Part of the maple-sugar manufacturing process, “sugaring-off” refers to boiling down the sap of the maple tree until the sap hardens into candy or crystallizes into sugar.
Maple-sugaring was a popular social activity in America during the 19th century, accompanied by feasting and dancing.
Louisiana named after King Louis XIV of France, who reigned from 1643 to 1715. The entire Mississippi River Valley was named Louisiana and claimed for France by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, in 1682.
Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Western allies and Russia at 2:41 A.M., French time, on Monday, May 7, 1945. In the United States, this was 8:41 P.M., Eastern Wartime, on Sunday, May 6, 1945. Japan unconditionally surrendered through a note delivered to the U.S. State Department at 6:10 P.M. on Tuesday, August 14, 1945.
The first drive-in movie opened on a 40-acre parking lot in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933. The creation of New Jersey entrepreneurs Richard M. Hollinshead, Jr., and Willis Smith started a nationwide craze. During its peak, in 1958, there were over 4,000 drive-ins across America. As of 1992, there were fewer than 1,000…
Potsdam was the setting of the July 1945 meeting between Truman, Churchill, and Stalin is near Berlin, Germany.
Richard Henry Dana was a college student at Harvard before he shipped out as a sailor in the voyage recounted in Two Years Before the Mast (1840). Dana (1815-82) suffered eye problems that led him to go out to sea in hopes of improving his health. Working as a common seaman, he traveled around South…
David Wilmot was a congressman from Pennsylvania who in 1846 proposed an amendment to a military appropriations bill that slavery be forbidden in any territory obtained from Mexico during or after the Mexican War (1846-48). The amendment passed in the House but not the Senate.