On this day in 1884, the first portion, or fascicle, of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published. Today, the OED is the definitive authority on the meaning, pronunciation and history of over half a million words, past and present
Plans for the dictionary began in 1857 when members of London’s Philological Society, who believed there were no up-to-date, error-free...
Minggu, 31 Januari 2016
Audio: WWII Pilot Recalls The Danger Of Flak During Aerial Combat- ‘We Lost The Whole Crew’
A World War II veteran recounts the destructive power of the German anti-aircraft weapon, Flak...
Daily Quiz for February 1, 2016
Married three times, this poet wrote the sonnet "Me Thought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint" in memory of his second wife...
Cowboy Life in the Cards
The celebration of the Western frontier myth was in full swing when these tobacco cards made their way into the hands of an eager publi...
Sabtu, 30 Januari 2016
January 31, 1950: Truman announces development of H-bomb
U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announces his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.
Five months earlier, the United States had lost its nuclear supremacy when the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb at their test site in Kazakhstan. Then, several weeks after that, British and U.S. intelligence...
Daily Quiz for January 31, 2016
The 1950 Pulitzer Price in poetry was awarded to this poet, the first African-American to receive a Pulitzer...
Jumat, 29 Januari 2016
January 30, 1948: Gandhi assassinated
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.
Born the son of an Indian official in 1869, Gandhi’s Vaishnava mother was deeply religious and early on exposed her son to Jainism, a morally rigorous Indian religion that advocated nonviolence. Gandhi was an unremarkable student but in 1888 was given an opportunity to study law in England. In 1891,...
Tanks in Action
Tanks were widely used by the Allies and Axis powers during World War II. In this short video clip, destroyed tanks are visibly in flames...
Stug III in Action
The Sturmgeschütz III, otherwise known as the StuG III, was an assault gun designed by Germany following their defeat in World War I. The armored fighting vehicle was mass produced and used during World War II in defense against Allied tanks. This video clip shows the StuG III in action...
Tiger I and Sturmgeschuetz III
The Sturmgeschütz III, nicknamed StuG III, and the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausführung E, nicknamed Tiger I, were two newly developed tanks engineered by the German military during World War II. The StuG III was the most produced German tank during the war. The over-engineered Tiger I was only produced from 1942-1944 when it was replaced by the Tiger ...
Panzers on the Western Front
The Panzerkampfwagen, or the Panzer, was a German tank designed and produced during World War II. The Nazis engineered six different versions of the Panzer naming them Panzer I through Panzer VI. Here, the Panzers are mobilized by the Nazis against the Allies on the Western Front...
Panzers in Russia
Panzer is a shortened term for Panzerkampfwagen, meaning “armored combat vehicle” or essentially, “tank.” There were six versions of the Panzer produced during the 1930s and 1940s. All six of the newly designed tanks were used by the Nazis during World War II. In this video, Panzers are used to fight Russians on the Eastern ...
Daily Quiz for January 29, 2016
In 1608, this city became the first permanent settlement of Europeans in Canada...
Kamis, 28 Januari 2016
January 29, 1936: U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects first members
On January 29, 1936, the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects its first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson.
The Hall of Fame actually had its beginnings in 1935, when plans were made to build a museum devoted to baseball and its 100-year history. A private organization based in Cooperstown called the Clark Foundation thought that establishing the Baseball Hall of Fame in their city...
Rabu, 27 Januari 2016
January 28, 1986: Challenger explodes
At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning January...
Selasa, 26 Januari 2016
Audio: WWII Vet’s Wife Discovers A Strange Coincidence
WWII Vet's Wife Discovers Her Doll Is Missing A Leg. What She Found Out After Will Give You The Chill...
January 27, 1888: National Geographic Society founded
On January 27, 1888, the National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C., for “the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge.”
The 33 men who originally met and formed the National Geographic Society were a diverse group of geographers, explorers, teachers, lawyers, cartographers, military officers and financiers. All shared an interest in scientific and geographical knowledge, as well as an opinion that in a time of discovery,...
Nightmare Up North – B-52s Over Hanoi in Linebacker II
Just seconds before a B-52 released its bombs over North Vietnam, the crew found itself in the bulls eye of a surface to air missile traveling at 2,400 mp...
Daily Quiz for January 26, 2016
Napoleon's second exile restored this man to the throne of France for the second time...
Senin, 25 Januari 2016
January 26, 1788: Australia Day
On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia. After overcoming a period of hardship, the fledgling colony began to celebrate the anniversary of this date with great fanfare.
Australia, once known as New South Wales, was originally planned as a penal colony. In October 1786, the British government appointed Arthur Phillip captain of...
Daily Quiz for January 25, 2016
After his second abdication, Napoleon tried to escape to this country...
Audio: How We Pranked An Englishman During World War II
A few soldiers prank an Englishman with his car...
Minggu, 24 Januari 2016
January 25, 1905: World’s largest diamond found
On January 25, 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered during a routine inspection by the mine’s superintendent. Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the “Cullinan,” it was the largest diamond ever found.
Frederick Wells was 18 feet below the earth’s surface when he spotted a flash of starlight embedded in the wall just above him. His discovery was presented that same afternoon to Sir Thomas Cullinan,...
Daily Quiz for January 24, 2016
The man was the commander of the Prussian forces during the Waterloo campaign...
Sabtu, 23 Januari 2016
January 24, 1935: First canned beer goes on sale
Canned beer makes its debut on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production.
By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution...
Jumat, 22 Januari 2016
January 23, 1957: Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees
On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs–now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.
The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and...
Voices – Richard Myers, Air Force pilot, Joint Chiefs chairman
Four-star general Richard Myers, who served in Vietnam as an Air Force fighter pilot, became familiar to millions of TV viewers as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the initial phase of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq...
Kamis, 21 Januari 2016
January 22, 1998: Ted Kaczynski pleads guilty to bombings
On this day in 1998, in a Sacramento, California, courtroom, Theodore J. Kaczynski pleads guilty to all federal charges against him, acknowledging his responsibility for a 17-year campaign of package bombings attributed to the “Unabomber.”
Born in 1942, Kaczynski attended Harvard University and received a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan. He worked as an assistant mathematics professor at the University of California at Berkeley,...
Daily Quiz for January 21, 2016
On March 5, 1616, this book was officially banned by the Catholic Church...
Rabu, 20 Januari 2016
January 21, 1977: President Carter pardons draft dodgers
On this day in 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.
In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the late 1960s and early 70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety percent went to Canada, where after some initial controversy they were eventually welcomed as immigrants. Still others hid inside the United States. In addition to those who...
Cessna Mescalero
Most big-dollar warbirds make cramped, noisy, expensive, baggage-limited, sometimes dangerous cross-country machines. Not so this just-restored, ex-Army T-41B Mescalero, which is based on the world’s most popular GA airplane, the Cessna Skyhawk. That’s one reason Steve Dunn and his wife, Donna, of Panama City, Florida, chose to pour $100,000 and 19 months of their retirement ...
Selasa, 19 Januari 2016
January 20, 1981: Iran Hostage Crisis ends
Minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration as the 40th president of the United States, the 52 U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Teheran, Iran, are released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.
On November 4, 1979, the crisis began when militant Iranian students, outraged that the U.S. government had allowed the ousted shah of Iran to travel to New York City for medical treatment, seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran. The Ayatollah Khomeini,...
When Did People Transition to Mass Food Production?
When Did People Transition to Mass Food Production...
Senin, 18 Januari 2016
January 19, 1809: Edgar Allan Poe is born
On this day in 1809, poet, author and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
By the time he was three years old, both of Poe’s parents had died, leaving him in the care of his godfather, John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant. After attending school in England, Poe entered the University of Virginia (UVA) in 1826. After fighting with Allan over his heavy gambling debts, he was forced to leave UVA after only eight months....
Daily Quiz for January 18, 2016
In 1941, the Brooklyn Dodgers began requiring all of its players to wear these...
Minggu, 17 Januari 2016
January 18, 1919: Post-World War I peace conference begins in Paris
On this day in Paris, France, some of the most powerful people in the world meet to begin the long, complicated negotiations that would officially mark the end of the First World War.
Leaders of the victorious Allied powers–France, Great Britain, the United States and Italy–would make most of the crucial decisions in Paris over the next six months. For most of the conference, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson struggled to support his idea of a “peace...
Revisiting the ‘O.K. Corral Fire Aftermath’ Photo
Notes on a copy of C.S. Fly's photo of the May 25, 1882, fire in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, identifies one well-known residen...
Sabtu, 16 Januari 2016
January 17, 1950: Boston thieves pull off historic robbery
On this day in 1950, 11 men steal more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the perfect crime–almost–as the culprits weren’t caught until January 1956, just days before the statute of limitations for the theft expired.
The robbery’s mastermind was Anthony “Fats” Pino, a career criminal who recruited a group of 10 other men to stake out the depot for 18 months to figure out when it held the most money....
Daily Quiz for January 16, 2016
In 1925, the Tennessee state legislature passed the Butler Act, which did this...
Audio: Why Was Music So Important For Soldiers During The Vietnam War?
Vietnam Veteran Doug Bradley, Co-Author of the book "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", discusses the role music played for soldiers during the war...
Audio: Did The Movie ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ Reflect The Reality Of The Vietnam War?
A discussion on the accuracy of Good Morning Vietnam and music during the Vietnam War...
Audio: Why I Volunteered To Fight In Vietnam
Author Tom Garvey explains what compelled him to enlist in the military during the Vietnam war. Tom Garvey's novel "Many Beaucoup Magics" tells the story of an American Soldier and his journey during the Vietnam War...
Jumat, 15 Januari 2016
January 16, 1919: Prohibition takes effect
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” is ratified on this day in 1919 and becomes the law of the land.
The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political...
Daily Quiz for January 15, 2016
On March 15, 1493, this explorer returned to Spain from the New World...
Audio: WWII Veteran- Why I Wear My Medal Of Honor
Veteran describes his encounter with one particular German soldier during World War II...
Audio: Why My Captain Went Berserk- WWII Vet’s Funny Story
A World War II veteran's funny story of an unusual piece of equipment...
Audio: WWII Vet- This Is What You Think About When You Replace Someone On The Front Lines
A World War II veteran describes transferring into a new platoon and trench warfare...
Tet: ‘All Hell Is Breaking Loose’…Black Lions at An My
The 1st Battalion of the Big Red One's Black Lions Regiment was called into battle to help a battalion force under NVA attack in An My during the Tet Offensive in 1968...
Book Review: Here Lies Hugh Glass
Jon Coleman bites off all he can chew in Here Lies Hugh Glass, an ambitious treatise on American exceptionalism centered around the 19th-century mauling of mountain man Glass...
Details: Bridging the Chickahominy River
Union soldiers of the 5th New Hampshire infantry build a span known as the Grapevine Bridge across the Chickahominy River...
Kamis, 14 Januari 2016
January 15, 1967: Packers face Chiefs in first Super Bowl
On this day in 1967, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the first-ever world championship game of American football.
In the mid-1960s, the intense competition for players and fans between the National Football League (NFL) and the upstart American Football League (AFL) led to talks of a possible merger. It was decided that the winners of each league’s championship would meet each year in a single game...
How Did the Japanese Draft Citizens in World War II?
How Did the Japanese Draft Citizens in World War II...
Audio: Initiation For Gun Crews On Ships During WWII
Can you guess what the initiation was during WWII for the gun crew on ships like the USS Iowa and the USS Missouri...
Audio: What This WWII Vet Has To Say About Serving Will Have You Shedding Tears Of Patriotism
A wounded World War II talks about his injury and patriotism...
Audio: ‘When You Get The Order To Fix Your Bayonet’- WWII Vet Remembers The Ugliness Of War
A World War II veteran recalls close combat...
Rabu, 13 Januari 2016
January 14, 1875: Albert Schweitzer born
The theologian, musician, philosopher and Nobel Prize-winning physician Albert Schweitzer is born on this day in 1875 in Upper-Alsace, Germany (now Haut-Rhin, France).
The son and grandson of ministers, Schweitzer studied theology and philosophy at the universities of Strasbourg, Paris and Berlin. After working as a pastor, he entered medical school in 1905 with the dream of becoming a missionary in Africa. Schweitzer was also an acclaimed concert...
When Would a 45 Year Old Man Have Been Drafted for WWII?
When Would a 45 Year Old Man Have Been Drafted for WWII...
Selasa, 12 Januari 2016
January 13, 1128: Pope recognizes Knights Templar
On this day in 1128, Pope Honorius II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God.
Led by the Frenchman Hughes de Payens, the Knights Templar organization was founded in 1118. Its self-imposed mission was to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land during the Crusades, the series of military expeditions aimed at defeating Muslims in Palestine. The Templars took their...
Audio: Guess What A Radio Commercial From WWII Asked Americans To Eat Less Of?
During World War II, American civilians were asked to eat limited portions of meat...
Audio: WWII Vet- ‘I Always Felt Bad For The Civilians’
A World War II veteran recalls his experiences with civilians during the war...
Daily Quiz for January 12, 2016
The first Christmas postage stamp issued by the US government featured this...
Senin, 11 Januari 2016
January 12, 1926: Original Amos ‘n’ Andy debuts on Chicago radio
On this day in 1926, the two-man comedy series “Sam ‘n’ Henry” debuts on Chicago’s WGN radio station. Two years later, after changing its name to “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” the show became one of the most popular radio programs in American history.
Though the creators and the stars of the new radio program, Freeman Gosden and Charles Carrell, were both white, the characters they played were two black men from the Deep South who moved to Chicago to seek their...
Daily Quiz for January 11, 2016
She is quoted as saying, "I enjoy campaigning because my husband makes the speeches and I receive all the roses....
Minggu, 10 Januari 2016
January 11, 1908: Theodore Roosevelt makes Grand Canyon a national monument
On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument.
Though Native Americans lived in the area as early as the 13th century, the first European sighting of the canyon wasn’t until 1540, by members of an expedition headed by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Because of its remote and inaccessible location, several centuries passed before North American...
Daily Quiz for January 10, 2016
Sveinn Bjornsson became the first elected president of Iceland after it voted in 1944 to be completely independent from this country...
Sabtu, 09 Januari 2016
January 10, 1901: Gusher signals start of U.S. oil industry
On this day in 1901, a drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas, produces an enormous gusher of crude oil, coating the landscape for hundreds of feet and signaling the advent of the American oil industry. The geyser was discovered at a depth of over 1,000 feet, flowed at an initial rate of approximately 100,000 barrels a day and took nine days to cap. Following the discovery, petroleum, which until that time had been used in the U.S....
Daily Quiz for January 9, 2016
Poet Sarah T. Bolton, whose most famous work was "Paddle your own Canoe," helped strike a blow for this area of women's rights...
Jumat, 08 Januari 2016
January 09, 1493: Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids
On this day in 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing near the Dominican Republic, sees three “mermaids”–in reality manatees–and describes them as “not half as beautiful as they are painted.” Six months earlier, Columbus (1451-1506) set off from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, hoping to find a western trade route to Asia. Instead, his voyage, the first of four he would make, led him to the Americas,...
Daily Quiz for January 8, 2016
Judas Maccabeus is associated with the founding of this Jewish holiday...
Audio: WWII Medic Recalls Treating Tankers – ‘They Were The Toughest Guys In The Army’
World War II Veteran Robert Yuhas recalls treating wounded armored personnel in August 1944...
Kamis, 07 Januari 2016
January 08, 1877: Crazy Horse fights last battle
On this day in 1877, Crazy Horse and his warriors–outnumbered, low on ammunition and forced to use outdated weapons to defend themselves–fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.
Six months earlier, in the Battle of Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse and his ally, Chief Sitting Bull, led their combined forces of Sioux and Cheyenne to a stunning victory over Lieutenant Colonel George Custer (1839-76) and his men. The Indians were...
Daily Quiz for January 7, 2016
The first public passenger elevator started operation in this year...
Rabu, 06 Januari 2016
January 07, 1789: First U.S. presidential election
On this day in 1789, America’s first presidential election is held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who owned property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office on April 30, 1789.
As it did in 1789, the United States still uses the Electoral College system, established by the U.S. Constitution, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to...
Daily Quiz for January 6, 2016
In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law allowing the sale of these...
Selasa, 05 Januari 2016
January 06, 1838: Morse demonstrates telegraph
On this day in 1838, Samuel Morse’s telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, would eventually revolutionize long-distance communication, reaching the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He attended...
On Hold – Rowan Tech Antietam Interactive Map
The Bloodiest Day On September 17, 1862, General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac fought a bitter, daylong battle near the town of Sharpsburg, Md. The fight, called the Battle of Antietam by the Federals and the Battle of Sharpsburg by the Confederate forces, ...
Conversation: Bob Dole, the Gentleman from Kansas
During World War II, future U.S. senator Bob Dole was a GI Everyma...
Letter From Aviation History: No Runway Required
What accounts for our endless fascination with vertical takeoff and landing? If you’re of a certain age and followed aerospace developments in the late 1950s and 1960s, you witnessed an endless procession of VTOL projects that seemed to signal a new era of vertical flight. But of the many designs proposed during that imaginative era, ...
Senin, 04 Januari 2016
January 05, 1933: Golden Gate Bridge is born
On January 5, 1933, construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.
Following the Gold Rush boom that began in 1849, speculators realized the land north of San Francisco Bay would increase in value in direct proportion to its accessibility to the city. Soon, a plan was hatched to build a bridge that would span the Golden Gate, a narrow, 400-foot deep strait...
Daily Quiz for January 4, 2016
Thornton Wilder's 1939 play The Merchant of Yonkers was the basis of this Broadway and movie musical...
Minggu, 03 Januari 2016
January 04, 1999: The euro debuts
On this day in 1999, for the first time since Charlemagne’s reign in the ninth century, Europe is united with a common currency when the “euro” debuts as a financial unit in corporate and investment markets. Eleven European Union (EU) nations (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain), representing some 290 million people, launched the currency in the hopes of increasing European...
Daily Quiz for January 3, 2016
As a joke, this actress ran for president in 1940 on the Surprise Party ticket...
Sabtu, 02 Januari 2016
January 03, 1990: Noriega surrenders to U.S.
On this day in 1990, Panama’s General Manuel Antonio Noriega, after holing up for 10 days at the Vatican embassy in Panama City, surrenders to U.S. military troops to face charges of drug trafficking. Noriega was flown to Miami the following day and crowds of citizens on the streets of Panama City rejoiced. On July 10, 1992, the former dictator was convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Noriega,...
Daily Quiz for January 2, 2016
In 1941, ground was broken for this building that was later given six ZIP codes...
Dick Merrill: Beating the Odds
Dick Merrill repeatedly gambled his life while barnstorming, delivering airmail, conquering the Atlantic, flying the Himalayas and pioneering airline routes, but he always came out with a winning hand Among Henry Tyndall “Dick” Merrill’s achievements, the most surprising may be that he survived to become an aviation legend. So many equally daring young pilots died ...
Jumat, 01 Januari 2016
January 02, 1980: U.S.-Russia detente ends
On this day in 1980, in a strong reaction to the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter asks the Senate to postpone action on the SALT II nuclear weapons treaty and recalls the U.S. ambassador to Moscow. These actions sent a message that the age of detente and the friendlier diplomatic and economic relations that were established between the United States and Soviet Union during President Richard Nixon’s administration...
Daily Quiz for January 1, 2016
Before becoming secretary-general of NATO from 1957 to 1961, Paul-Henri Spaak served as president of this international organization...