You’ve got one. I’ve got one. Everyone from professional plumbers to weekend do-it-yourselfers has one. But a common tool came within a whisker of becoming a casualty of the Civil War because of confusion caused by the color of a uniform. Really.
Here’s how it happened. Continue reading
Think quick: when I say Benito Mussolini, what comes to mind? Bad guy. Bellicose. Bald.
The man who styled himself Il Duce (The Leader) was all those. And more. Yet 72 years after he was shot and hanged upside down before an angry mob, one remnant of his legacy still lingers. “He made the trains run on time.”
But did he really? Continue reading
There are eight million stories in the naked city that we call History. And this is one of the strangest.
Springtime always reminds me of a crazy fad from the 1970s. It arrived out of nowhere, flying by in a fleshy blur that left some people horrified, others amused, plus a good many unsure just what to make of it. And in a flash, it was gone.
This is the short, strange story of Streaking. Continue reading
If you were a child in the 1960s or 70s, you likely feasted on a certain type of candy while watching a baseball game. Or walking home from school. Or after pulling it out of your Halloween treats pile.
Personally, I enjoyed its biting sugariness at the movie theater while taking in Saturday afternoon matinees. Those little circles of sweetness have stood the test of time and are still popular today. Yet you’ll be surprised to learn messy Baby Boomers played a big role in their creation. This is their story. Continue reading
War clouds may be gathering over the Koreas. Again. And the timing couldn’t be worse to those who know history. Because April is when America most often goes to war.
Fate has a thing for April. It loves unleashing major events then. More serious history has been made in this one month than any other: Paul Revere’s ride (1775); Lincoln’s assassination (1865); Jesse James killed (1882 – click here for more); the Titanic sank (1912); Martin Luther King’s assassination (1968), plus many more.
Here’s another little-known fact: the majority of American wars began in April. Continue reading
Did you know three major historical events happened on April 12?
1861: The Civil War began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Charlestonians watched in fascination from The Battery. The attack triggered the bloodiest conflict in American history (which ended almost exactly four years to the very day later).
1945: President Franklin D. Roosevelt died unexpectedly of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia. FDR successfully kept his physical disability due to polio out of the public eye; and although he had been in visibly failing health for several years, the extent of his decline was kept secret from the public and even the man who followed him in the White House, Harry Truman.
1961: Soviet Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter outer space with a single orbit around Earth. (American Alan Shepard quickly followed on May 5.) The Space Age had officially begun. Gagarin died seven years later when his training jet crashed.
Each event was highly significant. But to have three major milestones occur on the same date is simply amazing.
I’ll be back soon with next week’s regular forgotten tale from history. See you here Sunday!
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Things were supposed be so different by now. Futurists predicted that by the 21st Century we’d travel in helicopter cars, vacation on Mars and wear those nifty space jumpsuits.
It didn’t turn out that way.
One thing they especially got wrong was food. Yet Americans’ fascination with the early Space Age did send folks over the Moon for several astronaut-related products.
Time to revisit three food fads from a future that wasn’t. Continue reading
History surrenders this secret grudgingly: several men technically were president, but aren’t considered Presidents of the United States. You have to look hard to find them, but they’re there.
For example, George H. W. Bush was Acting President for almost eight hours in 1985 while Ronald Reagan had colon surgery. Dick Cheney did likewise in 2002 and 2007 when boss George W. Bush was anesthetized for colonoscopies.
Then there was David Rice Atchison who may, or may not, have been president for one day in 1849. (Read here and decide for yourself.)
But here’s the most overlooked incident of all. Continue reading
(White House photo by Paul Morse)
Imagine a formal White House meal. Glistening silver, glittering china and crystal. And the food! I was a guest of the first President Bush at a luncheon in 1991. The chow there is good. Trust me.
Except for once during the 20th Century, when the woman charged with feeding the president served meals that were so bad guests cringed. That hottest ticket in Washington, an invitation to dine with the president, was something to dread. “Eat before you go to the White House” was the rule.
Incredibly, the man who brought down Hitler and Mussolini was powerless to do anything about the dictator under his own roof.
Meet the Tyrant of the White House Kitchen.
You’ve seen that face for years. An adorable baby, all innocence and wide-eyed wonder. I first noticed it as a child when my mother fed my hungry infant sisters.
It’s the Gerber Baby, one of the most widely recognized logos in advertising history. For decades an urban myth claimed the image was drawn from a real-life baby who grew up to become a famous movie star. Problem was, it didn’t happen that way. (Though there is a tiny grain of truth in the story.)
Blame the misunderstanding on Maud’s boy.