An interesting historical story.
On May 6, 1941, Bob Hope performed his first USO show at March Field in California. The United Service Organization had been founded earlier that year to provide entertainment for the Armed Forces. Hope, who hoped to join the Navy after Pearl Harbor, was convinced by FDR to serve Read more…
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Please drink with historical literacy. Here are the facts about this holiday. Most Americans know that Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day and are happy to celebrate with them. But most Americans are wrong. Not that that would stop the celebrating. May 5, 1862 Read more…
Happy Birthday, Nelly Bly! Here is the story of her most famous stunt. 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. Read more…
Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer were killed on May 4, 1970 during a protest against the Vietnam War. The tragic dominoes began to fall on April 30 when Nixon launched his invasion of Cambodia. Recently the war had seemed to be deescalating and the anti-war Read more…
Hugh Glass was the protagonist in the movie “The Revenant”, but how much of his story was true. In 1822, Gen. William Ashley created the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to raise money for a political career. He hired 100 fur trappers, including Hugh. “Ashley’s Hundred” worked the area of Read more…
May 1, 1830 is the official date for the birth of a woman who was described as “the most dangerous woman in America” during the growth of labor unions. 1..Mary Harris Jones was born in Ireland. Her family was forced to immigrate to Canada at age ten due to Read more…
On Jan. 16, 1945, Adolf Hitler moved for good into the Bunker under the Reich Chancellery building. 55 feet underground, the facility was totally safe from air bombardment. The eighteen rooms provided the necessary creature comforts for Hitler and his staff. The most prominent “guests” were Joseph Goebbels and Read more…
On this day in 1942, survivors of the Bataan Death March staggered into Camp O’Donnell in the Philippines. They were the lucky few, if you considered the next few years of captivity to be lucky. The march began on April 9, after the surrender of American and Filipino soldiers Read more…
Today is the birthday of the 5th President of the U.S. James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758. Here is my favorite anecdote involving him. Because he was boring, Monroe does not have many interesting anecdotes. He does feature in a sequel to Hamilton’s famous “Reynolds Affair”. Before the Read more…
The 70 paid passengers probably grumbled when the 2,000 soldiers were put aboard the Sultana. Things would get much, much worse. The Sultana was a side-wheel steamboat that was only two years old. It worked the St. Louis to New Orleans route. On April 23, 1865, it put in Read more…