What kind of car won the first Indianapolis 500?
A six-cylinder Marmon Wasp, driven by Ray Harroun at an average speed of 74.59 miles per hour, won the first 500-mile race at the Indianapolis Speedway in 1911.
Four major “French and Indian Wars” were fought in colonial times by Britain and France for control of North America. Each was part of a larger struggle involving shifting alliances, fighting in Europe, and colonial battles in other parts of the world. The struggle ended in 1763 with Britain winning most of France’s American empire,…
The chairman of the America First Committee formed in 1940 to oppose U.S. intervention in World War II was Robert E. Wood, head of Sears, Roebuck. America First’s most famous spokesman, however, was aviator Charles A. Lindbergh. Some committee members expressed sympathy for Nazi ideology; Lindbergh had visited Nazi Germany and accepted a medal from…
James K. Polk, who served as Speaker of the House from 1835 to 1839, was sworn in as president in 1845. Polk served one term, leaving office in 1849.
The Chevrolet Corvair, made by General Motors, was exposed by Ralph Nader in Unsafe at Any Speed. Nader’s crusading book, published in 1965, led to passage of the Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966.
Approximately 5,000 people appeared at the dedication of the Civil War battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker (1906-75) first danced bare-breasted in La revue negre in Paris in 1925. She later joined the Folies Bergere. She became a French citizen in 1937.