Ronald Reagan made the joke about bombing the Soviet Union a few minutes before his weekly radio broadcast on August 11, 1984.
He said, “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to announce I just signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”
The most destructive hurricane in U.S. history, Andrew’s winds reached speeds of 175 miles per hour as they gusted into Dade County, Florida, on August 24, 1992. South-central Louisiana was hit by 120 mile-per-hour winds two days later. The hurricane killed 38 people and caused billions of dollars in losses.
At least 146 women, mainly young immigrants, died in the sweatshop fire in the Triangle Waist Company that occurred on April 20, 1911. The sprinkler system was inadequate, the 500 female workers stood back-to-back on the crowded work floors, and the fire doors were kept locked to prevent theft. The company owners were later acquitted…
The insider stock trader Michael Milken who became the symbol of 1980s greed graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, symbol of 1960s activism, in 1968.
The five-month Homestead strike was begun in July 1892 by workers at Andrew Carnegie’s steelworks in Homestead, Pennsylvania. It began when Carnegie refused to recognize the workers’ right to negotiate as a union. Steelworks manager Henry Clay Frick brought in 300 Pinkerton guards to break the strike, but the workers drove them off in a…
In its nine years of existence (1933-42), the employment program for men between 18 and 24 called the Civilian Conservation Corps put over 2 million men to work conserving and developing the country’s natural resources.
The 16th president Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County (now Larue County), Kentucky on February 12, 1809. He eventually settled in Springfield, Illinois. He was assassinated on April 15, 1865.