The title of the 1962 book by Michael Harrington refers to the huge number of Americans at the time who were living below the poverty level.
According to Harrington, the poor totaled 20-25 percent of the U.S. population, or about 40-50 million people.
Abigail Van Buren (born Pauline Esther “Popo” Friedman) and Ann Landers (born Esther Pauline “Eppie” Friedman) are identical twins born on July 4, 1918, in Sioux City, Iowa. In 1955, Eppie took over as Ruth Crowley’s replacement on the Chicago Sun-Times “Dear Ann Landers” advice column. In 1956, the other sister began writing under the…
There is no difference between Hoover Dam and Boulder Dam. Both are names for the same dam, erected in 1931-36 on the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona. The dam is over 700 feet high and 1,200 feet long.
The Bataan Peninsula is in the Philippines. Following the Allied surrender of Bataan to the Japanese in April 1942, it was the site of the infamous “death march” in which thousands of American and Filipino prisoners died.
The woman who sued the state of Texas for denying her the right to abort a fetus was named Norma McGorvey. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that women had the right to abort a fetus during the first trimester of pregnancy. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion in that case. Justices William…
The Minnesota Valley Canning Company of Le Sueur, Minnesota, introduced the Jolly Green Giant as the emblem of a line of canned peas in 1926.
The date of the first human migration to the Americas is still in dispute. It may be as early as 35,000 years ago or, according to some archeologists, no more than 12,000 years ago. Whichever date turns out to be correct, it is believed that the first Americans migrated from northeastern Siberia across the Bering…