The sign “NINA” in front of 19th-century factories in the U.S. meant “No Irish Need Apply.”
It expressed native-born American prejudice against the two million Irish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. between 1830 and 1860.
The town of Las Vegas was a sparsely populated mining and ranching community before it became a center for gambling. Gambling did take place in the town throughout most of its history, but Las Vegas did not become known as a mecca for gambling until after the Flamingo Hotel was opened in 1946 by gangster…
The American Communist party was never so popular as during World War II, when the United States and the Soviet Union were allies. Founded soon after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the party reached a peak membership of about 100,000 during World War II. Afterward, Cold War repression made it unsafe to stay in the…
The speech known as the Gettysburg Address, given by Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, runs 271 words, if you count “resting place” as two words.
Until the late 19th century, Americans used sales catalogues, newspapers, pamphlets, fliers, or whatever other paper they could find for toilet paper. The materials were kept in the bathroom or outhouse, where they provided reading matter as well as sanitation. Toilet paper in rolls, sold in plain brown wrappers, was first marketed in the U.S….
Of the 22.4 million Hispanic-Americans counted in the 1990 census, more than 60 percent (13.5 million) are of Mexican heritage. Another 2.7 million are Puerto Rican, 1 million are Cuban, and the rest are “other.” All together, Hispanics, who can be of any race, account for 9 percent of the U.S. population.
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…