PROHIBITION FACTS

There was a Prohibition Party and its symbol was the camel because it doesn’t need to drink much. The party still exists. In California it works to get winemakers to switch to a different crop from grapes. Large parts of the country were “dry” already. The hard core Protestant areas. Read more…

THE GREAT MOLASSES FLOOD

            The Great Molasses Flood (also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster and the Great Boston Molasses Flood) occurred on Jan. 15, 1919.  The U.S. Industrial Alcohol Company had built a huge storage tank in Boston to store the molasses that was converted into industrial alcohol to make explosives like Read more…

SGT. ELVIS PRESLEY

            On Jan. 14, 1960, Elvis Presley was promoted to sergeant in the U.S. Army.  It was the culmination of a year and a half stint in the military.  Presley was drafted on March 24, 1958.  Originally, he had been assured by his manager Colonel Tom Parker that he would Read more…

SON OF A GUN

                 For those unfamiliar with this classic slang term, it means a man who is a bit of as scamp or rascal.  In some cases, it acted as a more acceptable version of “son of a b****”.  The most accepted explanation for the origin of the phrase comes from the Read more…

FACTS ABOUT ALICE PAUL

She was born to Quaker parents on Jan. 11, 1885. She was a descendant of William Penn.  Her parents were progressives who believed in gender equality and education for women.  Her mother was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and brought young Alice to the meetings. She Read more…

THE BEAST OF BELSEN

                Irma Grese was the blonde, blue-eyed daughter of a German farmer.  Her mother committed suicide as age 13 and she was raised by a strict, violent father.  Indoctrinated in the greatness of Nazism at school, she joined the League of German Girls when she left home at age 14.  Read more…

THE GREATEST MOUNTAIN MAN

            The greatest mountain man was born on this day in 1798 in Bainbridge, NY.  Jedediah Smith went west at age 24 to become a fur trapper.  He joined William Ashley’s Rocky Mountain Fur Company.  One his first expedition, up the Missouri River, he distinguished himself in a battle with Read more…