Joe Louis fought Max Schmeling twice. In their first encounter in 1936, before Louis became heavyweight champion, the German boxer emerged the winner. In 1938, now the world champion, Louis beat Schmeling in a one-round knockout that struck a symbolic blow to Nazi Germany’s claims of national and racial superiority. Louis’s initial loss to Schmeling…
President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974, 30 days after coming to office on August 9. The unconditional pardon exonerated Nixon of any crimes he might have committed as president.
William Randolph Hearst is alleged to have said, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war” to artist Frederic Remington, who was covering conditions in Cuba at a time when newspaper publisher Hearst was interested in fomenting war with Spain, then in charge of Cuba. The Spanish-American War of 1898 resulted in part from…
Pope, a Pueblo medicine man, planned the Indian revolt against the Spanish in New Mexico in 1680. The Pueblos and Apaches took over Santa Fe, drove out or killed Spanish settlers, and forced the Spanish to abandon New Mexico. The Spanish recaptured Santa Fe in 1693; the revolt was not entirely crushed until 1698.
The Irving Berlin song “God Bless America” (1918) appeared 24 years before “White Christmas” (1942). “God Bless America” was written for, but discarded from, the Broadway musical, Yip, Yip, Yaphank. “White Christmas” made its introduction in the 1942 film musical Holiday Inn, starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. Irving Berlin wrote the 1918 song “Oh,…
It was in 44 B.C. that Julius Caesar was assassinated. The date was March 15, the Ides of March.