The United States has over 2600 National Historic Landmarks. These special properties illustrate our heritage in many forms: buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts. As one might expect, all are within the borders of the United States. Except one. Go back to 1777 and the earlier days of our Revolutionary War. As European countries debated
On June 13, 1967, Thurgood Marshall was appointed a Supreme Court justice by President Lyndon Johnson. He was the first African American named to the nation’s highest court. Not that he had never been in those hallowed halls before — he had argued and won his first Supreme Court case at age 32 in Chambers v.
Are we a racist country? No matter your politics, the inescapable conclusion is if we aren’t today (a big if), we certainly have been for most of our history. I do a lot of reading, especially about our past, and I keep running across these little reminders of how divisive our race relations used to
For over a year now, violence against Asian Americans has been all over the news. I have a particular interest in this topic because members of my family are of Asian descent. Which is why an article entitled “11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know” caught my eye. This is another example
Why is it the positive news never seems to get mentioned? For example, everyone learns about the Holocaust, and I know there were extraordinarily brave people who risked their lives and saved many from the Holocaust, but I can never remember being told about organized Jewish resistance. And yet there was. One such example is
Most people might think this is a dumb question. Our dominion over the Earth was the Divine plan. But scientists approach such questions from a different angle. Consequently, they get a different answer. From a purely scientific viewpoint, the key to humanity’s world domination is our use of energy. First came our mastery of fire.
There are many fascinating stories about World War II. Smithsonian Magazine has just told another one — the Mitchell B-26B Marauder medium bomber that survived more than 200 missions, an amazing total in wartime. The only bomber to fly more missions was an RAF de Havilland B Mk IX Mosquito, F for Freddie, which was credited
How did the First of April become April Fools’ Day? There are a number of origin stories, but here is one that we know isn’t true. This version originated with Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University. Boskin claimed the idea of designating a day for general foolishness came from the reign of Roman
Song of the Witches — from Shakespeare’s Macbeth Double, double toil and trouble;Fire burn and caldron bubble.Fillet of a fenny snake,In the caldron boil and bake;Eye of newt and toe of frog,Wool of bat and tongue of dog,Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,For a charm of powerful trouble,Like a hell-broth boil and
March 13 is the birthday of everyone’s favorite uncle, Uncle Sam. This moniker had been used to refer to the USA since around 1810, but it wasn’t until 1852 that he was given a human form when Frank Henry Bellew first depicted him in a cartoon in the New York Lantern. Of course, it’s not