Roman citizens wore the woolen garment called the toga when they were in public. There were three types of togas: the toga pieta, embroidered with golden stars and worn by emperors and victorious generals; the toga virilis, the unadorned white toga worn by males fifteen and older; and the toga praetexta, bordered in purple and … Read more

“Resurrection City” was a shantytown built at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., by participants in the Poor People’s March on March 2, 1968. The marchers built Resurrection City to protest the poverty of black Americans and to call for federal aid. The shantytown was torn down after two months.

A white amateur photographer named George Holliday happened to be on hand to videotape the scene of Rodney King’s beating by Los Angeles police on March 3, 1991, while testing his new camcorder. The images of black motorist King being kicked and clubbed by white officers shocked the country. A year later, news of the … Read more

William O. Douglas (1898-1980), who served 36 years (1939-75), was the Supreme Court Justice who served the longest term. Four justices served 34 years: John Marshall (1801-35); Stephen J. Field (1863-97); Hugo L. Black (1937-71); and William J. Brennan, Jr. (1956-90).

The title of the 1962 book by Michael Harrington refers to the huge number of Americans at the time who were living below the poverty level. According to Harrington, the poor totaled 20-25 percent of the U.S. population, or about 40-50 million people.

The first American steam railroad to carry both passengers and freight was the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. It began operation in 1830, powered by the Tom Thumb locomotive built by American manufacturer Peter Cooper (1791-1883).

A New York disc jockey named Jerry Carroll (also known as Dr. Jerry) did the radio and TV ads for the chain of electronics stores “Crazy Eddie” in the Northeast, which began with a store on Kings Highway in Brooklyn in 1972. Although he screamed and yelled at the camera, Carroll himself was not “Crazy … Read more

In his February 9, 1950, speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy brandished a list which he said contained the names of 205 communists, though the number fluctuated over time. For the next few years, McCarthy investigated State Department officials and others, relying on shaky charges and insinuation. He was finally brought down when … Read more

In 1992, the biggest corporation in America was General Motors, with sales of $133 billion and assets of $191 billion. In second place was Exxon, with sales of $104 billion and assets of $85 billion.

The Red River begins in New Mexico, serves as the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma, and flows into Louisiana. “The Red River Valley” is the site of the departing lover in the traditional Southern folk song of that name.

The assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, James Earl Ray, was arrested by Scotland Yard detectives at a London airport on June 8, 1968. Ray had shot King on April 4, 1968.

The headquarters for the Democratic party organization Tammany Hall was once a social club named for a seventeenth-century Delaware Indian chief. After the Revolution, Aaron Burr transformed it into a political machine, using it to strengthen the 1800 presidential campaign of Thomas Jefferson. Its power grew throughout the nineteenth century and Tammany Hall became the … Read more

Formulated in 1823 by President James Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the Monroe Doctrine warned that the U.S. would not tolerate new colonization of the Americas by European powers, while promising that the U.S. would not interfere with existing colonies or with European governments.

The 1964 resolution that gave President Johnson the right to use extensive military force in southeast Asia was approved by all of the House of Representatives and all but two members of the Senate. The two dissenting senators were Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska.

The line refers not to the pasta but to the Macaroni Club, a mid-eighteenth-century English social club of dandyish young men who wanted to bring the influences of the Continent to bear on their home country. Thus the line was originally intended to discredit American revolutionaries.

The female work force grew from 11 million to approximately 20 million during World War II. Most of these women helped with the war effort in relevant industries.

Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964 employed the slogan, “In your heart you know he’s right”. Some Democratic opponents responded, “In your guts you know he’s nuts.” Public fear that Goldwater was an extremist helped Lyndon Johnson defeat him that year.

The opening words of the Declaration of Independence are as follows: When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature … Read more

The first attempted assassination of a president took place in January 1835, when a house painter named Richard Lawrence aimed two pistols at Andrew Jackson. Both guns misfired. The first assassination of a president was John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

On November 29, 1991, in the midst of a recession, Bush went shopping at the Frederick Towne Mall in Frederick, Maryland to set an example of consumer confidence. Among his purchases were a pair of socks at J.C. Penney’s.

The U.S. government instituted a system of standardized route numbers in 1925 to simplify route directions. Perhaps the nation’s most well-known road, Route 66, opened in 1932 to link Chicago and Los Angeles. In December 1940, the first freeway opened, the Arroyo Seco Parkway in Los Angeles. Not until 1956 did the government pass the … Read more

Theodore Roosevelt offered a “square deal”. Franklin Delano Roosevelt offered a “new deal”. Harry Truman offered a ‘fair deal”.

As of 1992, the honor goes to Richard (Dick) Button, who held the title for seven years from 1946 to 1952. Four skaters have held the title for four years: Hayes Jenkins-1953-56 David Jenkins-1957-60 Scott Hamilton-1981-84 Brian Boitano-1985-88 What female figure skater has most often won the U.S. Skating Championship? As of 1992, the honor … Read more

The Hollywood screen goddess Marilyn Monroe (1926-62) was married three times: to aircraft plant worker James Dougherty, baseball hero Joe DiMaggio, and playwright Arthur Miller. The marriage to Miller lasted the longest, nearly five years, from 1956 to 1961. Her marriage as a teenager to Dougherty lasted four years, from 1942 to 1946. The shortest … Read more

Whiskey distilled from surplus corn was at the heart of this 1794 rebellion by western Pennsylvania farmers. The farmers refused to pay a federal excise tax on whiskey, which was easier to store and transport than corn and was even used as currency. President George Washington stopped the rebellion with a force of 13,000 militiamen. … Read more