From Napoleon To Kate Middleton, The Breton Shirt Has A Long And Noble History

June 10, 2022

Breton shirt of the French Navy. (Claude TRUONG-NGOC/Wikimedia Commons) It's rare for a garment of utilitarian origin to become something ...

The Homestead Act Of 1862 And The Failure Of Free Land

May 20, 2022

Covered wagon and settlers crossing the West c. 1850 (Apic/Getty Images) On May 20, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862 into law, essentially...

Kit Carson: Hero Of The Old West

May 18, 2022

American scout, trapper and Indian agent, Christopher 'Kit' Carson (1809–1868). (MPI/Getty Images) If you remember your grade school geography drills, you know the capital of Nevada is...

This Day In History: The Debut Of A Shocking And Scandalous New Dance

May 11, 2022

Wilhelm Gause (1853-1916), Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (1830-1916) at the Annual Viennese Ball. (DEA/A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images...

No Mercy For Mercy Brown, Rhode Island's Resident Vampire

April 30, 2022

You probably associate vampire hysteria with 15th- and 16th-century Europe, but the U.S. had its share of vampire scares back in the witch trials days. The st...

George Ferris's Invention Was A Big Wheel

April 8, 2022

View of the Ferris wheel on the Midway Plaisance at the World's Columbian Exposition world's fair, Chicago, Illinois, 1893. (Chicago History Museum/Getty Images) George Ferris...

"Catch 'Em Alive" Jack's Strange But Lucrative Old West Occupation

April 4, 2022

Jack Abernathy, standing in coat holding hat. (Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons) Homesteading on the Oklahoma prairie in the 1890s was difficult,...

Establishing The Prime Meridian: Time To Talk About Time

March 11, 2022

People looking at the Shepherd Gate Clock on the wall outside the gate of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in south London. (The Print Collector/Getty Images) ...

Anne Sullivan: The Miracle Worker

March 3, 2022

Helen Keller, age 13, with Anne Sullivan in 1893. (Bettmann/Getty Images) Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller shared the most famous student-teacher relationship of all time, dramatized in...

The Exploited Life Of Joice Heth

February 27, 2022

Poster advertising Joice Heth. (Somers Historical Society/Wikimedia Commons) Joice Heth, a black slave, was well into old age when she was purchased by the Greatest Showman in 1835 but...

Weird Things Happened During The New Madrid Earthquake Of 1811

February 21, 2022

Drawing of the New Madrid Earthquake. (Unknown author/Wikimedia Commons) Starting on December 16, 1811, the region of New Madrid in the Louisiana Territor...

5 Rare Facts About Abraham Lincoln

February 11, 2022

Portrait of American President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), mid 19th century. (Stock Montage/Getty Images) He Was The First (And Only) President To Hold A PatentLincoln's fascination...

William Morgan's Mintonette: How The Inventor Of Basketball Inspired The Invention Of Volleyball

February 9, 2022

A group of ladies playing a game of volleyball, circa 1900. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) You've probably played volleyb...

What Was The Gilded Age?

February 1, 2022

The Breakers, the summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. (UpstateNYer/Wikimedia Commons) The Gilded Age, known for its opulence, industrializa...

The Anglo-Zanzibar War: The Shortest War In History

January 22, 2022

British marines pose with a captured Zanzibari gun following the capture of the Sultan's palace in Zanzibar Town, August 27, 1896. (Richard Dorsey Mohun/Wikimedia Comm...

The Life Of Fyodor Dostoevsky

January 8, 2022

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821–1881), novelist and writer. Oil painting by Vasily Perov (1833–1882), 1872. (Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Fyodor Do...

Vermont's Captain Thunderbolt: A Mysterious Schoolteacher With A Secret Past

January 2, 2022

A masked highwayman on horseback robs a pedestrian. Date: 18th century. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) In the early 1820s, a well-dressed gen...