The names of these two English political parties Whig and Tory were each invented by the respective party’s rival as a pejorative term. The Country Party, representing the merchants and middle class, called their opponents tories, a word for Irish plunderers. The Court Party, representing the aristocrats, squires, and Anglican clergy, called their opponents Whigs,…
The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt, along with other leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Its aim was to strengthen the political power of women following passage of the 19th Amendment (granting women the vote). Since then, the organization’s aims broadened to general advocacy…
Abraham Lincoln was 25 when he was elected to the Illinois state legislature as an assemblyman in 1834.
The Armory Show of 1913, officially known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, is credited with introducing modern art to the U.S.. Held in New York City at the 69th Regiment Armory, the gigantic exhibition of about 1,600 works presented much that Americans found new, controversial, and ultimately influential. Contemporary artists represented in the…
It was not Christopher Columbus or Leif Erikson who was the first known European to spot America. It was a Norseman named Biarni Heriulfson who first spotted North America around 985 A.D. Blown off course while sailing from Iceland to Greenland, he probably saw what is now Newfoundland, Canada.
The women’s rights group, the National Organization for Women, was founded in 1966 by Betty Friedan. Friedan was author of the 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique.