In Sept., 1939, Doris (the midwife that delivered him was sure he was a girl) Miller rode in the back of a bus to enlist in the U.S. Navy. Back then, the Navy greatly limited opportunities, but for a high school dropout who came from a poor family, it Read more…
This is my favorite story by Herodotus from his The Histories. It may not be true, but Herodotus loved a good story and included it in the book. (I’ve taken some liberties to flesh out the story.) Once upon a time in Ancient Egypt, an elderly man was on Read more…
Today is the anniversary of the dedication of Mount Rushmore on March 3, 1933. John Gutzon Borglum was a sculptor who began work on Mount Rushmore in 1927. He chose a 6,000-foot high mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He chose Washington because he won independence and Read more…
On October 10, 1809, the famous Western explorer Meriwether Lewis arrived at the inn of Robert and Priscilla Grinder to stay for the night. Lewis was traveling the famous Natchez Trace on his way to Washington, D.C. Robert was away so Priscilla had to deal with her strange-behaving guest. Read more…
In the evening of March 1, 1932 the nurse of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. came to the famous aviator to ask if he had seen his 20-month-old son. Lindbergh rushed upstairs to the nursery to find the crib empty. Searching the grounds of his estate at Hopewell, New Jersey, Lindbergh found Read more…
The USS Princeton was the most powerful warship in the world. It was designed by the great inventor John Ericsson (who later created the Monitor). It was the first warship with a screw propeller and it had the largest naval gun in the world. The Peacemaker was a 15-inch monster. Read more…
William Frederick Cody was born on Feb. 26, 1846 in the Iowa Territory. He went on to become the most famous person on Earth. Here are some interesting facts about “Buffalo Bill”: His father was anti-slavery and did not hide it. When William was seven years old, his family moved Read more…
Fort Vincennes was a British fort located in the Ohio River Valley. It was built to guard the frontier after the French and Indian War. During the Revolutionary War, Lt. Col. George Rogers Clark (older brother of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame) was determined to take the Ohio Read more…
“The Battle of Los Angeles” (also called the “Los Angeles Air Raid”) occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 1942. Just two months after Pearl Harbor, people living on the west coast were still paranoid about a Japanese attack. And with small cause because the day before a Read more…
When you were in kindergarten and you sang “This Land is Your Land”, did your teacher tell you that you were singing a protest song? Did she even know? It’s a good bet that Jennifer Lopez knew when she sang part of the song at Biden’s inauguration. But how many Read more…