History

The path to our wonderfully exciting I Phones began on March 7, 1867 when Alexander Graham Bell received the first patent for the invention of the telephone.

John Clem was the Union Army's youngest soldier at 9-years-old. He was the drummer boy for an Army Unit from Michigan. He was called The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga after being in the Civil War battle. Clem's bravery was legendary. He was in the Army for 53 years and retired as a brigadier general.

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in an era where women doctors were unheard of. Elizabeth fought to become the first women doctor and broke down prejudices for other women to pursue a career in medicine.

When we think or our founding fathers we think of fierce warriors or skilled statesmen. History is always more complicated and nuanced than we think. This list provides 10 fascinating facts about our founding fathers.

Everyone loves a royal marriage. King George IV and his bride Princess Caroline was a royal marriage that became a royal disaster very quickly. It would be fair to say they intensely disliked each other from the day they met

Ghosts Trains in Britain is the bizarre situation where trains run, often with no passengers, as a legal requirement to keep uncommercial routes open under franchise; as a cheaper and easier option for train operators than getting the service closed.

Confederate civilians trapped in Vicksburg during General Ulysses Grant’s 1863 Vicksburg campaign dug caves to avoid the shelling, and were reduced to eating dogs, cats, and rats.

A red herring and a fine or pretty kettle of fish are idioms with an interesting history. Both the literal meanings of the terms and the unexpected ones are fun to explore.

An oral storytelling performance can be both entertaining and educational. Prose, poems, and songs can all tell a story. Myths and traditional tales are often shared orally.

Operation Valkyrie has become the most well-known assassination attempt on Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and could have led to a whole new Germany and rest of Europe, but would it have been better with Hitler still in power or a new leader if the operation succeeded.

Why Abraham Lincoln, as President of the United States, denied any recognition to Jefferson Davis as the Confederate States president.

Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois both fought in different ways for African American equal rights. But Du Bois accused Washington of counseling blacks to accept second class status.

In 1968 Peanuts, the most popular comic strip in history, was still all white. But a concerned schoolteacher convinced Charles Schulz to bring a black kid into the cast.

Before Jackie Robinson wore #42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he was a US Army officer court-martialed after refusing to go to the back of the bus.

HMS Perseus, a British submarine with 61 souls on board, sank in the Mediterranean in December 1941. One man, John Capes, escaped a watery grave against impossible odds.

There is mounting evidence in William Shakespeare's writings that he was attracted to and perhaps even had affairs with both men and women throughout his life, despite being married.