Owney, a scruffy Terrier mix, wandered into the annals of dog tag history when he trotted into the Albany, New York, post office in 1888. With a peculiar attraction to the scent of mailbags, Owney soon became a fixture at the post office.
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A carving of a wooden Indian, a red, white, and blue striped pole, three golden balls suspended from a curved bar, and the mortar and pestle―symbols used by early store keepers to advertise and inform a predominately illiterate populace of their respective trades and services. And with only 12% of the people in the world able to read and write in 1820, the use of such symbols wasn’t really an option for business owners, it was a must. This is the story of Cigar Store Indians.
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The stock market crash of 1929 was announced with a loud and thunderous bang on Thursday, October 24th. In the chaotic days that ensued, the market hemorrhaged double-digit losses. Jittery and uncertain of their financial future, the American public cutback their spending and investments. In turn, production and employment rapidly declined. America was in a recession.
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In June of 1941, the famed General George S. Patton arrived in Murfreesboro, Tennessee along with 11,000 troops and 2,000 vehicles. In short order, as many as 77,000 troops had converged on Middle Tennessee and were soon divided into opposing Red and Blue Armies that would clash in simulated, but realistic, battles that would continue through 1944. When operations ended in ‘44, more than 800,000 troops had occupied more than 2.25 million acres and 22 counties in Middle Tennessee. Read more
Following the Union Army’s embarrassing defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, Joseph Hooker was appointed brigadier general and ordered to defend Washington, D.C., from further Confederate incursions. Wasting no time, Hooker quickly established a large encampment just outside the city, where he first commanded a brigade, then a division, as part of the effort to organize and train the new Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan.
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Perched high upon a hilltop just south of Cloyd’s Mountain in western Virginia, Confederate Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins gazed down upon the advancing Union Army of West Virginia, under the command of Brigadier General George R. Crook.
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In his intellectual lifetime, Joyce’s work brilliantly tackled a plethora of scientific disciplines, from his widely-read publications on the causes and prevention of tree diseases to being an early innovator of the cultivation and harvesting of poplars for wood pulp. He authored the highly esteemed, “Introduction to Plant Diseases,” and was the recipient of numerous awards and honors bestowed upon him for his immeasurable contributions to science.
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Some have argued that art imitates life, while others say that life imitates art. Native Americans would have agreed with both positions. When the colonists first came ashore in North America, they observed Native Americans using mud, cattails, and other organic materials to craft imitations of ducks and other fowl. These decoys would attract live water fowl, which hunters would then capture or kill.
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The dinner host politely motions you to “have a seat,” as they pull the chair away from the dinner table. As you gracefully make your way down and into the chair, it happens. The Command Fart―a pocket of air that has been chambered for an extended period of time, waiting for just the right moment to be released for maximum effect.
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