Precursor of the modern machine gun, the rapid-firing weapon the Gatling gun saw limited action during the Civil War, specifically in the Petersburg Campaign in 1864.
The hand-crank-operated gun, capable of firing hundreds of rounds a minute, was patented by Richard J. Gatling in 1862.
The first presidential mansion was located at One Cherry Street in New York City. It was not called the White House. George Washington lived there from April 23, 1789, to February 23, 1790.
Only one president has served as speaker of the House of Representatives James K. Polk (president 1845-49). He was speaker of the House from 1835 to 1839.
The future mayor of New York City Fiorello La Guardia worked at the immigration center on Ellis Island as an interpreter while attending law school. The Manhattan-born son of an Austrian Jewish mother and Italian father, La Guardia (1882-1947) helped usher immigrants through the center, which served as a port of entry from 1892 to…
Located in Wyoming, Teapot Dome was one of two naval oil reserve sites improperly leased in 1922 to private oil companies by Albert B. Fall, President Harding’s secretary of the interior. After the scandal broke in 1923, Fall paid a heavy fine and served a year in prison for bribery. The other oil reserve site…
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.
Orville made the first flight in the airplane built by him and his brother Wilbur, on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The 12-horsepower biplane covered 120 feet in 12 seconds.