9/11 is remembered for the terrorist attack, but it is also the day of another atrocity motivated by religion. In 1857, the Mormons were settled in Utah, but not getting along with the U.S. government, which controlled the Utah Territory. President Buchanan was sending federal troops to exert control Read more…
On Oct. 2, 1836 the HMS Beagle returned to Great Britain after a five-year voyage around the world. The ten-gun brig’s most famous passenger was a young naturalist named Charles Darwin. Darwin had turned to naturalism after dropping out of medical school (much to the displeasure of his doctor Read more…
On this day in 1924, Leopold and Loeb found guilty of the murder of Robert Franks in the “crime of the century” One “Crime of the Century” occurred on this day in 1924. Nathan Leopold (18-years old) and Richard Loeb (19) thought they had committed the perfect crime when Read more…
Joshua Chamberlain taught himself Greek before he went to college. After graduating, he became a professor of rhetoric and oratory at Bowdoin College in Maine. When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted without telling his family, including his wife. He believed that even intellectuals like himself should sacrifice to Read more…
In 1780, Samuel Wilson was fourteen years old. He ran away from his home in Massachusetts to follow in his father and brothers’ footsteps by joining the Continental Army. He served until the end of the war. In 1790, he and his brother opened a meat-packing business in Troy, NY. Read more…
Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat stationed in Budapest, Hungary during WWII. Although Sweden was neutral, Wallenberg was not. He refused to stand by and watch the Holocaust occur in Hungary. It is estimated that he saved as many as 100,000 Jews from death from July to December, 1944. He Read more…
The 92nd Infantry Division was an all-black (except for the white officers) that fought on the Western Front in WWI. It was reactivated in October, 1942, but was still segregated. It kept the buffalo insignia and the nickname “Buffalo Soldiers” from when they faced Indians in the West. It Read more…
On Sept. 1, 1983 the passengers and crew of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 were enjoying a peaceful flight across the Pacific Ocean. The flight had begun at New York City and after a stopover at Anchorage, Alaska, was on the last leg to Seoul. Suddenly, there was an Read more…
Everyone knows Robert Fulton invented the steamboat, right? Wrong. The actual inventor was a sad sack named John Fitch. In the 1780’s, Fitch began to dream of a vehicle propelled by a steam engine. Land travel over the terrible roads of that time was unfeasible, but perhaps on water Read more…
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on August 30, 1797. Her parents were a famous feminist and a famous philosopher. She eloped at age 17 with the famous poet Percy Shelley. He was 21 and married. They had started their affair at her mother’s gravesite. Shelley’s wife committed suicide. They Read more…