Thomas Austin thought it would be great to do some rabbit hunting. Australia already had domesticated rabbits, but they weren’t fun to hunt. The wealthy Australian had 24 wild European rabbits imported from the other side of the world. Read more
Today is the fifth anniversary of this website. Thank you to all the teachers who have used it and all others who have visited. Jane Grey was born in 1517 to a noble family. She was the great Read more
Port Chicago was a Navy loading area near San Francisco. It was located about a mile from the Port Chicago Naval Magazine. Trains would bring bombs and other explosives to the liberty ships. Most of the loaders were African-Americans Read more
In May, 1779, British Gen. Henry Clinton marched out of New York City with 8,000 men. He was headed for West Point hoping to provoke Washington into a decisive battle. On the way, he captured the abandoned fort at Stony Read more
The most famous conqueror almost didn’t conquer anything. In 334 B.C., Alexander (not the Great, yet) invaded Asia Minor to begin his conquest of the Persian Empire. His first battle was at the River Granicus. The Persian army, stiffened Read more
In 480 B.C., Athens learned that a huge Persian army and fleet were coming to get revenge for the Battle of Marathon. The chances of defeating the Persians were small. Many Greek city-states gave “earth and water” symbolizing surrendering Read more
This post is about the signers of the Declaration. Keep in mind that most of them signed on August 2, 1776. Only John Hancock signed it on July 4. The last to sign was Thomas McKean of Delaware. He signed Read more
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution by Richard Henry Lee. It stated that the States were declaring independence. The Committee of Five was appointed to draft the declaration. It consisted of John Adams, Thomas Read more
America’s independence was not celebrated until after the War of 1812. It was then decided that July 4 would be the day. This was a bad decision because the United States actually declared independence on July 2. That was the Read more
On June 30, 1908, a tremendous explosion occurred over a remote part of Siberia in Russia. It was equivalent to a 20-megaton explosion. It was 1,000 times the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The area was called Tunguska Read more