One hundred years ago, nine newspapers got together to sponsor a spelling competition for middle school students at the national level. While the words and the spellers have changed, the National Spelling Bee celebrated its 100th anniversary on May 31. This year’s winner, Faizan Zaki, is from Allen, TX and took second place last year. … Read more »
Tag: history
The Christmas Eggnog Riot
In 1802, West Point Military Academy was founded, a pathetic joke of a military institution whose lax recruitment standards, negligible resources, and few teachers contributed little to the nation’s safety. Then the War of 1812 happened, and losing the White House to the British convinced Congress that it would be prudent to train better officers… Read more »
A little dose of presidential trivia
Election season is the best season, even more than pumpkin spice latte season, football season or spider season Imagine raking leaves, drinking hot apple cider, munching on donuts and getting ready to participate in democracy – it’s one of the great American fall traditions. Here are a handful of fun facts to take to the… Read more »
It Takes More Than That to Kill the Bull Moose
In 1912, a former U.S. President, after being out of office for a term, became a Presidential candidate, and that candidate was shot by a would-be assassin at the outset of a campaign speech. The former President was Theodore Roosevelt, nicknamed ‘the Bull Moose’, and he had been fighting a bitterly contested campaign. He himself… Read more »
World of Almanacs
Curious about the weather this July? Want to learn more about astrological signs and planetary movements? Reach for an almanac and celebrate Read an Almanac Month! Almanacs are a treasure trove of information, meticulously compiled to provide readers with a broad spectrum of knowledge. While these books have existed in various forms since the dawn… Read more »
McClure’s Magazine and the birth of investigative journalism
It’s 1893, and the United States is in the middle of an economic panic. People are rushing to the banks, eager to take out all their money before it becomes worthless. The national unemployment rate hovers near 18%, and hundreds of companies and banks go out of business. Into this inauspicious moment, a new magazine… Read more »
Space, The Final Frontier
Looking up at the vastness and seeming timelessness of space, people have always sought to understand what lies beyond the Earth. Ancient people struggled to explain phenomena like moon phases, shooting stars, comets, blood moons, meteors, and even eclipses. It was a source of interest, though – ancient megalithic structures and cave paintings are thought… Read more »
Leap Years Through History
Every four years, we have a leap year that adds an extra day to our calendar on February 29th. This helps keep our calendar in sync with the time it takes for the Earth to orbit around the sun, which is about 365.25 days. Even though we may not notice this extra day, some interesting… Read more »
The Sinking of Saint Mary
In 1453, Christian-controlled Constantinople (now called Istanbul) fell to the Ottoman Empire, and the major trade routes to India and China were closed to Europe. Demand for Eastern goods like silk and spices did not decrease, though, and explorers looked for alternate routes. In 1492, one of those explorers, Christopher Columbus, convinced the government of… Read more »
Human Rights in an International World
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was signed by United Nations members on December 10, 1948 (a day that is now celebrated as Human Rights Day). Eleanor Roosevelt, the chairwoman of the UN committee that drafted the document, referred to it as humanity’s Magna Carta. In the wake of the atrocities committed in World… Read more »