A remote island in the Pacific Pitcairn island is habitable but only on a meager subsistence basis. But it is inhabited and for one hour a day it is the only location in the British Kingdom receiving sunshine.
The History Guy remembers the Mystery of the Beast of Gévaudan. It is a story of mystery, culture, and an unidentified beast in France that deserves to be remembered.
The History Guy remembers the 1980 Titan II Explosion. In 1980, a dropped wrench created a crisis inside a nuclear missile silo in Damascus, Arkansas. An updated episode.
Virginia Hall was an Allied super spy during World War Two declared publicly by Klaus Barbie as "The Enemy's Most Dangerous Spy". She survived by her wits and tight lips taking many of her activities to the grave.
Most everyone owns at least one screwdriver. But Canadians likely own a screwdriver that few outside Canada would recognize. The differing fates of the Robertson and the Phillips head screwdrivers demonstrates that innovation is intimately tied to historical events. The History Guy remembers the forgotten history of the screwdriver.
An early blizzard in October 1880 caught northern Midwest farmers with unharvested grain. And the snow was deep; up to the second floor windows in some places. And the snow kept falling blocking transportation and leaving people in some areas near starvation. Of course the snow had to melt in the spring causing floods due to ice dams. And then another blizzard.
Although intended as an antiaircraft gun the gun carriage of the flak-37 88 mm gun allowed the gun to be fired horizontally as an antitank gun. in World War Two this high velocity gun was often the only gun capable of killing Allied tanks. Here are three stories when it turned Nazi defeats into victories.
Normally coin produces try to make it hard to counterfeit the coins they make. But it 1883 the United States Mint released a coin that made it ridiculously easy. A new nickel did not bear the word cents and the obverse design was nearly identical to the five dollar gold piece with a similar size and weight. Fraudsters applied a thin coating of gold and passed the nickels off for one hundred times their true value.
Hetty Green was raised by her grandfather spending a great deal of time at his business. There she developed the philosophy of always increasing her wealth. She took this philosophy to the extreme becoming an intense haggler, contrarian investor and extreme miser. But she was delightful in social circles, charitable and helpful to her debtors who struggled with repayments.
Several presidents have died in office, Others have come close to death. Here are three presidential near death experiences that are all but forgotten because the president survived. A trolley car collided with a barouche that Theodore Roosevelt was riding in. Franklin Pierce survived a train crash that killed his son. Franklin Roosevelt was nearly assassinated then rode with his wounded attacker to the hospital.
In October 1962 with the world focused on the Cuban Missile Crisis a second crisis was unfolding as China invaded India. Indian forces did not hold up well and it desperately sought support from the United States. The US was anxious to support India to embarrass China but the US did not want to engage in another Korean type war and somehow Pakistan had to be persuaded not to take advantage of the situation.
In 2007 a guerrilla marketing campaign featuring Mooninites was misunderstood by the people of Boston as a terrorist attack leading to road closures and general confusion.
Apollo 6 was the last unmanned Apollo mission. Fortuneately it went unnoticed by the public because it was plagued with problems. But NASA was happy with the mission because they completed it despite its troubles.
The humble hot dog has been around longer than you might think, and how it became an American icon with a surprising number of regional varieties is intimately linked to American culture and history. Whether you like them boiled or grilled, with chili or sauerkraut or, blasphemy to some, ketchup, the history of hot dogs is a history of modern America.
The London Underground had been completed - the world's first subway system - was completed in 1863, but it was plagued by the dirty soot of its steam-powered trains. Alfred Beach promised something similar, and yet entirely different for New York City. But his dreams for the future of transportation would be mired in the politics and economics of the present.
While there are so many reasons to remember Abraham Lincoln as the sixteenth president, he was more than a president, he was a singular personality, one of the most unique of the 45 men who have led the nation.
Oft cited as a do nothing session, the First Continental Congress passed the "Articles of Association" that documented colonial grievances against the Britsh Crown and created unity among the colonies in establishing boycotts against United Kingdom products, notably tea.
