The light-green beans called lima beans were introduced to the U.S. from Lima, Peru, by U.S. Navy Captain John Harris in 1824.
American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson originated the phrase “the shot heard round the world” in his poem “Concord Hymn” (1836). The poem memorialized the Battle of Lexington and Concord of 1775, the first battle of the War of Independence.
In the brief conflict called the Gulf War from January to March 1991, the U.S. suffered 148 combat deaths and 213 wounded. The number of Iraqi combat deaths, according to a Saudi Arabian estimate, was 80,000 to 100,000, though the exact figure is not known.
The name for the tribe Crow in their own Siouan language is Absaroke, meaning “crow, sparrowhawk, or bird people.” The French called these people of the Rocky Mountains gens des corbeaux, from which the English “Crow” is translated.
Formed in 1834 to oppose President Andrew Jackson, the Whig Party took its name from the British anti-monarchical party, the Whigs, to underline their conflict with the man they viewed as “King Andrew.” The word “Whig” itself was an old pejorative term meaning “cattle-driver.” In the 1836 presidential election, the party offered three regional candidates,…
In 1789, George Washington was wealthy in land but short of cash. He borrowed £600 to travel from Mount Vernon to New York City, the site of his first inauguration.