Learn Our History Today: May 15

Learn Our History Today:

On May 15, 1864, the Battle of New Market, Virginia, was fought. This battle occurred as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864, during the Civil War. The battle began when union troops under the command of Major General Franz Sigel opened fire on Confederates, under the command of Major General John C. Breckenridge, prompting the Confederates to launch a frontal attack on the Union troops.  Soon, however, the rebel attack began to falter and a gap opened in their line. This caused Sigel to launch a counterattack. Seeing that he had no choice, Breckenridge sent his reserves, 257 young cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, to plug the hole. Breckenridge was very resistant to using the cadets, and when he finally realized he had no other options he said, “Put the boys in and may God forgive me for that order.” The cadets turned back the union charge, and the Confederate troops, with the cadets at the head, soon swept the Union troops from the field.

Also, on May 15, 1940, the very first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in San Bernardino, California. It started out as barbecue restaurant, but by 1948 they reorganized the restaurant as a hamburger stand, using production line principles. Today, McDonald’s restaurants are found in 119 countries and serve 58 million customers per day.

Another event that occurred on May 15 was the attempted assassination of presidential candidate George Wallace by Arthur Bremer. On May 15, 1972, while campaigning for president in Laurel, Maryland, politician George Wallace was shot five times in the abdomen and chest by Bremer, who also hit three bystanders. This assassination attempt left Wallace paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison, but served only 35 years, being released in 2007.

Be sure to visit learnourhistory.com to see all of our latest history dvds for kids.  We have a great selection of videos that make learning U.S. history fun for kids of all ages.

Learn Our History Today: On May 14, 1607, Jamestown was formed in the English Colony of Virginia. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as “James Fort”, and was the first permanent English settlement In the New World.  Jamestown would serve as the Capital of the Virginia Colony for 83 years.

Also On May 14, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition departed St. Louis, Missouri to explore the massive territory acquired by the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. The Historic expedition was led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, both Military veterans. The objectives of the expedition were scientific and commercial- they were to study the region’s plant and animal life, study the vast region’s geography, and figure out how the region could be economically exploited. In all, the expedition took three years, and traversed 7,689 miles of some of North America’s most rugged terrain.


In Addition, on May 14, 1973, the United States’ first space station, Skylab, was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Skylab orbited earth from 1973 to 1979, and numerous scientific experiments were done aboard Skylab, including one which confirmed the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. Skylab reentered the earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated on July 11, 1979.


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Learn Our History Today:

On May 11, 1943, during World War II, the Allies began an operation to recapture the Island of Attu in the Aleutian Island chain, which had been captured by Japanese forces earlier in April 1942. Unfortunately, the Allies were plagued by problems. First off, the Allies did not have nearly enough landing craft to properly land all their troops and equipment. In addition, the equipment that was available struggled to operate properly due to the bitter cold. There was also a shortage of suitable beaches where the landings could take place. This lack of beaches caused some of the troops to suffer from frostbite because proper supplies could not be delivered.  The fighting on Attu was brutal because the Japanese decided to dig in on the hills of the Island, instead of contesting the landings. At the end of the campaign, the last Japanese forces on the Island launched one of the largest banzai charges of the entire war, resulting in brutal, furious hand-to-hand combat.  A total of 3,929 U.S. troops were lost taking Attu, with many being killed or wounded by Japanese booby traps.  The Japanese lost over 2,850 men killed, almost their entire force. Only 29 Japanese soldiers were taken alive.

Also on May 11, during the Second World War, in 1945, off the coast of Okinawa, the USS Bunker Hill was hit by two Japanese kamikaze planes. One plane hit the flight deck destroying warplanes filled with gasoline and ammunition, igniting a massive fire. 30 seconds afterward, a second plane crashed through the area where the fire had erupted, dropping a 550-pound bomb simultaneously. Several huge explosions then shook the ship and the already massive gasoline fires flared up even further. The Bunker Hill’s crew suffered 346 killed, 264 wounded, and 43 missing. The ship itself was heavily damaged and required months of repair to be fully operational once again.

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Learn our History Today: April 27

Learn Our History Today: During the Revolutionary War on April 27, the Battle of Ridgefield was fought in the state of Connecticut.  Although it is called the Battle of Ridgefield, it was actually a series of different little battles that all took place on April 27, 1777. Two days before the battle, British forces landed in Connecticut and quickly set out to destroy Continental Army supplies located in Danbury, Connecticut.

They easily destroyed the supplies in Danbury as there were few continentals there to guard them, but word of these actions spread quickly and Major General David Wooster, Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, and Brigadier General Gold S. Silliman hastily assembled a mixed force of 700 continentals and militiamen. Unfortunately for the Americans, by the time they got to Danbury the supplies had already been destroyed. They now turned their focus to harassing the redcoats on their return to their landing site. A small company under the command of General Wooster struck the British first, right as the redcoats were enjoying their breakfast. He attacked the British twice, the first time he and his men killed two redcoats and captured another forty.

The second time however, the British were much better prepared and they gave the Americans a fierce fight, in which Wooster was mortally wounded. This engagement gave Arnold and Silliman just enough time to set up defenses in the town of Ridgefield. When the British arrived they fought a running battle with the continentals and managed to capture the entire town. Benedict Arnold had an extremely close call during this fight when his horse was killed and he was pinned under it as the redcoats charged him and his troops.

A British soldier ran up to him demanding he surrender, but Arnold instead answered with a pistol shot, killing the redcoat. Arnold managed to escape these dire straits with simply a small leg wound.  For many Americans the name Benedict Arnold is synonymous with traitor, but prior to turning on his country Arnold fought valiantly for it.  Although this battle was technically a British victory, the actions of the continentals made for much stronger American sympathy in the State of Connecticut.

Also on April 27, 1813, one of the first major land battles of the war of 1812 war fought near York in Canada. American troops, under the command of Brigadier General Zebulon Pike, battled the British for more than three hours after landing near the city of York. After losing 62 killed and 94 wounded, British commander Sir Roger Sheaffe decided to pull out of the City of York. First, however, he ordered the destruction of the main powder magazine at the government house. General Pike and his men were just arriving at the government house when it exploded, sending stones and chunks of debris careening hundreds of feet through the air. This massive explosion killed thirty-eight Americans and wounded two hundred and twenty-two.

Learn Our History Today: April 26

On April 26, 1607, the first English colonists landed in Virginia, making landfall at Cape Henry. This became known as “the First Landing”. These colonists quickly moved inland and established the city of Jamestown, the New World’s first permanent settlement.

On April 26, the largest surrender of the Civil war took place at Bennett Place in North Carolina. On April 26, 1865, confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered 89,270 confederate soldiers to union General William Tecumseh Sherman. This effectively ended the fighting in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Also on April 26, 1865, union cavalry cornered John Wilkes Booth in a tobacco barn near Port Royal, Virginia. Booth was hiding in the barn along with David Herold, who was a fellow Lincoln Assassination conspirator. Upon noticing the cavalry, Herold promptly surrendered, leaving Booth alone in the barn. Unlike Herold, Booth refused to surrender saying, “I prefer to come out and fight”. Before Booth had a chance to fight however, he was shot in the neck through a crack in the barn wall. The Union men then carried him to the porch of the Garret Farm where he died about three hours after his wounding.

Learn Our History Today: April 25

Learn Our History Today: On April 25, 1846, a party of 70 U.S. Dragoons, under the command of Captain Seth Thornton, was ordered to scout an area northwest of current day Brownsville, Texas, to determine if the Mexican army had crossed the Rio Grande River into Texas. While investigating an abandoned hacienda, the dragoons ran into two thousand Mexican troops under the command of Colonel Mastasio Torrejon, who were camped near the hacienda. Immediately fighting broke out. For hours the two groups clashed until the dragoons, being hugely outnumbered, were forced to surrender. 16 U.S. Dragoons were killed and the rest were captured except for a single dragoon who was able to escape and report of the battle. After hearing of the fight that became known as the Thornton Affair, President James K. Polk asked congress to declare war on Mexico, beginning the Mexican-American War.

Another event that happened on April 25 was the Battle of Mark’s Mill, which was fought in Cleveland County, Arkansas, as part of the Camden Campaign. At Mark’s Mill on April 25, 1864, two confederate divisions under the command of James F. Fagan, launched a devastating attack on a small union force under the command of Francis M. Drake. The overwhelming confederate numbers obliged the union to surrender. The confederates lost 293 men in battle and the union lost over 1300 men.

April 25 is also remembered as Elbe Day...On this day in 1945, American and Soviet troops finally met along the Elbe River in Germany. This effectively cut Nazi Germany in two and was a large step towards the end of World War II in Europe.

Learn Our History Today: April 24

Learn Our History Today: On April 24, 1800 in Washington D.C. the Library of Congress was established. $5,000 was originally raised for the purchase of books for use by Congress. Unfortunately, the first collection was destroyed during the infamous burning of Washington during the War of 1812. After the war, Thomas Jefferson’s personal collection was used to replace the destroyed collection. Today the Library of Congress has approximately 140 million items and roughly 10,000 items are added daily.

Also on April 24, the post-Civil War reconstruction of the south was ended. In 1877 the final U.S. soldiers stationed in New Orleans, Louisiana, were removed by President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Another April 24th event was the Operation Eagle Claw debacle. On April 24, 1980, the United States launched a raid to free the Tehran hostages. Before the U.S. Special Forces troops even began their advance to rescue the hostages there was a devastating crash in the Iranian desert. A C-130 airplane and a RH-53 helicopter crashed into each other and burst into flames. 8 crewmen lost their lives. While this event was a tragedy for the service members and our nation as a whole, the military was able to examine and learn from this event and make procedural changes to ensure the safety of its forces in the future. The hostages would later be freed on January 21, 1981 as Jimmy Carter left office and Ronald Reagan was sworn in.

Learn Our History Today: April 23rd

Learn Our History Today:  On April 23^rd, 1910 Theodore Roosevelt delivered his famous Citizens in a Republic speech. The most familiar, and often re-quoted, portion of the speech is where the more well-known name for the speech, “The Man in the Arena”, is derived:

 It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Originally delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, it was enthusiastically received by the French people. It was also well loved by President Richard Nixon, who quoted from it in on November 6^th, 1968 and used parts of it in his resignation speech.  Before the start of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Nelson Mandela gave a copy of the speech to the captain of the South African Rugby team.

Also on April 23, 1934 in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, a fierce fire fight broke out at the Little Bohemia Lodge between John Dillinger, his gang, and FBI agents under the leadership of Melvin Purvis. In the early morning, Purvis and the G-men crept up on the Little Bohemia Lodge, where they knew the Dillinger gang was staying. Armed to the hilt with Thompson sub-machine guns and Browning automatic rifles, the G-men were clearly ready for a fight. As they approached the lodge, the FBI agents noticed three men jumping into a car and suspected they were part of the Dillinger gang. After the men neglected an order to halt, the agents showered their car with bullets, killing one of them and wounding two. Unfortunately, the men in the car were actually civilians who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

All of the noise and gun fire was enough to rouse John Dillinger, Baby-face Nelson and the rest of the gang in the lodge. They grabbed their Tommy guns and sprayed automatic fire at the FBI agents, who returned fire, sending bullets flying through the walls and windows of the lodge. In the end all of the members of the Dillinger gang managed to escape the melee. FBI Agent Carter Baum wasn’t as lucky, he as killed in the firefight by Baby-face Nelson.

And in pop-culture history, on April 23, 1985 the Coca-Cola Company introduced America to its new formula, handing out the first samples to workers renovating the Statue of Liberty and in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C.  – hoping to sell America on the New Coke. An extremely negative reaction to this new formula spread swiftly across the country, and prompted Coca-Cola executives to bring back the original formula after only 77 days. The original formula, under the name Coca-Cola Classic, is still being stocked on the shelves of American stored today.

Learn Our History Today: April 5

Learn Our History Today:  Here’s what happened on April 5th in American History...

In 1774, Ben Franklin published an open letter to British Prime Minister Lord North in the British newspaper, The Public Advertiser.  A tongue-in-cheek, comical letter in which Franklin suggested that the British impose martial law upon the colonies, Franklin implied that the British view these “Yankee Doodles” as inferior, stating that “one born in Britain is equal to 20 Americans.”  Ironically, the letter proved to be prophetic...the following Month, Lord North did in fact impose martial law on Massachusetts with the passage of the Massachusetts Government Act!

In 1792, President George Washington exercised the very first presidential veto, a veto of a bill that introduced a plan to divide the seats in the House of Representatives and increasing the number of seats for northern states.  He claimed that the plan was unconstitutional because it would have introduced a number of reps that was greater than that dictated by the Constitution.  Instead of overriding Washington’s veto with a two-thirds vote, Congress threw out the original bill and instituted a new one that distributed representatives at the ration of one for every 33,000 people in the respective states.

And in 1862, Union forces established siege lines against the Confederacy in what was known as the Siege of Yorktown.  General George McClelland sailed his massive Union Army down the Chesapeake toward the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. His strategy was to cause the Confederates angst as they would be forced to gather scattered forces from around the James Peninsula.  He was met with resistance at Yorktown, with about 11,000 troops under General John B. Magruder.  Magruder, who was outnumbered by McClelland’s vast army, came up with a clever scheme to paint logs black, giving them the appearance of numerous artillery pieces, and ordered his troops to march back and forth around the logs to further enhance the illusion.  Magruder’s performance worked, convincing McClelland that it would be too dangerous to make a frontal assault.  Instead, McClelland opted to lay siege, surrounding Yorktown.

And in 1951, at the height of the “red scare,” Julius and Ethel Rosenberge were sentenced to death one week after the couple was found guilty of conspiring to provide atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.  The couple was accused of convincing Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass, to provide Philadelphia chemist, Harry Gold with atomic secrets.  Harry Gold was an accomplice of Klaus Fuchs, a German-born U.S. scientist who earlier confessed to passing classified information about America’s atomic program to the Soviets.  During the trial in which Greenglass testified against the couple, the Rosenbergs maintained their innocence.  Despite appeals and pleas for executive clemency, the Rosenbergs became the first U.S. civilians to be given the death penalty in an espionage trial.  The couple was executed by electrocution on June 19, 1953.

Learn Our History Today: April 2

Learn Our History Today:  On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war when he requested that U.S. troops be sent into battle against Germany in World War I.  His request came after two months of increased attacks by Germany against neutral shipping in the Atlantic and offers to Mexico to regain Arizona, Texas and New Mexico if Mexico would join Germany in a war against the United States.  Public outcry toward Germany persuaded President Wilson to ask Congress to forfeit America’s neutrality and declare war.

On the same day, April 2, 1917, Jeannette Pickering Rankin—a representative from Montana—entered Congress, making her the first woman ever to be elected to Congress. A social worker in both Montana and Washington, Rankin became involved in the women’s suffrage movement in 1910, campaigning for the women’s vote on a national level.  In 1914, she played a key role in the passage of suffrage legislation in Montana.  During her campaign, she stood for total women’s suffrage, child protection laws and U.S. neutrality in the European war.  In her first day in office, as President Wilson asked Congress for approval to go to war against Germany, Rankin was one of the only 50 representatives who voted against taking America to war.

Also on this day in 2005, Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century, died at home in the vatican.

Learn Our History Today: March 30

Learn Our History Today: 31 years ago today, on March 30, 1981, a mentally unstable John Hinckley, Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan in the chest outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., where the president had just finished a speech at a labor meeting.

Reagan was walking to his limousine when Hinckley, who was standing with a group of reporters, fired six shots in the president’s direction.  Hinckley’s bullets struck Reagan and three of his attendants including White House Press Secretary, James Brady, who was shot in the head, D.C. police officer, Thomas Delahaney, who was shot in the neck, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, who was shot in the side.

Hinckley was quickly subdued, while Reagan was pushed into the safety of his limo by a Secret Service agent.  The president, initially unaware that he had been hit, was shot in his left lung, and the .22 caliber bullet just missed hitting his heart. 

Not wanting to cause alarm, President Reagan insisted on walking into George Washington University Hospital unassisted.  While he was being prepped for surgery, he displayed his unwavering sense of humor as he joked to his wife, Nancy, “Honey, I forgot to duck,” then turned to his surgeons and said, “Please tell me you’re Republicans!”

After a two-hour surgery to remove the bullet and repair his collapsed lung, it was back to business for Reagan.  He actually resumed his executive duties and even signed legislation right from his hospital bed!  The president returned to the White House on April 11 and enjoyed soaring popularity shortly thereafter.

As for 25-year old John Hinckley, he was booked on charges of attempted assassination of the president.  During his trial in June, 1982, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.  Hinckley’s attorneys claimed that he suffered from narcissistic personality disorder and an obsession with the film Taxi Driver and the movie’s leading female, Jodie Foster.  The assassination attempt, they claimed, was an attempt to reenact the events of the film in his own life, arguing that the movie (not Hinckley) was the actual planning force behind the attempt on Reagan’s life.

Our history is chock-full of dramatic, captivating stories, and it’s so important that we inspire our children and grandchildren to take an interest in the events that shaped our nation.  Just imagine the course that history could have taken if Hinckley had successfully assasinated Reagan! 

We created Learn Our History DVDs as an aid for you, the parents and grandparents of our children, to help your child not only take an interest in history, but to be inspired by the important lessons in our nation’s stories and passionate about leading our nation in the right direction in the future.

With the Learn Our History series, your kids will learn all about President Reagan, his assassination attempt and how he went on to become one of the most revered presidents of our time.  If you haven’t tried our DVDs yet, why not take advantage of our incredible offer to get a FREE DVD and 6 FREE gifts for your kids when you try our introductory DVD today?  Just click here to get started: http://learnourhistory.com.

Learn Our History Today: March 29

Learn Our History Today:  On March 29, 1790, our 10th President—John Tyler—was born in Virginia.  Before becoming president, he was elected by the Whigs to serve as the Vice President for William Henry Harrison in 1841.  Here’s an interesting factoid about John Tyler...he was the first Vice President to ever become President as a result of his predecessor’s death.  He is also the last president from the colonial Virginia planter class, which also gave us Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe.  He was politically despised and often received death threats during his tenure.   However, he was a devoted husband and father, and he holds the record as the president who fathered the most children—15 in all.  He had 8 with his first wife Letitia, who died during his presidency, and another 7 with his second wife, Julia, who was 30 years younger than him.  His last child was born when he was 70 years old!  He died on January 16, 1862, just a few days before the first meeting of the Confederate Congress.

And in 1929, the first telephone was installed in the Oval Office, during the Hoover administration.  Previously, Hoover had been using a telephone located just outside the oval office.

 Also on this day in 1945, General George Patton’s 3rd Army seized Frankfurt, Germany.  Known in some circles as “Old Blood and Guts,” Patton and his troops crossed the Rhine in Remagen, Germany on March 7, 1945—something that no enemy army had accomplished since Napoleon in 1805—and went on to capture Frankfurt on the 29th.

And on March 29, 1973, under the provisions of the Paris Peace Accords, the last of the American troops left South Vietnam, putting an end to nearly 10 years of U.S. military presence.  As a result, the U.S. Military Assistance Command headquarters was disestablished in Vietnam, and only a few guards at the American Embassy in Saigon remained.  And, as part of the Paris Peace Accords, 67 American prisoners of war were released.

Learn Our History Today: March 28

Learn Our History Today: On March 28, 1774, British Parliament enacted the Coercive Acts, following the Boston Tea Party and other destructive measures by American colonists.  The Coercive Acts were four individual Acts aimed at restoring order in Massachusetts and punishing Boston’s colonists for the Tea Party.  The four Acts included:

The Boston Port Act, which shut down the port of Boston until damages from the Tea Party were repaid
The Massachusetts Government Act, restricting town meetings in Massachusetts
The Administration of Justice Act, protecting British officials from any form of criminal prosecution
The Quartering Act, which required colonists to house British troops in on demand

A fifth act, known as the Quebec Act, which gave freedom of worship to Catholics in Canada, was added in colonial parlance as one of the Intolerable Acts—the largely Protestant colonists did not like the ability of Catholics to worship freely on their borders.

You can introduce your children to the Boston Tea Party and the Coercive Acts with Learn Our History’s video, “The Birth of a Revolution,” available at learnourhistory.com.  And when you try this video, we’ll give you our “Columbus and the Great Discovery” video free, along with 6 more free gifts.

Now back to today’s day in history...In 1862, the Union turned away Rebel forces at the Battle of Glorietta Pass, stopping the invasion of New Mexico Territory.  The Confederates had the goal of claiming the territory they deemed rightfully theirs and use the Western mines to fill its treasury.  But at Pigeon’s Range, near Glorietta Pass, the Confederates stumbled upon some 1,300 Yankees under the command of Colonel John Slough and a battle ensued in the late morning.  In the late afternoon, the Confederates were able to force the Union further down the pass, but night fell and halted their advance.  Then, the tides were turned as the Union managed to attack a Confederate supply train burning 90 wagons and crippling the Confederates.

Also on this day in 1969, our 34th President and a respected World War II general, Dwight D. Eisenhower, died at the age of 78.  Widely known as “Ike,” he was a popular president who held two terms in which he oversaw a period of strong economic growth in the United States and navigated the country through the increasing tensions of the Cold War.

Finally, on this day in 1979, the worst accident in the history of nuclear power in the United States occurred when a pressure valve in a reactor at Three Mile Island on Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River failed to close.  Cooling water contaminated with radiation was released into adjoining buildings and the core began to overheat.  Although emergency cooling pumps automatically started, operators misread the confusing data in the control room and shut off the emergency water system.  The reactor was shut down but, due to the fission process, residual heat continued to be released.  As a result, the core heated to over 4,000 degrees.  At 5,000 degrees, the core would experience a meltdown causing radiation to drift across the countryside causing fatal illnesses.  Fortunately, by 8:00pm, operators realized that they needed to circulate water through the core so they restarted the pumps, causing the temperature to drop.  It was an extremely close-call as the reactor was less than an hour away from a complete meltdown. 

Although more than half the core was destroyed, the protective shell was in tact and no radiation was escaping.  But two days later, a highly flammable hydrogen gas bubble was discovered inside the reactor building.  Some of the gas had exploded on the 28th and a small amount of radiation was released into the atmosphere, although the explosion was not registered and the public was not notified.  Once the bubble and leak were discovered on the 30th, residents were instructed to take precautionary measures and pregnant women and pre-school children were instructed to leave the area until further notice, causing a widespread panic and prompting over 100,000 people to flee surrounding towns.

Learn our History Today: March 26

Learn Our History Today:  On March 26, 1776, four months prior to the Continental Congress declaring independence, South Carolina approved a new constitution and government with the legislature renaming itself the General Assembly of South Carolina.  Under the General Assembly, John Rutledge was elected president and Henry Laurens was elected vice president. 

And on this day in 1953, an American medical researcher named Dr. Jonas Salk announced that he had successfully tested a new vaccine against the crippling virus, poliomyelitis, the cause of polio.  His announcement on national radio followed an epidemic year for polio, in which 58,000 new cases popped up in the U.S.  Salk went on to be celebrated as the greatest doctor of his time by promising to eventually eradicate the disease known as “infant paralysis.”

Also on this day in 1969, a women’s group called Women Strike for Peace held the first large antiwar demonstration since President Richard Nixon took office in January of that year. 

Learn Our History Today: March 15

Learn Our History Today: Today, March 15, is known as the Ides of March. While having nothing to do with American history, it bears mentioning.  In 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was murdered (stabbed in the back 23 times) by his friend and protege Marcus Brutus.  Caesar had been warned by a prophet of sorts (called a “seer”) that he would be harmed no later than the Ides of March on his way to the Theater of Pompey.  When Caesar met the seer on that day, he joked “The Ides of March have come” meaning that the prophecy had not been fulfilled.  The seer was quick to reply, “Ay, Caesar, but not gone!”  This meeting was immortalized by William Shakespeare in the play, Julius Caesar, with the line “beware the Ides of March.”  The word “Ides” comes from the Latin word “Idus” meaning “half division” and especially pertains to a month.

In more recent history, in 1767, Andrew Jackson was born in South Carolina to Irish immigrant parents.  He became the 7th president of the United States, serving from 1829 to 1837.

And on this day in 1783, General George Washington appeared at an assembly of army officers in Newburgh, New York.  The purpose of his visit was to calm the growing frustration and distrust that the army had been expressing towards Congress, which was brought on by Congress’ failure to honor its promise to pay them and reimburse them for food and clothing.  Washington emplored his officers to place “full confidence in the purity of the intentions of Congress.”  His meeting was a success; the officers realized that Washington was sincere and, within minutes, they voted unanimously to express confidence in Congress and their country.

And on this day in 1820, Maine is admitted into the Union as the 23rd state, as part of the Missouri Compromise between the North and South.  The Compromise granted the entrance of Maine as a free state in exchange for the entrance of Missouri as a slave state.

Learn Our History Today: March 12

Learn Our History Today:  On March 12, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his very first national radio address as president.  Broadcasted directly from the White House, he made the address just eight days after his inauguration. 

Directed at the American people who were facing the lowest point of the Great Depression and 25-33% unemployment rates, Roosevelt’s first address was designed to ease public fear and instill confidence in his leadership.  Between March 1933 and June 1944, Roosevelt delivered more than 30 public radio addresses.

A journalist named Robert Trout is responsible for coining the phrase “Fireside Chat” to describe Roosevelt’s public radio addresses. The term was meant to create an image of the president sitting in a cozy room near a fireplace, being very conversational in his communications to the American people.  Trout, however, credited the phrase to Harry Butcher, a CBS vice president in Washington at the time.

And on this day in 1993, Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female attorney general of the United States.  She previously served as the Dade County (FL) district attorney, making her responsible for overseeing 120,000 criminal cases each year.  During her 15- year tenure in Miami, she created the Miami Drug Court to try nonviolent criminals and offer alternative punishments for nonviolent offenders with substance abuse problems.  The Miami Drug Court model was used by other courts around the country, and in February of 1993, President Clinton nominated Reno for U.S. attorney general.

Learn Our History Today: March 9

Learn Our History Today: On March 9, 1862, the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia engaged in one of the most famous naval battles in the Civil War and possibly all of American history.  All morning long, the two ironclads exchanged cannon fire off Hampton Roads, VA, south of the Chesapeake Bay.  Despite the consistent pounding, each ship easily resisted the cannon shots thanks to the use of armor plates which signaled a new era of steam-powered iron ships.

Originally known as the U.S.S. Merrimak, the C.S.S. Virgninia was captured by the Confederates who then covered the ship in heavy armor plating and outfitted it with powerful guns.  The Confederates launched the ship for their new ship first time in February of 1862, and on March 8th (yesterday in history!) the ship sunk two Union ships. 

The U.S.S. Monitor, which was designed with an unusually low 18” profile for operation in the shallow harbors of the south, featured a flat iron deck and a 20-foot cylindrical turret.  As it snaked through the Chesapeake Bay on the morning of March 9, it engaged the Virginia and fought for four hours.  As the ships circled one another, cannon balls flew threw the air and simply bounced off of the iron ships.  Early in the afternoon, the Virginia retreated to Norfolk and neither ship suffered any serious damage.

Also on this day in history, Republican senators took action to limit fellow Republican Joseph McCarthy’s power.  McCarthy is best known for his accusations of communists operating in the U.S. Department of State, yet he was unsuccessful in producing any evidence to substantiate his claims.  His peers accused him of being a one-man party and “doing his best to shatter that party whose label he wears.”

Also, in pop-culture history, the infamous Barbie doll makes her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York City.

Learn Our History Today: March 5

Learn Our History Today: On today’s date in 1770, a group of furious colonists gathered outside of the Customs House in Boston, MA, and began throwing rocks and snowballs at a British Soldier who was guarding the building.  This was in response to their opposition against British troops who had occupied the city to enforce the strict taxation laws passed by British parliament without American representation.

When the sentinel at the Customs House called for assistance, a British corporal and seven Redcoats came to help, affixing their bayonets to their rifles.  The angry colonists continued to hurl snow at the soldiers, daring them to fire.  Private Hugh Montgomery slipped in the snow and fell, accidentally firing his rifle into the crowd, prompting the other soldiers to fire, too.  After the smoke cleared, 5 colonists lay dying or dead while another three were seriously injured.  It’s a common belief that the deaths of the five men were the first fatalities of the American Revolution.  The event in which I’m writing about has gone down in history as the Boston Massacre.

Also on March 5, 1977, the first and only airing of the Dial-a-President radio program aired on CBS.  The show featured President Jimmy Carter and CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, and allowed callers from across the nation to telephone in and ask questions of the president.  In the course of the two-hour broadcast, about 9 million calls were made to the CBS radio studio. 

Learn Our History Today: March 1

Learn Our History Today:  March 1st is quite a busy day in our history... 1781, the Articles of Confederation were ratified.  The Articles guided the nation until 1789, when the U.S. Constitution was implemented.    Then, in 1790, Congress ordered the first U.S. census.

And on March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the first bill ever to set aside land as a national park.  That land is one of our nation’s most beautiful parks, and home to the cone geyser best known as Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park.

In 1932, Charles Lindberg’s 20-month old son was kidnapped from the family home in Hopewell, New Jersey.  The Lindberg’s paid a $50,000 ransom but the baby was never returned.  Charles Lindberg, Jr. was found dead just a mile from the Lindberg’s mansion.  It looked like the case would go unsolved, but in 1934, a gas station attendant recorded the license plate number of a suspicious customer.  Turns out the customer paid with a marked bill from the ransom money.  The customer, a German immigrant named Bruno Hauptmann, was tracked down and detectives later found $14,000 of the ransom money in his home. He was convicted, and in April of 1936, he was executed by electric chair.

On March 1, 1961, JFK established the Peace Corps, designed to send trained men and women to assist in the development efforts in foreign nations. In just the first week after JFK created the agency, Washington received thousands of letters from young Americans offering to volunteer.

And on March 1, 1971, a bomb exploded inside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.  Fortunately, no on was harmed.  However, the bomb’s explosion caused $300,000 in damages.  A group called the “Weathered Underground” claimed responsibility for the attack in response to the U.S.-supported invasion of Laos.  The group was a radical faction of the Students for a Democratic Society, and they advocated violence-usually in the form of bombings and arson.  They also targeted the State Department, the Pentagon, the NYPD headquarters and the Long Island Court House.  No one was ever killed in their bombings because they always made bomb threats.  Three members of their group died on March 6, 1970 when the building in which they were constructing the bombs exploded!

Learn Our History Today: February 28

Learn Our History Today:  On February 28, 1844, President John Tyler, who was aboard the Navy ship USS Princeton, narrowly escaped death.  The ship sported a 12-inch, 27,000 lb cannon called the Peacemaker.  The Captain of the ship, Robert Stockton—who was also the co-designer of the cannon—was eager to show off the weapon, despite warnings that it hadn’t been sufficiently tested yet.  Stockton fired two successful shots and the 400 passengers on board went wild with applause. 

Below deck, 54-year old President Tyler toasted the Princeton, her commander and the Peacemaker cannon.  Then, the secretary of war requested a third firing in honor of George Washington.  The third firing proved deadly...the cannon exploded and killed several passengers, including David Gardiner, the father of 20-year old Julia Gardiner, whom Tyler was courting and had recently proposed.  The explosion also took the lives of two of Tyler’s cabinet members. Tyler was far enough away from the blast that he was spared, as was Julia, who was climbing up the ladder to the upper deck when the explosion occurred.  The story has a happy ending, however.  Julia and Tyler were married later that year.

And, on this day in 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev indicated that the Soviet Union was ready to sign a treaty that would eliminate U.S. and Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe.  The offer led to the eventual signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in December of that year.

And on February 28 in 1784, John Wesley charters the first Methodist Church in the United States.   The move was Wesley’s response to provide church structure for his followers during the American Revolution, after the Anglican Church abandoned its American patrons.