Founded in 1947, the CIA was born about the same time as the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
An offshoot of World War Il’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the agency was established to gather foreign intelligence, carry out counterintelligence, and perform covert operations.
Though born into slavery, Sojourner Truth was born not in the South but in Ulster County, New York, before slavery was abolished in that state in 1827. After being sold to a master who set her free, she worked as a domestic. She later became a preacher of Christianity, abolitionism, and women’s rights.
In 1841, an expedition of 300 people from the Republic of Texas (independent from 1836 to 1845) traveled to Santa Fe to encourage New Mexicans to revolt against Mexico. The Texans failed to convince anyone to revolt and were imprisoned as invaders. They were only released after strong protests from the U.S. and Britain.
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream” address to more than 200,000 people on the mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.
Harry Truman was the first president to make a televised speech from the White House.
While the fire did begin in a cow barn behind the cottage of Patrick O’Leary, there is no evidence that a cow was responsible. In fact, a reporter, Michael Ahern, later admitted he created the legend in order to make a better story. The fire lasted 27 hours, killing 250 people and destroying 17,450 buildings.
The average American generates about three pounds of garbage per day, according to the Garbage Project.