“Embalmed beef” was a nickname for the tinned meat fed to troops at training camps during the Spanish-American War.
The meat gained its nickname because it caused diseases such as typhoid fever, dysentery, and food poisoning, which eventually claimed thousands of soldiers’ lives.
In 1904, German composer Richard Strauss conducted the world premiere of his work Symphonia Domestica in Wanamaker’s Department Store in New York City.
Oliver Hazard Perry said, “We have met the enemy, and they are ours” at the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, during the War of 1812.
The Truce of God was an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church in 1041 to limit war. In this decree, the Church proposed that no country do battle between Lent and Advent, as well as from the Thursday to the next Monday of important festivals. Although the Lateran Council approved the truce in 1179 and…
Vermont widow Ida May Fuller received the first Social Security check in 1940. The check totalled $22.54.
William H. Bonney (1859-81), the New York-born symbol of the outlaw West also known as Billy the Kid, was shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Barely into his twenties, Bonney had become infamous as a cattle rustler in frontier New Mexico.
Abraham Lincoln was 25 when he was elected to the Illinois state legislature as an assemblyman in 1834.