Where did lima beans come from?
The light-green beans called lima beans were introduced to the U.S. from Lima, Peru, by U.S. Navy Captain John Harris in 1824.
Fans of Frank Sinatra rioted at the Paramount Theater on Columbus Day 1944, at the height of his popularity. Thirty thousand bobbysoxers rioted at the New York theater where Sinatra was performing. It was reported that cries of “Frankie, Frankie!” could be heard blocks away.
When Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton restructured the government’s miscellaneous debts into more or less their current form in 1791, the national debt was $75 million, or about $18 per person, given the population at that time. In 191, it was nearly 50,000 times larger. The national debt in 1991 was $3.7 trillion, or…
The first commercially available oral contraceptive “pill” was introduced in August 1960, by Chicago-based pharmaceutical company G. D. Searle. It contained synthetic progesterone and estrogen and was named Enovid 10.
President William Henry Harrison died in 1841 after only 31 days in office. James A. Garfield was a close second. In 1881, he died of a gunshot wound after only six months in office.
The first American college football game took place on November 6, 1869, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers beat Princeton, six goals to four. The rules used were actually those for soccer. It was not until the 1870s that rugby rules began to prevail in the sport, making the game more like modern football.
President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974, 30 days after coming to office on August 9. The unconditional pardon exonerated Nixon of any crimes he might have committed as president.