The Viennese founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud visited the U.S. only once, to receive an honorary doctor of law degree from Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1909.
Freud got sick eating American food and was unimpressed by U.S. culture.
He later said, “Yes, America is gigantic, but a gigantic mistake.”
The holiday Decoration Day, which was first widely celebrated on May 30, 1868, was originally meant to remind citizens to decorate with wreaths the graves of soldiers killed in the Civil War. The holiday has since been renamed Memorial Day and is observed on the last Monday in May to honor the dead of all…
Fans of Frank Sinatra rioted at the Paramount Theater on Columbus Day 1944, at the height of his popularity. Thirty thousand bobbysoxers rioted at the New York theater where Sinatra was performing. It was reported that cries of “Frankie, Frankie!” could be heard blocks away.
Stephen Collins Foster, who wrote the song “Swanee River” about the South (also called “Old Folks at Home”) in 1852, was born near Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, in 1826. Daniel D. Emmett, the author of the 1859 song “Dixie” that became a Confederate anthem, was born in Ohio.
The principal founder of the Library of Congress was Thomas Jefferson, who believed that a democratic legislative body needed a source of information and scholarship on every subject. It was established by Congress on April 24, 1800. Originally based in the Capitol in Washington, D.C., it was moved into a separate building in 1897.
The Nazi anti-Jewish demonstrations of November 9 and 10, 1938, also known as Kristallnacht destroyed 815 shops and 29 warehouses. Fires were set to 171 dwellings and 191 synagogues, with 76 other buildings completely destroyed by fire.
Like many top officers in the Civil War, both commanders of the opposing forces at Fort Sumter had fought on the same side in the Mexican War (1846-48). P.G.T. Beauregard was the Confederate general who gave the order to fire on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, at 4:30 A.M., in the first battle of…