What is the root of the American word “buckaroo”?
The American word “buckaroo” comes from the Spanish vaquero, meaning cowboy.
It was picked up as Americans moved into western lands once owned by Mexico.
The Merrimac was not the ironclad ship fought the Monitor during the Civil War. The Union ship Merrimac had been renamed the Virginia by the Confederates. The Virginia fought the Union ironclad Monitor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on March 9, 1862. The battle ended in a draw.
About 15 million Model Ts were sold when the iconic car was being produced.
The name of the first slave ship built in the English colonies was the Desire, launched from Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1637. Until then, only European ships transported slaves to the colonies.
The oldest legal code, the Code of Hammurabi was developed circa 1950 B.C. during the reign of Babylonian leader Hammurabi. It is now known for its emphasis on the law of retaliation (an eye for an eye).
Composer Aaron Copland knew very little about the historical subject of his ballet Billy the Kid (1938). Copland admitted that his knowledge of the career of Western outlaw William H. Bonney (1859-81) was “rather vague” and that he “would never have touched it” if he had had to present it realistically. Instead, he treated Billy…
Harvey Milk (1930-78) was the first openly homosexual candidate to be elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. An advocate of gay rights and urban issues, Milk was elected in 1977, representing the Castro district. He was assassinated, with Mayor George Moscone, by a former supervisor on November 27, 1978.