Founded as a secret social fraternity in Pulaski, Tennessee, about 1866, the Ku Klux Klan took the first two syllables of its name from the Greek “kuklos,” meaning circle.
Through intimidation, terror, and violence, the ex-Confederates who founded the Ku Klux Klan sought to keep African-Americans in a subservient position.
The intellectuals who served as advisers to FDR included attorney Basil O’Connor, Felix Frankfurter of Harvard law School, and Raymond Moley, Rexford Tugwell, and Adolf Berle of Columbia University. The nickname, the brains, for the elite group who helped shape the New Deal was first suggested in 1932 by Roosevelt’s legal counsel Samuel Rosenman.
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.
National Airlines began the first domestic jet airliner passenger service in the U.S. on December 10, 1958, between New York and Miami.
In 1959, Glen Raven Mills of North Carolina brought out PantiLegs, the first pantyhose. Allen Grant, president of Glen Raven, got the idea when his wife Ethel complained about the discomfort of nylon stockings and garter belts.
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.
The city Dubuque in Iowa is named for French-Canadian Julien Dubuque, who first settled the region in 1785. The town received the name at its founding in 1833.