Remember the Reason For Memorial Day May 30, 2011

Revolutionary War 1775 to 1783 4,435 US dead War of 1812 1812 to 1815 2,260 US dead Mexican War 1846 to 1848 1,773 US dead Civil War 1861 to 1865 approx. 600,000 USA/CSA dead Spanish Amer. War 1898 2,446 US dead WWI 1917 -1918 116, 516 US dead WWII 1941-1945 405, 399 US dead Korean [...]

100 Years of the Indy 500 Began With the Dream of a Visionary May 29, 2011

On This Date In History: Not all success stories are college graduates or even college drop outs. On this date in 1909, entrepreneur Carl Graham Fisher was looking ahead to a big day. In just a 3 days, he was going to stage the first race at the Indianpolis Motor Speedway . Four days later [...]

Mother’s Day, aka Mothering Sunday May 8, 2011

On This Date in History: I had always assumed that Mother’s Day was invented by some card company like Hallmark. I was wrong. It was just hijacked by the entreprenuerial spirit of America! There’s all sorts of stuff about it going back to the early church and then going on through the 17th century in [...]

Appomattox and Marian Anderson: Symbolic Irony of History April 9, 2011

On This Date in History: Wilmer McLean was a Virginia grocer. He probably did fairly well at his craft. But, he didn’t have much luck when it came to real estate. See, he had a patch of land not too far from the nation’s capital. The first major conflict of the Civil War was known [...]

Frederick Douglass: American February 28, 2011

Black History Month:  Some time ago, February was designated as Black History Month.   I have mixed emotions about that particular designation.  I think it’s always a good thing to focus attention on history, particularly American history since so many Americans really don’t know a lot about their nation.  I suppose the whole idea rose from [...]

Ginger or Mary Ann? February 12, 2011

On This Date in History:  If I am not mistaken, Elizabeth Carter Symon was born on this date in 1898.  My grandmother lived to see February 11, 1998.  It always amazed me that she was born in the Oklahoma Territory.  I’ve seen a photo of her and her best friend in a horse and buggy.  [...]

Disaster Comes When Men Go To the Wrong House January 26, 2011

On This Date in History: A few years ago, Snow White and I were walking from Papa Johns Stadium and some event,,,probably a football game. We were walking back to the car and crossed the railroad tracks. Well, we were supposed to do that but I decided it would be faster walking the tracks. I [...]

It’s National Nothing Day; Celebrate in Earnest January 16, 2011

This Date in History: Everyone says that they are so busy these days, or at least we act like we are. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone tells me that they are too busy to do something. Do you think that you could just do nothing? There is an AC/DC song [...]

Edison Didn’t Invent the 1st Light Bulb, Just the best. And No One Remembers the Other Guys December 31, 2010

On This Date in History: In 1876, Thomas Edison did perhaps the smartest thing he ever did. He created an invention factory. He moved his staff of 15 people into a large clapboard building filled with all sorts of scientific equipment and chemicals in Menlo Park, New Jersey which was then just a small rural [...]

A Dirty Ring Around the White House Bathtub December 28, 2010

On This Date in History:   According to H.L. Mencken, the first bathtub was installed in the White House in 1851 by President Millard Fillmore. Mencken wrote in a New York newspaper that the first bathtub in the United States was an “elegant mahogany contraption” installed in the home of a Cincinnati businessman in 1842. He said after that point, that [...]