On May 5, 1961, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. became the first American in space. It was just a 15-minute mission — memorable to the nation — but too late to outwit the competition. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin astounded the world when he orbited the earth — once — in the Vistok 1. Shepard’s Freedom […]
Less than two months after the siege of the Alamo, the Texas War for Independence took a turn towards triumph; on April 21, 1836, Sam Houston overwhelmed the unvigilant army of Mexican General, Santa Anna in the Battle of San Jacinto. Houston and his volunteers flogged the Mexican army and imprisoned their leader. Houston agreed […]
Intrinsically, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a conservationist, who once said, “the forests are the lungs of our land [which] purify our air and give fresh strength to our people.” On April 5, 1933–a year after he was elected President– FDR formed the Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC]; he believed it would put thousands of citizens back […]
By March 22, 1765, the British–short on funds to absorb the costs of their military presence in the colonies–unloaded the Stamp Act on the overburdened citizenry. Already, they were anteing up for the sugar tax on imported goods, paying an assessment for paper money, and a quartering fee for the housing and food costs of […]
Nineteen months after her 1880 birth, Helen Keller contracted scarlet fever–or bacterial meningitis—which left her blind, deaf, and mute. Her parents sought help from Alexander Graham Bell, who was known for his invention of the telephone, but—also—his celebrated work educating the deaf. He introduced the Keller family to the Perkins Institution– it trained people afflicted […]
Twenty years after the United States was freed of Britain, America went to war, again–this time against the populous pirate population in the Mediterranean. Pocketed throughout Africa–in Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripolitania [Libya], they ambushed U.S. merchant ships, seized cargoes, commandeered crews, and collected large ransoms. Hostilities got so heated that President Jefferson dispatched the […]
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