Erwin Rommel was born on Nov. 15, 1891. His father was the headmaster of a school. As a boy, Erwin was described as gentle and unaggressive. He was interested in math and engineering and dreamed of becoming an aeronautical engineer. He co-built a glider at age 14. He bought a Read more…
Nellie Bly was the first investigative reporter. She had famously masqueraded as a mentally ill woman to go undercover in an insane asylum for ten days, among other sensational stunts for the New York World newspaper. By 1889, she was the most famous female reporter in the U.S., but Read more…
In 1979, Jan Scruggs was inspired by the movie “The Deer Hunter” to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Scruggs was a wounded veteran who was studying PTSD. He started raising the funds and refused to accept taxpayers money. Congress did donate two acres on the National Mall. By 1981, Read more…
Robert Scott was a hero to the British people because of his valiant attempt to bring glory to the British Empire by being the first to reach the South Pole. His body was found on Nov. 12, 1912. He set off from New Zealand in 1910 to try to Read more…
On Nov. 11, 1921, President Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The sarcophagus was designed by architect Lorimer Rich and sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones. It was actually carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. They had earlier done the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. The three carved Greek Read more…
The East End of London was a hellish environment noted for its poverty, crime, alcoholism, and prostitution. On the night of August 31, 1888, Mary Ann Nicholls was found with her throat cut and her body mutilated. The 42 year-old prostitute had taken on one client too many. One Read more…
Benjamin was born on Nov. 9, 1731 to free parents in Maryland. His grandmother was white and had come to America as an indentured servant. She taught him to read. As a teenager, a Quaker friend gave him access to his personal library and Benjamin occasionally attended his school. He Read more…
On Nov. 8, 1939, Hitler gave his annual speech commemorating the Beer Hall Putsch at the beer hall called the Burgerbraukeller. About fifteen minutes after he left the building, a massive explosion destroyed the speaker’s platform and brought down part of the roof. 7 people were killed and 63 Read more…
Pre-sliced bread was invented in 1928. With WWII underway, Secretary of Agriculture and head of the War Foods Administration Claude Wickard ordered a ban on the production of sliced bread. It is unclear what the motivation was. Some think Wickard was trying to conserve the wax paper that was Read more…
November 6, 1861 was the birthday of the Father of Basketball. James Naismith was born in Canada. He moved to the U.S. to become a physical educator. He was in graduate school at Springfield College in Massachusetts when his professor, Luther Gulick (the Father of Physical Education), assigned his Read more…