Los Angeles is a world-famous city, and its history is quite extensive.  On this date in 1781, 44 Pobladores (“townspeople”): 22 adults and 22 children founded the city of Los Angeles. And I guess all the rest is history.  For more information: http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi03b.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108549.html http://famousdaily.com/history/city-of-los-angeles-founded.html

In this day of African-American role models that are somewhat questionable (rappers, gang members, etc.) it is completely refreshing to go back into history and find the ones who are positive role models and overcame obstacles.  On this date in 1838, Frederick Douglass boarded a train and escaped his life of slavery.  He went on to become a famous abolitionist, […]

I know that the Vietnam War was a difficult period in U.S. history, but today’s feature concerns a very important quote from that area of the world.  On this date in 1945, Ho Chi Minh said, “The entire Vietnamese people are determined to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.”  He was the president […]

Today’s feature is something I don’t remember hearing, but I don’t normally follow baseball or Little League news.  Danny Almonte was born in the Dominican Republic, and in 2000, he moved to the Bronx in New York.  He started playing on a Little League baseball team, and his father (who had been in New York for six years already) was […]

I am not a massive fan of cleaning, but I am glad the vacuüm cleaner was invented.  On this date in 1901, Hubert Cecil Booth patented the motorized vacuüm cleaner in the UK.  An early description of his invention was “large, horse-drawn, petrol-driven unit, which was parked outside the building to be cleaned with long hoses being fed through the […]

I would say that most of us remember this hurricane quite vividly.  Hurricane Katrina had formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, and it southern Florida as a Category 1 hurricane.  But it wasn’t done.  It strengthened over the Gulf of Mexico, and it became a Category 5.  On this date in 2005, Hurricane Katrina made its second hit […]

I was a Florida resident for many years.  I lived in Central Florida (I went to college there), and I honestly loved it.  But today’s feature was one of the places I never got to visit.  On this date in 1565, St. Augustine, Florida was founded, thus becoming the oldest established city in the U.S.  Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was […]

Did you know that it is a holiday in the Republic of Moldova?  I didn’t either.  On this date in 1991, the nation of Moldova declared its independence from the USSR.  Twenty-two years ago, they declared their independence, and their neighbor, Romania, was the first to recognize them as a country.  March of the following year was when the UN […]

Today’s feature has memories that go clear back to elementary school, and even as I write this, those memories are emblazoned on my brain.  On this date in 1946, George Orwell’s book Animal Farm was published in the United States.  This book was published the year before in England, but it took some time to make it to this side […]

I can remember watching a few cooking shows as I grew up, but I wasn’t terribly interested in most of them.  Cable television was something I finally got following my divorce, and this particular chef’s shows was one of the first cooking programs I discovered (my mom told me about her prime time talk show, but I didn’t really know […]