Blogs

Lighters were invented before modern matches. Lighters seem, on the surface, to be a little more advanced than your standard pack of matches. But lighters were actually invented before matches as we know them today. Until the early 19th century, “matches” were flammable sticks made to carry fire from one place to another, not make fire on their own. Early self-igniting matches were too dangerous to be practical. The earliest, invented in 1805, involved dipping potassium chlorinate into sulphu...

In 1843, approximately 1,000 people embarked on the arduous journey west across the young United States in the first major wagon train migration on the Oregon Trail. Spanning more than 2,000 miles from Independence, Missouri, to the promising lands of the Oregon Territory, the trail served as a lifeline for those seeking new beginnings in the American West. Each day, migrants traveled an average of 15 miles, though on a good day, anywhere from 18 to 20 miles could be covered, most of it on foot....

When young Bobby Dunbar went missing in 1912, the whole country was eager to find him. The four-year-old Louisianan vanished into thin air on August 23, during a trip to Swayze Lake. Lessie and Percy Dunbar searched everywhere, to no avail. Desperate police dissected alligators and threw dynamite into the lake, and then offered a reward of $6,000 (about $160,000 today). All seemed lost until eight months after Bobby’s disappearance, when police arrested a man named William Cantwell Walters...

In 1950, the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar was more than 13 times greater than it is today, meaning your money went much further, at least when it came to certain expenses. For instance, the average cost of a brand-new Chevrolet sedan was just $1,450 that year, the equivalent of around $19,416 today when adjusted for inflation. The median price for a single-family home, meanwhile, was only $7,354, or around $98,474 in today’s money. (If only!) That said, salaries were lower in the mid-2...

Back in 1919, British airline Handley Page Transport made aviation and gastronomical history by serving the first in-flight meal. It wasn’t at all fancy — just a cold sandwich and fruit handed out by “cabin boys” on a flight from London to Paris. Over the next 100 years, however, aircraft meals underwent a variety of changes; in the years after World War II, multicourse suppers were served with tablecloths and real cutlery, a stark departure from today’s precooked and reheated trays or tiny bags...

In March 1843, John Quincy Adams did something historic: had his picture taken. He did so at artist Philip Haas’ studio in Washington, D.C., sitting for a portrait captured via daguerreotype, the first successful photography format. Adams’ single term as president had ended in 1829, and at the time he was photographed, he was representing Massachusetts in the House of Representatives. Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said upon acquiring the daguerreotype that Adams's having ...

Patrick Henry wrote the following five resolutions against the Stamp Act and introduced them to the House of Burgesses on May 29, 1765. The House passed them after a heated debate, but rescinded the fifth resolution the following day. This iteration of the Virginia Stamp Act comes from a handwritten document that was found inside a small envelope that Henry included with his testament. Author: Patrick Henry Resolved, That the first Adventurers and Settlers of this his Majesties Colony and ...

The doctors' riot was an incident that occurred in April 1788 in New York City, where the illegal procurement of corpses from the graves of the recently deceased caused a mass expression of discontent from poorer New Yorkers that was directed primarily at physicians and medical students. Background By the end of the American Revolution, roughly one-fifth of New York City's population was black, most of whom were slaves. Their low social standing allowed slaves' bodies to be buried only out...