Somehow, in the midst of all the current craziness, I missed the fact that today - December 21, 2020 - is the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts. As someone who grew up hearing lots about the Pilgrims - and of course being someone who lives in greater Boston - that seems like …
Topic: Historical Figures & Events
Delving into the people and events that shaped history
Where have you gone...James Oglethorpe? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Woo, woo, woo Those aren't the lyrics but they are timely because the eyes of the nation are focused on the U.S. Senate races in Georgia, which was founded as a Utopian scheme by Oglethorpe, an 18th century social reformer who is the focus of …
The great American philosopher Kenny Rogers once sang: "You've got to know when to hold 'em Know when to fold 'em Know when to walk away And know when to run. ...If you're going to play the game, boy You gotta learn to play it right. Our current president clearly doesn't know it's time to fold 'em and walk away. He might …
"From a distance the world looks blue and green And the snow-capped mountains white." I don't know if the iconic picture of "Earthrise" taken from Apollo 8 on December 24, 1968 inspired Julie Gold to write "From a Distance" in 1985. But, I always think of that image when I hear it. From a distance the ocean meets …
"You got to be able to laugh at the Gadsden Purchase. It's what life is all about." So said Mike DiCenzo, a longtime writer for Jimmy Fallon, who played an audience member in a delightful bit that aired in March 2009. "Look at all the comedic possibilities," DiCenzo added. "You've got [President] Franklin Pierce. Hello? And …
"I need not tell you that the world situation is very serious," George C. Marshall said at the start of a short remarks, given at Harvard's commencement in 1947. After laying out the dire situation in Europe, Marshall, a former general then serving as US Secretary of State, discussed the broad outlines of a massive aid …
Do kids still learn about Betsy Ross and the first American flag? When I was a kid, I learned that Betsy Ross, a woman in Philadelphia, made the first American flag. I don't recall learning how she came to have that job or how we knew that she carried it out. I just knew it was …
In the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016, when I regularly showered Harvard's Hemenway Gymnasium after biking to work, I thought surprisingly often about Senator Ted Cruz, who graduated from Harvard Law School, which surrounds three side of the gym. For some reason, I was obsessed by the thought that Cruz, a particularly distasteful Republic …
"Peanuts. He did something, probably a lot of somethings, with peanuts." That, Gene Demby wrote on NPR's "Code Switch" blog in 2014 was "basically the response I got when I asked people - my friends, folks on Twitter - what they knew about George Washington Carver." "The details were hazy," he added. "But folks remembered that Carver was …