What does the military nickname “G.I.” stand for?
The military nickname “G.I.” stood for Government Issue.
The term was introduced during World War II.
In the early United States, the “Old Northwest” represented much of what we would now call the Midwest. Organized as the Northwest Territory in 1787, it was the area bounded by the Appalachian Mountains, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Britain had acquired it from France in the French and Indian War,…
Founded in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonpartisan organization devoted to protecting constitutional rights, has nearly 300,000 members. George Bush used the term “card-carrying member of the ACLU” to darken the name of his opponent Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential campaign.
Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) demanded £20,000 from the British but received only £6,315. In exchange, he revealed American battle plans, tried (but failed) to deliver West Point, and crossed over to the British army. Although Arnold was given 13,400 acres of land in Canada after the war, he lived the rest of his life in England.
Harold Stassen ran for the presidency three times, though it seems like more. Born in 1907, Harold Edward Stassen, governor of Minnesota from 1938 to 1945, tried unsuccessfully to win the Republican nomination in 1948, 1964, and 1968. He has gone on trying in the comedy routines of others ever since.
Attila is the name for the man described by sixth-century historian Jordanes as “short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head”. It means “Little Father.” Attila was born circa 406 and died in 453.
The Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional to require recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance not in the 1960s but in 1943, in the midst of World War II. In that year, the Supreme Court struck down a West Virginia law requiring recitation of the pledge.