On March 27, 1915, Typhoid Mary was arrested and sent back to quarantine after being on the lam for five years. Mary Mallon immigrated to America from Ireland at age 15 in 1883. She started as a domestic servant and moved up to cook. She cooked for some of the Read more…
On March 26, 1997, the last of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult committed ritual suicide. In 1972, Marshall Applewhite met a nurse named Bonnie Nettles at a psychiatric hospital. Applewhite, the son of a Presbyterian minister, had been fired from his job as a music professor for Read more…
John Gutzon Borglum was born on March 25, 1871. Here are some interesting facts about his most famous achievement. The idea came from South Dakota historian Doane Robinson. He thought a carving of historical figures would be good for tourism. He wanted Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea, Crazy Horse, Buffalo Bill Read more…
This is the anniversary of the death of a man who wrote one of the most famous poems about the Vietnam War. Capt. Michael O’Donnell was a helicopter pilot. On March 24, 1970 he was part of a mission to extract a long-range reconnaissance patrol from Cambodia. The unit was Read more…
Elisha Otis (a descendant of Revolutionary hero James Otis) was a master mechanic. He invented a safety lift for a warehouse, but the company went out of business. He was headed for California in 1852 to seek gold when a furniture maker commissioned two of his elevators. He used Read more…
On March 22, 1941, James Stewart became the first Hollywood star to join the Armed Forces when he was inducted as a private in the Army Air Force. Stewart’s grandfathers had fought in the Civil War and his father had served in the Spanish-American War and WWI. He was Read more…
Today in 1925, Tennessee became the first state to outlaw the teaching of evolution. This led to the famous Scopes Trial in July. The Butler Act had been passed earlier in 1925. It forbade the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools. The American Civil Liberties Union immediately put out a Read more…
After the St. Mihiel Offensive on the Western Front in WWI, Corporal Lee Duncan was sent to the village of Flirey to see if it had space for an airfield. He found a bombed-out kennel with a mother German Shepherd and her five puppies. He kept a male and Read more…
William Marshal should not have lived to be a knight. When he was a teenager, his father gave him as a hostage to King Stephen with the promise that he would give up his castle or his son’s life would be forfeited. When John Marshal refused to carry out Read more…
On March 18, 1881 the Barnum and Bailey Circus debuted in New York City. Over the years, Barnum had many interesting people who worked for him. P.T. Barnum is most famous for his circus known as the Greatest Show on Earth. But he also made a lot of money off Read more…