Located in Wyoming, Teapot Dome was one of two naval oil reserve sites improperly leased in 1922 to private oil companies by Albert B. Fall, President Harding’s secretary of the interior.
After the scandal broke in 1923, Fall paid a heavy fine and served a year in prison for bribery.
The other oil reserve site implicated in the scandal was Elk Hills, California.
Diners Club, the first credit card for buying goods and services from more than one institution was invented in 1950 by Frank McNamara. McNamara, a loan company executive in New York, got the idea when he found himself short of money at a restaurant.
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 holiday Decoration Day, which was first widely celebrated on May 30, 1868, was originally meant to remind citizens to decorate with wreaths the graves of soldiers killed in the Civil War. The holiday has since been renamed Memorial Day and is observed on the last Monday in May to honor the dead of all…
Union deaths from battle or disease totalled 364, 511 in the Civil War. Authoritative figures for the Confederacy are not available, but most estimates range around 260,000. The total of 620,000 deaths makes this conflict the bloodiest in the nation’s history, not excluding World War II, in which 405,399 Americans died.
In her popular manual for housewives, The American Woman’s Home, published with her sister Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1869, Beecher encouraged a systematic and orderly approach to the noble duties of housework. She suggested this schedule: Monday—prepare for the week Tuesday—wash Wednesday—iron Thursday—iron, mend, fold and put away clothes Friday—sweep and clean the house Saturday—arrange…
The Molly Maguires were a secret militant organization of Irish miners working in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal mines in the 19th century. They organized in 1854 to fight the mine operators. In 1875, a Pinkerton spy working for the owners infiltrated the group. That led to the conviction and hanging of 20 Molly Maguires on…