An interesting historical story.
In 1780, Samuel Wilson was fourteen years old. He ran away from his home in Massachusetts to follow in his father and brothers’ footsteps by joining the Continental Army. He served until the end of the war. In 1790, he and his brother opened a meat-packing business in Troy, NY. Read more
Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat stationed in Budapest, Hungary during WWII. Although Sweden was neutral, Wallenberg was not. He refused to stand by and watch the Holocaust occur in Hungary. It is estimated that he saved as many as 100,000 Jews from death from July to December, 1944. He Read more
The 92nd Infantry Division was an all-black (except for the white officers) that fought on the Western Front in WWI. It was reactivated in October, 1942, but was still segregated. It kept the buffalo insignia and the nickname “Buffalo Soldiers” from when they faced Indians in the West. It Read more
On Sept. 1, 1983 the passengers and crew of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 were enjoying a peaceful flight across the Pacific Ocean. The flight had begun at New York City and after a stopover at Anchorage, Alaska, was on the last leg to Seoul. Suddenly, there was an Read more
Everyone knows Robert Fulton invented the steamboat, right? Wrong. The actual inventor was a sad sack named John Fitch. In the 1780’s, Fitch began to dream of a vehicle propelled by a steam engine. Land travel over the terrible roads of that time was unfeasible, but perhaps on water Read more
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on August 30, 1797. Her parents were a famous feminist and a famous philosopher. She eloped at age 17 with the famous poet Percy Shelley. He was 21 and married. They had started their affair at her mother’s gravesite. Shelley’s wife committed suicide. They Read more
If you think the South was racist and the North was not, think again. There was plenty of racism in the North during the Civil War. From July 13-16, 1863, rioting in New York City resulted in hundreds of deaths. The rioters were mainly Irish immigrants, who ironically were Read more
Today is the birthday of one of the most fascinating figures in American History. If you live in New Hampshire, you probably have heard of John Stark. If not, you are probably saying “who?” Stark was a warrior. When he was 24 years old, he was on a hunting Read more
In 415 B.C., the Peloponnesian War had been going off and on for 16 years. Neither Athens nor Sparta was winning. Athens decided to overturn the playing board by sending a fleet and army to attack the Spartan ally of Syracuse on the island of Sicily. The Sicilian Expedition Read more
Althea Gibson was born to sharecroppers in South Carolina in 1927. Her parents moved to Harlem in the Great Migration in 1930. She dropped out of school at age 13. She spent some of her time street-fighting (her father had taught her boxing). That same year she started playing Read more