James Bowie grew up in Louisiana. As a boy he tamed wild mustangs and rode alligators (you grab their upper jaw and gouge their eyes). He and his brothers made a lot of money in a scam with the infamous pirate Jean Lafitte. Lafitte would smuggle slaves in. The Read more…
Patty Hearst was the granddaughter of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. On Feb. 4, 1974 three members of the Symbionese Liberation Army broke into her apartment in Berkeley, California and abducted her. They beat up her fiancé and a neighbor who tried to help. They fired guns at Read more…
You could argue the South lost the Civil War on Sept. 13, 1862. That was the day Corporal Barton Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers found a paper wrapped around three cigars at a campsite near Frederick, Maryland. The camp had been used by the Army of Northern Virginia a Read more…
When the sculptor Phidias was exiled from Athens for suspicion of embezzlement in the sculpting of his statue of Athena in the Parthenon, he ended up in Olympia where he was commissioned to do the statue. It was 40 feet high even though seated on Read more…
The temple was built around 550 B.C. in what is today Turkey. It was dedicated to the goddess of hunting and nature. The Romans called her Diana. It was about twice the size of the Parthenon at 377 feet by 180 feet. It had a tile-covered roof held Read more…
When Francis Scott Key learned that a friend was being held by the British, he decided to try to arrange his release. Dr. William Beanes had been abducted from his home in Baltimore and was being held on a British warship. Key got a note from President Madison that Read more…
After graduating from high school, he taught African-American students. After attending West Point, he became a second lieutenant in the 6th Cavalry. He served in the west in campaigns against Geronimo and the Apaches. The 6th was involved in the Ghost Dance Campaign, but it was not at the Wounded Read more…
He was born the last of ten children of poor Alabama sharecroppers. When they moved to Chicago, his first grade teacher misunderstood his southern accent and called him “Jesse” instead of his nickname J.C. (for James Cleveland). J.C. was too scared to correct her. When he was five, his mother Read more…
The Hanging Gardens were built by Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife Amytis. She missed the hills of her youth. It used a water pipe system to pump water to a height of 60 feet. The water came from the Euphrates River. There were terraces planted with a variety Read more…
In 1789, Doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin suggested a more humane way of executing people. At the time, the lower classes were hanged and upper class were beheaded with a sword or axe. Both methods could result in considerable pain before the victim expired. Beheadings relied on the accuracy of the executioner Read more…