When were airplanes first used by the U.S. armed forces?
Airplanes were first used by the U.S. armed forces unsuccessfully in 1916 against Pancho Villa in Mexico.
In 1917, the First Aero Squadron, the first air unit, fought in World War I.
The first news event to be televised was the nomination of Alfred E. Smith for the presidency in Albany, New York, on August 22, 1928. The program was transmitted by Schenectady’s WGY. The first regular news reports were 15-minute daily programs transmitted over New York’s WCBS and WNBT, beginning on July 1, 1941. The First…
The first female to hold a post in the U.S. Cabinet was Frances Perkins. She served as Secretary of Labor under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945.
Convicted axe-murderer William Kemmler became the first man to be executed by electrocution on August 6, 1890, at Auburn State Prison, New York. Harold P. Brown had conceived the idea of death by electrocution and conducted the early experiments. Thomas Alva Edison supplied the equipment. According to the official report, the procedure, which had to…
The first person to die in the gas chamber was Gee Jon. He was convicted of assassinating a member of a rival Chinese tong and died in a gas chamber in Nevada State Prison in Carson City on February 8, 1924. The idea of the gas chamber was introduced by Major D. A. Turner of…
The term witch hazel is the common name for the Hamamelis plant. The witch of the plant’s name comes from wice, an Anglo-Saxon word for a plant with flexible branches. It is unclear who first used the leaves and bark of witch hazel in toiletries and tonics. Some believe it was the Anglo-Saxons; others think…
To assess voters’ preferences in the 1824 presidential election, citizens were asked whom they preferred. This was the first public opinion poll. The results, published in the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian on July 24, 1824, gave Andrew Jackson a commanding lead over John Quincy Adams and all others. However, Adams won the election.