Who was the first Speaker of the House to be elected president?
James K. Polk, who served as Speaker of the House from 1835 to 1839, was sworn in as president in 1845.
Polk served one term, leaving office in 1849.
The city of Cleveland (pop. 573,822) was named for its founder Moses Cleaveland in 1836. The city was once known as the “Forest City” because of its abundance of trees.
The first World Series between the American and National Leagues was played in 1903. The Boston Red Sox (AL) beat the Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) five games to three in a best-of-nine series.
In 1948, some Democratic leaders looked for a more popular candidate than the controversial Harry Truman. Before eventually nominating Truman, they approached Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and former Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower.
The first political party in America was the Federalist Party, founded in 1790 by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. Around the same time, Thomas Jefferson built a rival organization that became known as the Republican or Democratic-Republican Party.
Only one ancient Norse settlement has been discovered in North America. The remains of a colony at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland were discovered by Norwegian archeologists in the 1960s. Settled in the 11th century, it may have been a staging area for explorations to the south.
The rockets that the national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner” refers to were Congreve rockets, invented by Sir Thomas Congreve and used by the British in the War of 1812. The noisy, hissing missiles, 42 inches long, were used throughout the British campaigns in Maryland in 1813-14. The rockets initially terrified the Americans but proved to…