In what century did Europeans discover Alaska?
Europeans discovered Alaska in the 18th century.
Vitus Bering, a Dane working for the Russians, and Alexei Chirikov discovered Alaska and the Aleutian Islands in 1741.
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.
The sharpshooter Annie Oakley who appeared in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the late 19th century was born Phoebe Mozee. Her life was popularized on Broadway in the 1946 Irving Berlin musical Annie Get Your Gun, starring Ethel Merman.
The 1950 Broadway musical Guys and Dolls by Frank Loesser was inspired by the 1933 short story “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown.” It chronicles the courtship and marriage of gambler Sky Masterson and mission worker Sarah Brown. A revival of Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway in spring 1992.
William Travis, commander of the Alamo, was not from Texas but from South Carolina. A lawyer and lieutenant-colonel, Travis was one of many Southerners who responded to Texas’s call for volunteers to help in their revolution against Mexico, which began in 1835. Southerners sympathized with the rebels because the province of Texas was a slave-owning…
The first astronauts who went to the moon were: Edwin E. (“Buzz”) Aldrin, Jr., Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins. Collins circled the moon in the capsule while Aldrin and Armstrong landed.
The Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi first played the role onstage in the 1927 Broadway production of Dracula. It was adapted by Hamilton Deane and John Balderston from Bram Stoker’s novel. Lugosi became famous by playing Dracula in the 1931 movie version.