What does Flag Day in the U.S. commemorate?
Instituted in 1897 and celebrated on June 14, Flag Day marks the day in 1777 that the Continental Congress adopted the “Stars and Stripes” as the American flag.
The subject of the Civil War marching song of the same name, goober peas were peanuts, one of the few foods soldiers in the South could find to eat.
The principal speaker at the ceremonies dedicating the military burial ground at the Gettysburg cemetery on November 19, 1863, was Edward Everett, former governor of Massachusetts and famous orator. His speech lasted about two hours; Lincoln’s lasted two minutes. Everett wrote Lincoln: “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as…
Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America (1835, 1840) said of Americans, “If I were asked . . . to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women”.
The 4,000-mile trade route called the Silk Road joined the ancient kingdoms of China and Rome. It started in Siam, followed the Great Wall of China to the northwest, bypassed the Takla Makan Desert, crossed the Pamir Mountains, passed through Afghanistan, and ended at the Levant. Goods were then transported across the Mediterranean Sea to…
The federal income tax in the U.S. has been permanent since 1913, with the passage of the 16th Amendment. As established in that year, the bottom rate was 1 percent on taxable net income over $3,000 for an individual, $4,000 for a married couple. The top rate, for those making more than $500,000, was 7…
In a contest with four candidates in 1860 (Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, John C. Bell, and John C. Breckinridge), Abraham Lincoln received 40 percent of the popular vote and carried 18 states.