Henrietta Robinson was born on Nov. 21, 1834. She came from a wealthy Quaker family. She learned business and finance from her father and grandfather. At age 13, she took over as accountant for her family business. At age 20, her father bought her an expensive wardrobe of dresses to Read more
On August 12, 1819 the whaling ship Essex set sail from Nantucket, the whaling capital of America. The voyage was supposed to last more than two years. On board were 21 men and a rookie captain named George Pollard, Jr. Two days into the voyage, a squall wrecked one Read more
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