How much has the U.S. National Debt increased over the nation’s history?
In 1800, the national debt was $83 million.
In 1988, it was $2.6 trillion.
James Buchanan (1857-1861) was the only U.S. president that was a lifelong bachelor. He had been engaged in 1819 to Ann Caroline Coleman, but she died of an overdose of laudanum before the two were married.
The 52 American hostages were held for 444 days, from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated president.
In the 1896 decision that established the grounds for “separate but equal” public facilities, Homer Plessy was an octoroon (mixed race) who was arrested in Louisiana when he sat in a “white” car on a train. John H. Ferguson was the New Orleans criminal court judge who convicted him.
The inventor of the Derringer was Henry Deringer, Jr., (1786-1868), spelled with one “r”. The Philadelphia gunsmith started making pistols in 1825 and came to specialize in the short-barreled, large-caliber pistol that bears his name. The extra “r” was added to “Derringer” by an imitator making similar pistols, and that became the accepted spelling.
The fire that killed 491 people at the Boston night club The Coconut Grove on November 28, 1942, may have been started by a 16-year-old boy named Stanley Tomaszewski who lit a match near a palm tree while trying to replace a light bulb. However, the fire commissioner could not prove that the boy had…
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