Remembering Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse: Hero of the American Revolution
We’ve written about the famous “Battle of the Chesapeake” that took place on September 5, 1781, in which a French fleet defeated a smaller British fleet in a fierce sea battle that took place...
Remembering Euthanasia Sherman Meade, Frontier Physician and Niece of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman
When we think of courageous women of the 19th century, among the top ten would be Clara Barton, the Civil War-era nurse who served on the battlefields of the “war between the States,” and who...
September 7, 1857: The Mountain Meadows Massacre Takes Place, A Black Mark on the History of the American West
The history of the American West is replete with stories of atrocities committed by Native-Americans against white settlers, and vice-versa. There is no escaping that our U.S. government failed to...
September 5, 1781: The French Navy Defeats the British Navy in the Battle of the Chesapeake, Setting Up the American Victory at Yorktown
Most Americans know that the battle that effectively ended the American Revolution was the Battle of Yorktown, pitting British General Cornwallis against General George Washington and his French...
August 1876: Thomas Edison Receives the First Patent for “Automatic Printing,” the Precursor of the Mimeograph, and the Business World is Transformed
This month we commemorate the 150th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s invention of an “automatic pen,” which historians credit as the first step toward the invention of the mimeograph machine....
Collis P. Huntington: One of the Big Four” Tycoons of the Western Railroad Industry
Collis P. Huntington was an important American businessman and railroad leader during the 1800s – one of the “Big Four” tycoons of the western railroad industry. He was born in 1821 in...
Remembering Albert Gallatin
Albert Gallatin was an important American statesman, diplomat, and financier who helped shape the early United States. He was born in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 29, 1761, and immigrated to...
July 21, 1620: The Pilgrims Leave Leiden to Start Their Journey to North America
Most Americans know that the first Pilgrims came to North America in 1620 on the Mayflower. But how did the Pilgrims come to be on the Mayflower in the first place, and where did they come from? The...
The Controversial History of Nevada’s Comstock Lode
The American Revolution produced a number of unlikely war heroes who came out of nowhere to become leading generals in the Continental Army. Henry Knox, for example, was a bookseller in Boston who...
Remembering Catalina Trico, an Early Colonist of New Netherland in 1624
In the founding years of New Netherland (today’s New York), there were very few prominent women to be found amongst the political leaders of the time, even though Dutch women enjoyed a degree of...