Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died of a battle wound, but it was not inflicted by a Union soldier.
One of his own men accidentally shot him in the arm during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 1-3, 1863.
Although the battle was a Confederate victory, Jackson’s arm had to be amputated. The general contracted pneumonia and died on May 10.
Not until the 23rd Amendment was ratified in 1961, were the residents of Washington, D.C., allowed to vote in presidential elections.
James Naismith was teaching at The YMCA Training College, now Springfield College, in Springfield, Massachusetts when he invented basketball. Naismith invented the game for his students in the winter of 1891-92 to provide indoor exercise between the football and baseball seasons.
In 1948, some Democratic leaders looked for a more popular candidate than the controversial Harry Truman. Before eventually nominating Truman, they approached Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and former Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower.
Four state capitals are named after presidents. They are Jackson, Mississippi; Jefferson City, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Madison, Wisconsin.
The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt, along with other leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Its aim was to strengthen the political power of women following passage of the 19th Amendment (granting women the vote). Since then, the organization’s aims broadened to general advocacy…
After a revolt on July 4, 1846, led by John C. Fremont against Mexico during the Mexican War, California was declared an independent country for a few days. During its brief independence, California flew the flag of a bear. The California grizzly bear is now the state animal.