On Nov. 5, Brits get together to commemorate the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. They build a bonfire which they dance around. They sing chants and shoot off fireworks. They shout this poem: Remember, remember the firth of November / The gunpowder treason and plot / I know of no Read more…
One of the greatest poets of the Great War was born on March 18, 1893. He came from a middle class family. In grade school he became interested in poetry. He was influenced by the Bible and Romantic poets like Wordsworth and Keats. When the war broke out he Read more…
In honor of the 163rd anniversary of Teddy Roosevelt’s birthday, here is a list of trivia items about America’s most interesting President. – he was blinded in the left eye during a sparring match when he was President – he did not like to be called “Teddy”, as a child Read more…
It’s easy to think the partisanship in Congress could not be worse, but it has been in the past. As vicious as some of the rhetoric can get, at least we have not had any physical altercations, yet. On May 22, 1856, the rhetoric went far beyond jawing. On Read more…
Did you know an American President survived an assassination by a swamp rabbit? It happened on April 20, 1979. President Jimmy Carter was fishing in a flat-bottomed bottom alone while on vacation in Plains, Georgia. As he told a reporter later, a swamp rabbit swam out towards the boat 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…
I just got done spending hours adding content to the site, so now might be a good time to reintroduce the site. History Anecdotes for Teachers (HAFT) started as a way for me to share all the anecdotes I told in my Social Studies classes over my 39 year career. Read more…
He was born on Dec. 18, 1878. His name was Joseb Besarionis dze Jugashvili. He changed this to Josef Stalin which means “man of the steel hand”. His father was an alcoholic cobbler and his mother was a washerwoman. At age 7, he contracted smallpox which left him with pockmarks 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…
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…