On October 25, 1854, during the Crimean War, James Thomas Brudenell, Seventh Earl of Cardigan, led the British cavalry against the Russians in the Battle of Balaklava. The charge was disastrous, but it did inspire the admiration of the British public, particularly that of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who wrote the 1855 poem “The Charge of…
One U.S. president did serve in the Confederate government. John Tyler (president 1841-45) represented Virginia in the Confederate House of Representatives beginning in 1861.
Standard sizes for ready-made clothing were not developed in America until the Civil War, when the Union Army collected body measurements of more than a million conscripts. The statistical data was needed to meet the demand for large numbers of uniforms. From this beginning, fitting systems with numbered sizes were developed during the latter half…
Harry Truman didn’t attend college. He was the only president in the 20th century without a college education.
President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974, 30 days after coming to office on August 9. The unconditional pardon exonerated Nixon of any crimes he might have committed as president.
The Granite Railway was the first chartered railroad in the United States. It began running from Quincy, Massachusetts, to the Neponset River, a distance of three miles, on October 7, 1826. Its principal cargo consisted of blocks of granite for use in building the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. The railway later became part of…