President Ronald Reagan is the first president I can actually recall running for office.  I was in first grade, and I remember our class taking a vote, and Reagan didn’t win.  I also remember the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.  But today’s feature is about probably one of the most charming First Ladies we have had in recent years–Nancy […]

Well, I was wrong.  I thought he really did say “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but it would appear that was just attributed to him.  But no matter–one of the greatest showmen of all time was born on this date in 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum.  Among other things, he was known as a deceiver, a charlatan, a museum owner, […]

As most people know, it was this date in 1776, that America became a country.  It is our Independence Day. What I would like to do is share some little known fact concerning this date.  I am always appalled at how much is not known (especially by school kids) concerning this day.  I am also using this for Ultimate Blog […]

I found today’s story quite intriguing since I had never heard of this inventor nor his machine.  On this date in 1886, the New York Tribune first used Ottmar Mergenthaler’s linotype machine.  Although Guttenberg’s machine was absolutely essential to the publishing world, but due to the slowness of the machine, no more than eight pages could be included in an […]

Ever since seeing the Spielberg film, this has been a historical event that truly captured my attention and my heart.  It was on this date in 1839, that the wrongfully captured Africans overthrew the Amistad ship.  The slaves killed all of the crew with except for two individuals.  These two complied with turning the ship towards Africa during the day […]

I’m going to be honest.  I thought that today’s featured person was dead!  What a shock to realize that her birthday is today, and she is 97!  That’s right, on this date in 1916, Olivia de Havilland was born.  Her parents were from the UK, and they were living in Tokyo, Japan at the time.  Her mother had been an […]

I actually had never heard of today’s feature–nor had my mom.  Evidently, the earth’s orbit is somewhat irregular.  Atomic clocks, first appearing in the 1950’s, were extremely accurate, but these deviations in the earth’s orbit would eventually mean our time would be off by a second, then a minute, and eventually hours over the course of thousands of years.  And […]

Somehow, I don’t remember this great tragedy.  On this date in 1995, the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea collapsed killing 502 and injuring 937.  There were signs that an impending collapse was coming as early as April that year.  However, even when it opened back in 1990, there were problems.  The air conditioning was an issue.  The morning […]

I am a minimal collector of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls.  I was intrigued to learn that on this date in 1917, the first Raggedy Ann doll went on sale.  I did try to verify this as much as I could, and it seems like most sites record this as fact.  Most don’t elaborate, however.  So don’t be shocked when […]

I was not aware of today’s feature–maybe you were.  On this date in 1898, Joshua Slocum became the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone.  He was a native of Nova Scotia, and he began his journey on April 24, 1895, from Boston,  It was a 46,000, three-year journey.  He was 54 when he began this journey–wow!    He published a […]