Blogs

The number 13 has long been considered unlucky in many Western cultures. Even today — in a world far less superstitious than it was in the past — a surprising amount of people have a genuine, deep-rooted fear of the number 13, known as triskaidekaphobia. For this reason, many hotels don’t list the presence of a 13th floor (Otis Elevators reports 85% of its elevator panels omit the number), and many airlines skip row 13. And the more specific yet directly connected fear of Friday the 13th, known ...

Patrick Henry introduced a series of resolutions known as the Virginia Stamp Act Resolves, which argued that only the General Assembly had the authority to levy taxes on Virginia colonists. Henry also argued that any attempts by the British government to tax Virginians without their consent were an attack on their rights. Although the resolutions were controversial, most of them were passed by the House of Burgesses and published in newspapers throughout the American Colonies. ...

A new find suggests farmers in the Bible lands built channels for irrigation long before historians thought they did, allowing for cultivated vineyards, olives, wheat, and barley. By using walls to channelize and collect floodwaters, ancient farmers made the most of scant rainfall to grow crops in the desert. These techniques are still used today, like in this field outside the old city of Avdat, Israel. The current thinking is that these desert denizens didn't practice agriculture before ...

After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson ascended to the presidency. Lincoln had selected Johnson, a former Democrat from Tennessee, as his vice presidential candidate because Johnson’s presence appeased southern sympathizers who desired a quick peace process. Johnson, however, fought constantly with the Republican majority in Congress. One of their major disagreements was over the federal government’s role in promoting social, political, and economic equality for former slaves and ...

On the 2nd of July 1843 (on Sunday), an alligator appeared in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The alligator rained down from the sky, according to the Times-Picayune's newspaper clipping in New Orleans. Weather Conditions on That Fateful Day The article speaks about the weather conditions on that day, and it made use of the 1843 charm in doing so. It read that in Charleston, S. C., Sunday week was a day extremely bad for its heats, but during the night a thunderstorm relieved the weathe...

The grandson of Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother Jérôme, Charles Bonaparte lacked his famous relative's ambition for world domination yet displayed a talent for visionary authority that might have impressed the Little Corporal. In the late 19th century, Charles Bonaparte, then a lawyer from Baltimore, came into the orbit of fast-rising New York politician Theodore Roosevelt through their shared interest in civil service reform. Bonaparte later became President Roosevelt's secretary of the Na...

In the early New England colonies, life was largely spent tending to essentials. But the colonists still managed a few laughs. Colonial pranks tended to be harmless, but still funny to those concerned. If you were the victim of a chouse, a fetch or a jig, it meant you’d been tricked. Sometimes with ill intent, but often for laughs. A “rig” meant a “joke.” If someone ran his rig on others, it meant he’d made them the butt of his joke. If, on the other hand, the target caught on and spoiled th...

Records are meant to be broken, but at least one weather-related event is unlikely to be bested anytime soon: the biggest snowstorm in American history, which dumped nearly 5 feet of snow on the Northeastern U.S. The aptly named Great Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great White Hurricane, occurred in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut between March 11 and 14, and saw as much as 58 inches (4.8 feet) of snowfall. That was in Saratoga Springs, New York, while Ben...

On August 2, 1775, the Second Continental Congress wrapped up its summer session 250 years ago. Philadelphia’s heatwave that summer—described as “Very Close & Hot”—was too much for the delegates. “We have sat much longer than expected,” one Congressman grumbled. “We are all exhausted.” The Congress had been working tirelessly since its session began on May 10, 1775. In just 12 weeks, the body accomplished an impressive list of tasks, many of which escalated the growing tension with Great Brit...