The ceremony was for the dedication of the national cemetery on Nov. 19, 1863. It contained only the Union dead. Some of them were being buried during the ceremony. The town of Gettysburg had only 2,500 citizens and 15,000 people showed up for the ceremony. Beds were at a premium. Read more
This is the anniversary of the second worst mass civilian casualty event due to a deliberate act in American History. Here are some interesting facts. Jim Jones created the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis in 1956. Jones, a civil rights activist, envisioned his organization to be an integrated congregation that worked Read more
It is thought that Egyptian pharaoh Sensuret III had a canal built connecting the Red Sea to the Nile around 1850 B.C. Later, Persian Emperor Darius I constructed a similar east – west waterway. In 1798, during his Egyptian campaign, Napoleon sent out a team of surveyors to explore the Read more
Jack Sheppard became the most famous criminal in early 18th Century England. Born to poor parents in 1702, he was apprenticed to a carpenter. After five years, he was one year away from completing his training, but that’s when he discovered the joys of drinking and whoring. Soon he Read more
Erwin Rommel was born on Nov. 15, 1891. His father was the headmaster of a school. As a boy, Erwin was described as gentle and unaggressive. He was interested in math and engineering and dreamed of becoming an aeronautical engineer. He co-built a glider at age 14. He bought a 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
In 1979, Jan Scruggs was inspired by the movie “The Deer Hunter” to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Scruggs was a wounded veteran who was studying PTSD. He started raising the funds and refused to accept taxpayers money. Congress did donate two acres on the National Mall. By 1981, Read more
Robert Scott was a hero to the British people because of his valiant attempt to bring glory to the British Empire by being the first to reach the South Pole. His body was found on Nov. 12, 1912. He set off from New Zealand in 1910 to try to Read more
On Nov. 11, 1921, President Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The sarcophagus was designed by architect Lorimer Rich and sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones. It was actually carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. They had earlier done the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. The three carved Greek Read more
The East End of London was a hellish environment noted for its poverty, crime, alcoholism, and prostitution. On the night of August 31, 1888, Mary Ann Nicholls was found with her throat cut and her body mutilated. The 42 year-old prostitute had taken on one client too many. One Read more