What immigrant group has the most descendants in the United States today?
More Americans (19.6 percent) report German ancestry than any other.
In second place is Irish ancestry (13.1 percent) and in third place English (11 percent).
Five, dating back to 1808, when the first Hamilton Fish was born to Nicholas Fish (1758-1833), Revolutionary War patriot and friend of Alexander Hamilton, for whom Nicholas named his son. Each Hamilton Fish was father to another one, in this order: Hamilton Fish (1808-93) Hamilton Fish (1849-1936) Hamilton Fish, Jr. (1888-1991) Hamilton Fish, Jr. (1926)…
Richard M. Nixon’s running mate in 1960 was Henry Cabot Lodge.
The Wisconsin Idea was a plan for reform created by Wisconsin Governor Robert M. La Follette in the early 1900s. This first statewide progressive reform plan was designed to erode the corruption of political bosses and big business, particularly the railroad trust.
Popularized by baseball announcer Red Barber, “sittin’ in the catbird seat” means sitting pretty or being in an enviable position. The Mississippi-born Barber used this 19th-century Southern expression while announcing games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s and 1950s, and in the 1950s and 1960s for the New York Yankees. A catbird is the…
Big Ben in London is not a clock. It is a 13.5-ton bell in the clock tower of England’s Houses of Parliament. Cast in 1858, the bell’s installation was directed by the rotund Sir Benjamin Hall, commissioner of works. The bell was originally to be called Saint Stephen’s, but the British newspapers renamed it Big…
Calvin L. Graham (1930-92), born in Canton, Texas, was the boy who lied about his age so he could enlist in the U.S. Navy at age 12 during World War II. Wounded by shrapnel during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942, he helped pull other crew members to safety. When the Navy discovered his age…