Lt. John_F. Kennedy aboard the PT-109
In the early hours of August 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rammed an American PT (patrol torpedo) boat, No. 109, slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive other American PT boats in the area assume the crew is dead.
Two crewmen were, in fact, killed, but 11 survived, including Lt. John F. Kennedy. Continue reading
Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics, set in the backdrop of Nazi Germany
Jesse Owens’ grandson said his track-legend grandfather’s successes at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin were a ‘thumb in the eye‘ to Adolf Hitler.
To commemorate the 4th of July, and the beginning of the Paris Olympics in 2024, Owens’ name was back in the news as one of the greatest American Olympians of all-time. Continue reading
One of the few surviving Tuskegee Airmen – and one of the four original Top Guns – turned 100 on Independence Day surrounded by friends, family, and television cameras for the big event.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart Jr. celebrated his centennial milestone on Thursday with a party that the Detroit chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen and the Tuskegee National Historical Museum hosted. Continue reading
Serving in the military is a family tradition for William Pool.
The 99-year-old veteran fought at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, while his father fought for the Union Army during the Civil War in the 1860s.
Yes, that’s not a typo. Pool is the only living son of a Civil War soldier, according to KYTV, an NBC affiliate in Springfield, Missouri.
In honor of Flag Day, KYTV did a deep dive on Pool’s unusual family heritage, speaking with Pool, his daughters, Carolyn George and Jeanie Price, and author Tim Pletkovich about it.
Citing Pletkovich’s book, “Civil War Fathers: Sons of the Civil War in WWII,” which includes a chapter on the Pool family, KYTV explained how Pool’s father, Charles Pool, fought for the Union with the Sixth West Virginia Volunteers during the Civil War and received a pension for his service. Continue reading
Back in the early 19th century, when the United States started its westward expansion, one remarkable woman emerged as an essential figure in American history: Sacagawea. Born around 1788 in what is now Idaho, Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman whose knowledge, skills, and resilience were instrumental in the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Even though many of us have heard of her, not too many people know how important her role truly was. So, let’s learn a bit more about this extraordinarily brave and intelligent woman who helped shape the course of American history. Continue reading
This is how one scholar has diagnosed Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Harsh though this may sound, the details of Rousseau’s life (1712–1778) bear out this description. Continue reading
Angela Davis is a 79-year-old author and symbol of the Black Power movement. As a political activist and truth seeker, Davis appeared on February 21, 2023, episode of “Finding Your Roots” to uncover the mysteries of her family’s past. Hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the show presented Davis with some answers to questions she’d had for decades. The first question posed to Gates’ team was to find the identity of Davis’ maternal grandparents, whom her mother, Sallye Bell, never knew.
Though they were unable to learn her grandmother’s name, the team was able to trace her father’s identity: John Austin Darden, a white Alabama lawyer. When Davis saw a photo of Darden, she noted the family resemblance, “He has my mother’s lips. It’s so funny, I can see her in him”. The team also learned that Darden had four sons and two daughters, leaving the possibility that her mother had other Black half-siblings. Continue reading
There are few American heritage sites as well known as Mount Rushmore. The colossal statues, which can be found in the Black Hills of South Dakota, are known as “The Shrine of Democracy.”
It’s been nearly a century since the controversial monument was started and left unfinished but despite its unfinished status, the monument attracts more than 2 million visitors per year. While the Native Americans who call the land home have a much more spiritual name for the landmark, the mountain was renamed for a dandy New York lawyer. Continue reading
NOTE: The following was published on February 18, 2020. Mr. Carter will be 100 years old on October 1, 2024 – and in my personal opinion – and no – I did not vote for him – he is the ONE President in our life-time who NEVER quit working FOR America. A very fine Human being in so many respects. ~ Editor
Jimmy Carter was way ahead of the rest of America when he put solar panels on the White House. On June 20, 1979, he made a proud proclamation:
In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy…. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.
The 32-panel system was designed to heat water throughout the presidential residence. Continue reading
Statesman John Calhoun, often vilified by modern sophisticates for the Confederacy’s embrace of his political philosophy, was in fact one of the greatest and most articulate champions of states’ rights, limited government, and strict federalism subsequent to the Founding Fathers.
A two-time vice president and one of America’s greatest senators, John C. Calhoun was also one of the most eloquent proponents of limited government and states’ rights… Continue reading
Charles Dickens is known for a good ghost story. Some of his most famous works, including the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, revolve almost entirely around the supernatural. The English author’s interest in spirits even extended beyond the written word: He was an original member of the Ghost Club in London, an exclusive group interested in dissecting all things otherworldly. Continue reading
Joe Black – when I knew him. ~ J.B.
I hadn’t seen Joe for about two and a half months and wondered why. Now I know the answer as to why.
I acquired my private mail box on Shea Boulevard in 1996 and while most of the folks remained private for one reason or another, I was soon introduced to Joe Black – for the second time in my life.
The first was in 1955, when I was seven years old and was just learning about the national pastime. I spent summers in Eagle, Wisconsin – I was a Milwaukee Braves fan – County Stadium was my ‘home away from home’. Joe Black left the Brooklyn Dodgers that year and signed on with the Cincinnati Red Legs – and brought with him quite a legacy – the first black pitcher to bring his team a pennant. Joe spent the rest of his life bringing the winning pennant home to whatever endeavor he tackled.
I never broke bread with the man – but we broke the silence of two people with little in common – and I never asked him for his autograph. May you rest in peace sweet man.
Legendary Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Joe Black died of prostate cancer Friday morning at the age of 78, passing away at an aftercare facility in Scottsdale.
“At moments like this, when we’re worrying about other things within the game, it really doesn’t mean too much,” Commissioner Bud Selig said. “I’ve known Joe Black a long time. He loved the game and was so willing to always be helpful. He was one of those rare individuals who was willing to give of himself unconditionally. You just don’t find people like that, especially in professional sports.” Continue reading
Here’s something you won’t read about in the US history books. The first legal slave owner in America was black and he owned white slaves.
Anthony Johnson (BC 1600 – 1670) was an Angolan who achieved freedom in the early 17th century Colony of Virginia.
Johnson was captured in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold to Arab (Muslim) slave traders. He was eventually sold as an indentured servant to a merchant working for the Virginia Company.
Sometime after 1635, Antonio and Mary gained their freedom from indenture. Antonio changed his name to Anthony Johnson. Continue reading
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter died Nov. 19 at 96 years old with husband, former President Jimmy Carter, who turned 99 last month, by her side at their home in Georgia, their son told The Washington Post.
The Carters celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary this summer, and by then had already been the longest-married presidential couple in United States history for some time. In the wake of Rosalynn Carter’s death, new details emerged this week about her final moments and the former president’s devotion throughout them. Continue reading
John Brown of Kansas
Many year ago now, when we lived in West Virginia, the church we attended used a hymnbook that contained “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” At the time I didn’t know much about that song (I won’t call it a Christian hymn because it isn’t) but when folks got to choose what hymns they wanted to hear in the Sunday evening service that song was often chosen. At that time the pastor in that church was from Georgia, and I can imagine he cringed every time that song was chosen in a service. I remember one time, one of the congregation said to him, in jest, “We can’t sing Dixie. It’s not in the hymnbook.” If the truth be known The Battle Hymn of the Republic should not have been in a Christian hymnal either, but unfortunately it is still in many. Continue reading
Banished for debasing the currency from his home city in what is now north-central Turkey, Diogenes of Sinope chose to beg in the streets of Corinth and Athens, live in a clay jar, and eschew wealth of any kind. The story is often told that he walked the streets with a lantern, looking in vain for an honest man. He often confronted people with disparaging hand gestures, including one that involved the middle finger. He is considered a founder of the ancient Greek school of philosophy known as Cynicism. In his 80s, he died in the same year as Alexander the Great (323 B.C.). Continue reading
George Washington, it’s famously said, was “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Such firsts undoubtedly contributed to his other great achievements, including his election as president of both the Constitutional Convention and the United States.
In other words, Washington was not an average man. But his above-average nature didn’t happen overnight. At age 14, he copied out more than 100 maxims of good behavior in his school book, likely intending to implement them in his own life. Many of these are still applicable today. Following them can help modern men be true gentlemen who stand head and shoulders above the crowd in both character and conduct. Continue reading
Any fan of Dickens will know that he died before he could finish ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’. But, if not for him surviving a train accident in Kent in 1865, his last piece of work could well have been ‘Our Mutual Friend’
On the 9th June 1865, Dickens was traveling back from a holiday in France in a first class carriage at the front of the Folkestone Boat Express train. Ellen Ternan, the actress for whom he had left his wife Catherine Hogarth two years previously, and her mother were traveling with him. Also accompanying them was another important passenger; the manuscript of the latest installment of the novel he was writing at the time; ‘Our Mutual Friend’. Continue reading
In this c. 1772 portrait of Samuel Adams by John Singleton Copley, Adams points at the Massachusetts Charter, which he viewed as a constitution that protected the peoples’ rights. / Library of Congress
Before his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson asked himself: “Is this exactly in the spirit of the patriarch of liberty, Samuel Adams?” Would he approve of it?
To understand why the new president hoped to channel Adams’s spirit is to discover not only where a daring revolutionary came from, but where a revolution did. To lose sight of him is to lose sight of a man who calculated what would be required to upend an empire, and who — radicalizing men, women, and children with boycotts and pickets, street theater, invented traditions, a news service, a bit of character assassination, and any number of innovative, extralegal institutions — led American history’s seminal campaign of civil resistance. Adams banked on the sage deliberations of a band of hard-working farmers reasoning their way toward rebellion. That was how democracy worked. Continue reading
When their ship from the Netherlands docked in the harbor of New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1688, Garrett Hendricks DeWeese, and his wife Zytian, could not have known of the historic events that would direct the destiny of their future family. Nor could they have known how those future sons and daughters would be central figures in molding those events. Continue reading