roman patrician named Appius Claudius fell in lust for a plebeian woman named Verginia (also spelled Virginia). She was the daughter of an esteemed centurion named Verginius and betrothed to Lucius Icilius. Gifts and bribes would not woo the girl, so Claudius turned to subterfuge. Read more…
Anna Coleman Watts was born on July 15, 1878 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She studied sculpture in Paris and Rome. Her first important work was called “Triton’s Babies”. In was displayed at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. It is now part of a fountain in Boston. Read more…
The most raucous inauguration in American History was that of Andrew Jackson on March 4, 1829. “Old Hickory” was the first common person to be elected President. By common, I am referring to his birth, not his personality. His election in 1828 was symbolic of the expansion of democracy Read more…