Author Archives: Kathy Padden

This Day in History: August 29th

Today in History: August 29 This Day In History, 2005: Hurricane Katrina Pounds Gulf Coast Hurricane Katrina was the most devastating, and costliest, natural disaster to ever occur in the United States, though unbelievably it was only the third most powerful storm in the 2005 hurricane season. Over 1,800 people lost their lives during the storm and the subsequent flooding, […]

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This Day in History: August 28th

Today in History, August 28 This Day In History, 1963: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 1963 was a year marked by racial tension and increasing civil rights demonstrations throughout the United States. The nation was outraged by television images of police officers in Birmingham, Alabama using attack dogs and fire hoses against protestors, many who were teenagers […]

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This Day in History: August 27th

Today in History: August 27 This Day In History, 1883: Krakatau Erupts On a small, desolate island called Krakatau west of Sumatra in Indonesia, the most violent volcanic eruption in recorded history occurred, estimated to have produced an equivalent of a 200 megaton explosion, which is about 4 times that of the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated, the Tsar Bomba.  […]

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This Day in History: August 23rd

Today in History: August 23 This Day In History, 1305: William Wallace Executed for High Treason Thanks to Mel Gibson’s wildly popular 1995 movie “Braveheart” depicting the life of Scottish hero William Wallace, there has been a renewal of interest in the once rather obscure medieval freedom fighter. Artistic license was used liberally – but to great effect – to […]

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This Day in History: August 22nd

Today in History: August 22 This Day In History, 1485: The Battle of Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth Field was culmination of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war that engulfed England during the 15th century, which was basically a feud between two branches of the Plantagenet family – the Yorks and the Lancasters. Just two years before […]

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This Day in History: August 20

Today in History: August 20 This Day In History, 1862: “The Prayer of Twenty Millions” by Horace Greeley was published. An editorial by New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley called “The Prayer of the Twenty Millions” challenged President Abraham Lincoln to declare emancipation for all slaves in territories officially held by the Union. Greeley’s impassioned words mirrored the sentiments of […]

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The Slightly Sordid History of Twister

Twister has been a sure fire way to break the ice at parties for decades now. Earlier centuries had waltzes and minuets as socially sanctioned ways to get physically closer to the opposite sex. In the 20th century, for a time this popularly switched to the game of Twister; a very different activity, but the same underlying concept. Before we […]

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10 Interesting Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Ben Franklin

Ben Franklin was a man of many and varied accomplishments- a Renaissance man in the grand tradition of Leonardo da Vinci. He was a writer, scientist, musician, inventor and innovator, despite only ever receiving 2 years of formal schooling. His ideas and principles helped shape his fledgling nation, and his diplomatic skills assured the newly born United States of America […]

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The Origin of the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance

The U.S. Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy in 1892. It was published in a popular children’s magazine of the time called The Youth’s Companion as part of the 400th anniversary celebration of Christopher Columbus arriving in the New World. The celebration itself was the brainchild of James B. Upham, a marketer for the […]

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The Origin of Pizza

Paul asks: Who made the first pizza? Pizza has become such a staple of the modern diet that certain people, often found in Computer Science labs at 2 a.m. the world over, practically consider it one of the basic food groups. For such a popular food, its origins are difficult to pinpoint, as it all depends on your definition of […]

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The History of Shaving

Kelly asks: When did women and men start shaving different parts of their body? Both sexes have a love-hate relationship with removing body hair. We’ve been pulling, plucking, burning, tweezing and ripping out undesirable hair since the dawn of time. It’s believed that as far back as 4,000 B.C., women were using dangerous substances like arsenic and quicklime to get […]

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