Not until the 23rd Amendment was ratified in 1961, were the residents of Washington, D.C., allowed to vote in presidential elections.
“What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar” was uttered by Thomas R. Marshall, vice-president under Woodrow Wilson (1913-21), in response to a senator’s long speech about the country’s needs.
The Star-Spangled Banner was played in 1862 at a baseball game in Brooklyn at a field built by sports developer William Commeyer.
Kozol said that as of 1984, 25 million Americans were functionally illiterate (reading not at all or at less than fifth grade level) and an additional 35 million were marginally illiterate (reading at less than ninth grade level). The total of 60 million represented more than a third of the adult population.
Wisconsin’s Victor Berger, elected in 1911, was the first Socialist elected to the U.S. Senate.
France sent the first explorers to the region that is now New York state. Italian explorer Giovanni Verrazzano, sailing for France in 1524, discovered New York Bay. In 1609, French soldier and sailor Samuel de Champlain explored what is now northern New York and claimed it for France. However, the Dutch were the first to…