There have been Two Liberty Bells. The first was cast in England in 1752 for the Pennsylvania State House, which later became Independence Hall. The second was cast in Philadelphia and inscribed, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10). The bell cracked on July 8, 1835, as it tolled…
Ratified in January 1964, the 24th Amendment made it illegal to deny a citizen the right to vote in a federal election for failure to pay a poll tax. This device had been used by Southern states since Reconstruction to prevent blacks from voting.
Over the course of publication (1732-57), Benjamin Franklin’s Almanack sold on average 10,000 copies per year.
Albert Goodwill Spalding (1850-1915) co-founded the sporting goods firm “A. G. Spalding and Brothers” in 1876. Born in Byron, Illinois, Spalding pitched for Boston and Chicago and helped to found the National League.
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…
The Persian Empire was about as large as the continental United States. Under its Achaemenid rulers, the Persian Empire encompassed not only Persia but Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and much of modern Afghanistan. The wars between Greece and Persia lasted from 499 to 479 B.C., ending in Greek victory.