Popularized by baseball announcer Red Barber, “sittin’ in the catbird seat” means sitting pretty or being in an enviable position.
The Mississippi-born Barber used this 19th-century Southern expression while announcing games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s and 1950s, and in the 1950s and 1960s for the New York Yankees.
A catbird is the common name for the North American thrush (Dumetella carolinensis), whose cry resembles a cat’s meow.
This first great Chinese empire the Chin dynasty ran from about 221 to 206 B.C. It established the approximate boundaries and governmental system of China for the next 2,000 years, and gave its name to the nation. The effects of the dynasty lasted until the 1911 revolution, which overthrew the empire and created a republic.
The secretive, anti-Catholic, and antiforeign movement, which flourished in the 1850s, received its name, the “Know Nothings”, because members, when questioned by outsiders, answered, “I know nothing.” They pursued their aims through electoral politics, violence, and intimidation. Also known as the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner and the American Party, the movement had adherents in…
It was Brooklyn-born Shirley Chisholm (1924), who was the first black woman elected to Congress from that borough in 1969. In 1972, she ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for president.
The New Year’s Day football game was first played between the University of Michigan and Stanford University in Pasadena, California, in 1902. Michigan won 49-0.
The U.S. national debt grew about sixfold during World War II. In 1940, the national debt was $43 billion. At the end of World War II, it was $258.7 billion.
The gold and silver ore deposit called the Comstock Lode was discovered in 1859 in what is now Virginia City, Nevada.