How many American lives were lost in World War II?
In World War II, over three times as many Americans died: 405,399, including 291,557 in battle and 113,842 from other causes.
An additional 670,846 Americans received nonlethal wounds.
The road used by migrants moving westward in the mid-19th century, known as the Oregon Trail, ran about 2,000 miles from Independence or Westport, Missouri, to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It took about six months for wagon trains to cover the distance. The Oregon Trail was in use from the 1840s until the advent of the…
Started in 1936, The Negro Motorist Green Book was a travel guide designed to “give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments, and to make his trips more enjoyable.”
Legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone was an old man when Davy Crockett was just starting his own career as a backwoodsman. Born in Pennsylvania, Boone (1734-1820) is best known for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky. Crockett (1786-1836) served as a U.S. representative from Tennessee and died defending the Alamo. Both men are remembered in folklore…
The first situation comedy on television was a live show called “Mary Kay and Johnny” (1947-50, Dumont). Forerunner to I Love Lucy, the live show concerned the adventurous life of New York newlyweds Johnny and Mary Kay Stearns. The couple’s real-life newborn son was worked into the show in 1948.
The first labor union in America was the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers (shoemakers), formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1794.
The comic book industry began to regulate itself with the Comics Code Authority in 1954. Among other rules, it required that “Policemen, judges, government officials and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority,” and “In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal…