PODCAST: HISTORY UNPLUGGED
J. Edgar Hoover’s 50-Year Career of Blackmail, Entrapment, and Taking Down Communist Spies
On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head in Ford's Theatre's presidential box by an actor, John Wilkes Booth. After shooting the President, Booth jumped on the stage and managed to escape through the theater's back entrance. The first president to be assassinated, Lincoln died…
The 13th Amendment is a large milestone in the history of African-Americans. This amendment to the U.S. constitution abolishes slavery and any service done involuntarily (except by court order as a punishment for a crime.) When Was the 13th Amendment Added to the Constitution? It took about a year and…
Manifest Destiny refers to the attitude in America during the 1800's when pioneers settled the country and believed that the U.S. was destined to stretch across the whole continent, from the one coast to the other. The phrase was used by politicians at the time and first published in an…
Benjamin Franklin was not only one of the founding fathers, he was also a printer, postmaster, diplomat, leading author, scientist, swimmer and inventor. In between engineering the U.S. postal system, starting the first lending library in the U.S., running a print shop and starting up the American revolution, he was…
George Washington, the first president of the U.S. is a legendary figure who left a great legacy through the accomplishments in his life. Because of his fame, there are also many legends and stories about him that are doing the rounds. Let’s explore some of the fun facts about this…
The Declaration of Sentiments was read by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and signed by 32 men and 68 women during the first ever women's rights convention in America that was organized by women. The conference took place in Seneca Falls New York in July, 1848 and was organized by Stanton and…
Jackie Robinson played an important role in the end of racial segregation in American sports. When he became the first black player to in the major baseball leagues by signing with Brooklyn Dodgers, he broke a very important, unwritten color barrier in the sports world. He was a brilliant player,…
President Lincoln was one of the tallest presidents of the United states, along with Lyndon B. Johnson. Both presidents were 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall and towered over their opponents. Some observers think that the public prefers taller candidates, which is why the taller candidates often win in…
The Middle Ages were a terrible time to get sick. There was no sanitation inside cities and hardly any in rural areas. While there might be some drainage or elementary sewers, the fact remains that people simply threw their bodily wastes out into the streets. Animal dung, dead dogs and…
Unlike implied by its name, the Underground Railroad did not involve trains that ran underground. It was actually a network of secret safe houses with routes in-between through which African-American slaves were helped to escape to freedom. This network was established with the help of black and white abolitionists, who…
