Historical Easter Eggs – Today in History

The competition is fierce every December 31, for intergalactic bragging rights. Who will go home with that coveted title, “where the weird go pro”? New York drops that famous ball on New Year’s Eve and Miami drops an orange, but that stuff’s JV. Bethlehem Pennsylvania drops a 450-pound “peep”, that yellow marshmallow treat that only comes around at Easter. Not to be ...

In January 1848, carpenter and sawmill operator James W. Marshall discovered gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, in California. Prospectors flocked to the Golden State from across the United States and abroad. The California Gold Rush had begun.

While not exactly welcoming, prospectors tolerated Chinese immigrants. At least during the early period....

Given the right combination of sugars, nearly any cereal will undergo simple fermentation, due to the presence of wild yeasts in the air.  In all likelihood, our cave-dwelling ancestors experienced their first beer as the result of this process.

In the 18,000-year old Wadi Kubbaniya in upper Egypt, starch dusted stones and the remains of doum-palm and chamo...

John William “Wild Bill” Crump was born in 1924 in the village of Opportunity, Washington. From the age of 5 he seemed destined for the air, his first flight with his father at the stick.

The world was at war in 1944, and badly in need of pilots. Wild Bill Crump arrived at Harding Field, Nebraska at the age of 20 to complete pilot training.

He came upon th...

Come join me for a moment, in a thought experiment.  A theater of the mind.

Imagine. Two nuclear superpowers, diametrically opposed, armed to the teeth and each deeply distrustful of the other. We’re talking here, about October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis. Now imagine at the height of the standoff, a misunderstanding leads some fool to push the button. The n...