The wall that ran through Berlin was 26.5 miles long.
The Berlin Wall was put up on the night of August 12-13, 1961.
Its function as a barrier between East and West Germany ended on November 9, 1989, when the East German government declared an end to restrictions on emigration and travel to the West.
Louis Armstrong’s first recordings were with the Creole Jazz Band of Joseph “King” Oliver in Chicago in 1923. Armstrong played second clarinet to Oliver.
Du Pont chemist Wallace Hume Carrothers invented the artificial polymer nylon in the 1930s while searching for alternatives to silk. Nylon stockings first came on the market with heavy publicity on what was billed as “Nylon Day,” May 15, 1940. Women hungry for a cheap and durable alternative to silk stockings bought millions of pairs…
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto became the first European to reach the Mississippi River during a treasure-hunting expedition in 1539-42. Sailing from Havana, Cuba, De Soto landed at Tampa Bay, Florida, and traveled by a meandering route through what are now Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. After crossing the river and reaching what…
Presidential candidates Richard Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1984 are tied for the honor, with 49 states each in a general election.
Only one black woman, itinerant preacher and abolitionist Sojourner Truth, attended the first National Woman’s Rights Convention. The convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850.
After experimenting with thousands of materials, Thomas Edison discovered in 1879 that a scorched cotton thread, the equivalent of a carbon wire, was the filament he needed. It was one that would glow for a long period without melting in an electric light bulb. Edison’s discovery ushered in the age of electric lighting.