On Feb. 12, 1908, the first meeting of the NAACP was held in New York City. Mary White Ovington (a suffragist), William English Walling (a labor reformer who was born to a slave-holding family), and Henry Moskowitz (a black civil rights activist) chose Lincoln’s birthday for this organizational meeting. Two Read more…
On Feb. 11, 1809 Robert Fulton received his patent for the steamboat. That reminds me of a story I used to tell about the maiden voyage of the steamboat. The story might be apocryphal, but it is true to human nature. In 1806, Fulton prepared to launch his steamboat, the Read more…
Charles Stratton was born a normal baby in a normal family. But he stopped growing at 6 months. He did add some inches years later, but he never topped 3 1/2 feet. When the healthy little boy was 4, he came to the attention of the showman P.T. Barnum. Barnum Read more…
On Feb. 9, 1950, Joseph McCarthy gave a speech that launched America into a dark period known as “McCarthyism”. The Senator from Wisconsin was looking to make a splash that would revive his moribund political career. He had recently been voted “worst senator” by the Senate press corps. He Read more…
On Feb. 8, 1915, the first major motion picture opened. “The Birth of a Nation” was revolutionary and launched the silent movie era with a true classic. It is covered in American History textbooks. I don’t use this website to offer my opinions, but I can not abide by that Read more…
In 1892, a Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy composed a pledge of allegiance to the flag. He was unhappy with the current pledge devised by George Balch. Balch had been a general in the Civil War. His pledge read: “We give our heads and hearts to God and our Read more…
He was born George Herman Ruth on Feb. 6, 1895. (For many years he thought his birthday was Feb. 7, 1894. He discovered the true date when he applied for a passport for a baseball tour of Japan.) He was not an orphan when he entered St. Mary’s Industrial School Read more…
Americans school children have laughed at the Indians who sold Manhattan Island for more than three hundred years. “Those primitive savages sold this valuable real estate for only $24 worth of beads and trinkets.” Or so the story goes. But it’s Native Americans who should be laughing. In actuality, 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 Frisco, California and abducted her. They beat up her fiancé and a neighbor who tried to help. They fired guns at eyewitnesses. Read more…
On Feb. 3, 1882, the most famous elephant in the world was sold to American showman P.T. Barnum. Two-year-old Jumbo was captured in the Sudan in 1862 after hunters killed his mother. He ended up in a Paris zoo and then was traded to the London Zoo in 1865. Read more…